The conference was far from what I imagined. This belated post is a follow-up on the first biomedical engineering conference I attended in early October.
We stayed a total of six days, four being the actual duration of the conference, and the final two being unplanned due to difficulties with the Southwest flight cancellations. Each day was very eventful- waking up at six to arrive at the conference center and be able to see all there was to offer, as well as exploring the center. This year, it was located in Orlando, Florida hosted at the World Trade Mariott Orlando Center. The conference center was massive, leading us to walk about 10 miles a day.
I was accepted to submit a poster of my research on the last day of the conference. Each day, there were two separate poster sessions that held hundreds of posters in one giant room that stayed up for presentations for about 1-3 hours. In between two separate sections of posters within the room were many tables for companies seeking interns/employees, and (mostly) grad schools looking to recruit masters’ or Ph.D. students. There were also separate podium presentations that were held in other rooms, similar to lecture halls. We only attended one session of these presentations, which was for one of the undergrad students that was in our lab who got accepted. We found these difficult to find, their digital program wasn’t working for us, and they didn’t provide us with booklets like I heard they usually do. Apparently this year it was very unorganized compared to previous years, but I still enjoyed it overall.
When it came to presenting, I got so nervous (as anticipated), but luckily my friend who was the second author on the abstract was there to “help” me present. He did most of the presenting, I honestly didn’t do much because I was too nervous. It’s fine, it was my first conference presentation, it will only get better. I am glad it was on the last day, so fewer people, and for my friend presenting. I’m very thankful I was able to go!
The conference has one night designated to a social nonwork-related. This year they rented out a few parts of Universal Studios for everyone to attend. When we first arrived it was pouring and everything was closed, but it stopped after about an hour and they opened everything back up thankfully! (:
Honestly, before and during the conference I had no interest in grad school in the slightest, but now thinking about it after, I could see myself getting a master’s degree. I had learned there that there are two types of master’s degrees: a one-year no-thesis, or a two-year with a thesis. Both look the same on a resume, but the one-year is primarily focused on if you plan to go to industry, versus the two-year being if you were to continue on with academia (research or teaching). I absolutely know I’m never going to be a professor, but I do really enjoy the research I’m currently working on. Knowing this, I think the one-year masters would benefit me the most just because I do want to go straight to industry after my bachelor’s, then pursue the master’s later with the help of the company I choose to work for.
For final thoughts, I’m very grateful for the experience and am excited to attend my next one. I recently submitted another abstract for the WCB 2022 Conference in Taipei, Taiwan, and am hoping it gets accepted! I recommend anyone who is currently pursuing research to attend at least one conference, at least the experience. It’s also a good push in letting you know whether or not you truly enjoy doing research/ if you would consider pursuing it.
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