IBN Youth Research Programme

Posted on behalf of Neo Boon Siong, NUSHS Class of 2011

Now that research congress is over, I shall take advantage of the brief respite to write a small article on the Youth Research Programme at Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology. This article is mainly targeted at year 5s who are looking for choices for ARP.

The Youth Research Program lets students take on a full-time internship at a research lab that is quite highly ranked in Singapore. The Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) has produced several noteworthy inventions and papers in the fields of biology and chemistry, and related fields such as material science, chemical engineering... IBN does have a large range of projects available, many of which are multi-disciplinary. Mostly bio-related (tissue and cell) projects, though.

Note that YRP insists, however, that you must complete 2 months of full-time attachment before you are allowed to start on part-time attachment. The following are the advantages and disadvantages:

Advantages:

- Full-time internship lets you do a LOT more for ARP

- Good-quality projects

- Assigned to a mentor who is an experienced scientist

- PAID attachment for full time attachment 8 weeks or longer - $30 / working day 

    note that if you take leave you don't get paid, haha

    on the other hand, you are getting paid to do your ARP, which you would have to do in any case

- unlimited milo / coffee / biscuits in the pantry; the auntie makes coffee every morning and lemon tea every afternoon as well

Disadvantages:

- Attachments shorter than 2 months cannot be submitted for external competitions (but most ARPs take longer than 2 months)

- May face confidentiality issues when sending projects for grading / external competitions

    IBN requires that all students have their poster/abstract/report/presentations verified by IBN before it can be released anywhere outside of IBN

- Slightly longer than office hours: 8am-6pm

    interestingly, most scientists come in at 9am or later

The email opening up applications was sent early March last year. Note that if you are selected for YRP, it automatically is a SOLO project. Supposedly there is an internal screening by the school, but I believe all who applied made it through. There will be an interview by YRP officers (IBN's HR) but they mainly ask how interested you are in research and how capable you would be. If you make it through this interview, I hear the next interview is more or less a formality: you meet with the director of IBN herself, but during the interview she assesses you to assign you a project and mentor. Here is where a little science knowledge will help, and it is good to name a field in which you are interested in. Note that you can read the website for a list of ongoing projects, and doing so really helps as it shows you have done your fieldwork.

For those who are interested, more than 10 people applied for YRP in my year. 3 got past the first interview, and all were assigned a project. However, one person dropped out citing stress as a reason. Although sometimes this may be unavoidable due to the SATs and APs happening around then, it does not leave a good impression of NUS High School students. Furthermore, you may have deprived someone else of a chance for a project by doing so. While IBN does require a pretty high level of commitment, it does offer a good experience, especially for those interested to get a taste of research as a career. Another person in my level went for the YRP but did not register through the channel opened by the school. However, he did not get the extended June vacation for his project, partly due to lack of communication with the teacher responsible, so if you do opt for this path make sure Mr Chiam knows you were accepted so you can be granted extension.

Those of you who are interested may be asking how you can find 2 months to do a full-time attachment, since if you dont fulfil that requirement you cannot begin part-time work. In my year, Mr Chiam opened 2 weeks before and 3 weeks after the June holidays for full-time work (excused from post-exam activities and start of semester classes). Effectively this opens up 9 weeks in the middle of the year, starting mid-May, for research. Especially since year 5s stay in hostel, transport is easy: there are direct buses 196 and 198, and you can collect homework and catch up on lessons from classmates.

All those who are accepted would have to sign a contract. Mine last year had the following durations:

- 17 May 2010 – 16 July 2010 (full time during June holidays)

- 19 July 2010 – 12 November 2010 (part time during school term)

 

- 15 November 2010 – 31 December 2010 (full time during Dec holidays) (sadly this portion was only 7 weeks so I could NOT get paid :()

As you can see, the large amount of time you can spend full-time (16 weeks total) is really helpful to completing a good project. Personally I was largely useless during the part-time attachment because meeting every Wednesday afternoon is useless work for the R&D industry (a full reaction normally takes 1-2 days to complete, isolate, analyse etc.)

My personal experience:

I was fortunate to have a very patient mentor who guided me very well throughout the project. He focused very much on teaching me useful laboratory techniques and how to carry them out without endangering me or him. My experience at IBN was generally fun, because researchers mostly get to do what they like or are interested in. The culture in IBN is quite relaxed, and exploring Biopolis for lunch can be quite fun. For example, IBN is in the Nanos building, which has a pretty nice cafe, and other buildings also house nice cafes. Matrix canteen is good, but boring. Cheaper options are to take the shuttle bus to Ghim Moh or Holland V and eat at the hawker centres there, or to travel to MOE building and eat at the canteen. Finally there is a nice ice cream shop about 5 minutes walk from biopolis.

I was also exposed to how research is carried out and really got to observe the work life of scientists. This is very helpful as I am still considering research as a career. There were also several conferences and speeches which I could attend, notably IBN's internal seminar which showcases the works of ALL the researchers there - definitely an eye-opener.

To sum up, the YRP is a really rewarding experience and a good candidate for ARP. The work you do will certainly be of high quality and you can take away insights into the research industry in Singapore as well as learn more about how to translate what you've learnt in NUS High into actual laboratory work and experiements. I highly recommend the YRP for interested juniors.

P.S. The project I worked with my mentor on was eventually accepted for publication in Organic Letters. This is definitely a boon for university resumes :)