Indiana INTERNnet celebrated internship excellence on Feb. 3, 2016, at the 10th Annual IMPACT Awards luncheon. Though the event is over and the winners have been announced, we are continuing to celebrate the nomineesā successes.
These are their stories
Casey Bauchle is a junior at IUPUI. He plans to enroll in graduate school for cognitive psychology upon graduation and conduct research, either at a research institute or a university.
He is also skilled with a yoyo (keep reading to learn more).
Indiana INTERNnet: What field of science are you specializing in? What made you interested in pursuing that?
Casey Bauchle: I specialize in cognitive psychology, specifically how people perceive information and how they react to/store it.Ā I chose this field because I have always had a natural tendency to ponder how people think and how they choose to respond in certain situations.
IIN: What has your research consisted of?
CB: My research with Dr. Lyne Racette involved using a mathematical model to predict how a glaucoma progresses in a patient.Ā It involved a lot of computer programming and data analysis ā two things that I learned about and greatly improved my skills in. But I would say that the most important thing that I learned was how to maintain order in the data and keep information available. You never know when you might need to reference something or share it with someone else.
IIN: We understand you presented a poster at the annual meeting of the Association for Research and Ophthalmology (ARVO). What was that like?
CB: Presenting at ARVO was incredibly nerve-wracking.Ā Seeing as how all of my experience has been in the realm of psychology or neuroscience, going to a conference focused on ophthalmology and optometry was terrifying!Ā But fortunately, Dr. Racette helped prepare me for what it was going to be like, and I really felt a bit more comfortable once we finally got there.Ā I was still nervous, don’t get me wrong, but it turned out really well!
IIN: You are a black belt in Taekwondo, compose electronic music, placed fourth at the state level in a competitive yo-yo event, and you can solve a Rubikās cube in 36 seconds. What drives you toward excellence in so many different things?
CB: The thing that really motivates to me to excel is that I do things that I enjoy and I always try to get better.Ā For example, when I started solving the Rubik’s cube, it was a huge accomplishment to have just completed it while following the directions.Ā But then I kept taking it a step further; next, I wanted to solve it without the instructions, then within 5 minutes, then within 4 minutes, etc.Ā Soon, I got to the point where I consistently solved it by about the 1 minute mark. One day, I guess that I was really on top of my game and hit 36 seconds.Ā I always try to do better than I did last time, or at least figure out how I could do better and work on improving.
