Category: TRIUMF Practicum

This week, Diana returned from her holiday and rejoined Maria and I’s morning meetings. The aim this week was to have the line art for the mural finished by Thursday so we could get it approved and move on to the finishing steps the following week. At the communications team meeting on Monday, Jesse showed us the finished infographic cards that include QR codes for TRIUMF’s future in-person tours. I got to see them in action on Tuesday when Maria and I went on-site to attend the weekly co-op meeting. There we reviewed designs for the commemorative TRIUMF hoodie (or crewneck? It’s a very heated debate) and went with a modified version of Diana’s past sticker design. We also played an interesting group game at which we failed epically; turns out no one in the group has superior attention to detail (there goes that resume padding).

Wednesday and Thursday were crunch days —I simply worked on executing the mural design— and on Thursday we had a design team meeting to go over the mural line art. It has been approved and we’re moving on to color next! I took notice of the importance of setting break alarms this week; working at home is so free of distractions that I stare and my screen for hours on end and give myself a neck ache.

I was happy to have Diana back this week to seek out design advice. Being the only other graphic designer who illustrates within the communications group, she’s always a huge help with her discerning eye.

This week’s intern dinner was homemade spaghetti! It was delicious, especially after laboring hard to boil four pots of pasta and cook an ungodly amount of puttanesca. It was a team effort. In a very small studio kitchen.

Weeeeeeeek three! Hard to believe we’re almost halfway through the practicum. This week was different from the last two because Diana went on vacation, leaving just the Waterloo co-op student, Maria, and me in our morning meetings. We reviewed each others’ daily progress and shared feedback. These past few days I worked on digitizing some sketches that Diana approved last week, and worked on some new ideas which would lean more into 2D and 3D AR applications. I’m really liking a couple of my ideas so far, and I’m looking forward to reviewing them with the team on Monday so we can move into fine-tuning and begin work on the final mural design.

On Thursday, the communications team made a field trip to Emily Carr to see their “Leaning out of Windows” exhibit. The students had worked with physicists from TRIUMF to understand the nature of reality— and express it through art. From poetry to sculptures to mathematical equations, the final result blurred the lines between artists and scientists in the quest to encompass the universe. It was an interesting exhibit, and I particularly enjoyed some first nations students’ takes on mixing western science and indigenous culture. Also, man am I jealous of that beautiful new campus. Awesome.

I struggled a bit with whether to contact other team members or not this week. They’re all very kind, but I’m a little shy about reaching out. I’m the only one working on this project, so I don’t want to feel like I’m getting in anyone’s way. Thankfully, Maria is always willing to offer feedback and has encouraged me to talk to other team members. I’m happy to be starting next week off with a meeting right off the bat! I also felt incredibly blessed when Jesse asked me to proof some designs he’d made for the TRIUMF virtual tour. It was a nice change of pace to turn away from the project I’ve been working on for a short time.

On Tuesday morning, all the TRIUMF co-op students met to do a fun group activity, which was…(drum roll)… playing with lego. We all did lego activities over coffee and Timbits for a couple of hours, which was very entertaining. I was also singled out as the only graphic designer and now must design TRIUMF merch.

This weekend’s co-op get-together was Dim Sum! See you back here next week folks. 

On Monday I visited the TRIUMF site and pitched the AR mural project to Bill, the engineer who had originally requested a commemoration piece to thank all those who contributed to the making of ARIEL. ARIEL, the Advanced Rare Isotope Laboratory, has been in the works since 2010. This new facility is the only one of its kind— in the whole world —and is still under construction. The aim of this mural project is to celebrate TRIUMF’s community and all those who played a role in bringing ARIEL together. Currently, I have a growing list of 400 names that need to be put on display. Due to space limitations and the ever-expanding roster of contributors, we settled on a web-based AR solution that can be edited over time. The mural will serve as an “anchor” of sorts to put the AR components into context.

After this lovely (and productive) meeting, I was given a tour of the TRIUMF facilities with Diana and Sean, another member of the communications team. We explored the ARIEL building, as well as the areas where TRIUMF’s three cyclotrons are housed. Currently, these are not operating but are in an annual three-month “rest” phase, when repairs can safely be made without suffering, well, severe radiation poisoning. Diana and I spent some time taking measurements of mural candidate walls on the ARIEL building, then I got to work on building out a project timeline before going out to late lunch (linner?) at Virtuous Pie. Oh, in case you were wondering, the dosimeter did not beep at me in a freaky robotic voice upon perimeter exit. Was really worried about that one.

The rest of my week was spent setting the stage for the mural portion of the project. By Thursday, we had determined the style of the piece, colour palette, and three compositions to choose from. A key thing I learned was that presenting sketches in a cleaner digital format usually makes the concepts I’m trying to convey more comprehensible, and better helps viewers place them into context (like on a wall as a mural). 

The latest TRIUMF intern restaurant location was Hot Pot on 16th and Cambie. Check out this nerdle made by one of the Physics co-op students from Waterloo University. Math is hard. 

I’d like to open with an expression of gratitude to Diana Castaneda, my practicum mentor. I was unsure how to feel in the weeks preceding my start at TRIUMF. On one hand, I was very excited about the project I’d be building. But on the other, I was worried working remotely would mean missing out on some key practicum experiences— especially networking and observing my coworkers’ workflows. I’ve discovered (sigh of relief) that I’ve nothing to worry about. Diana helped ease me into the TRIUMF virtual environment (with lots and LOTS of Microsoft Office troubleshooting) and got me started on a project brief, site safety training, and augmented reality software testing. She also introduced me to the rest of the in-house (and in-home) communications team. I was delighted to meet UX research co-op student Maria Munir, who’s come all the way from Waterloo University! I’ve had the pleasure of meeting with her on several occasions including on Friday when I participated in her TRIUMF website redesign workshop. I also learned of a handy new UX research tool, Miro.

My first week working at TRIUMF felt similar to beginning a design project at school. Along with the excitement of a potential portfolio project, I enjoy the research phase of creative problem-solving. I was able to dive deeply into AR technology, learning its’ inner workings, limitations, creation software, browser/app support, and use cases. Following this intel collection, I expanded on three proposals for the ARIEL memento project and put these into a presentation deck which I’ll be pitching in person this Monday. So far, my TRIUMF experience is looking like it’s going to be one of a kind, with a dream project in the works! I’m looking forward to getting to know the communications team and the interns from other departments. I can tell by the group chat that they’re a fun bunch.

Check in next Monday for updates: Will I do well on my first project pitch? Will the dosimeter I’ll be wearing to check my radiation levels ring “CONTAMINATION!” in an alarming robotic voice? What’ll be next weekend’s exclusive intern meetup restaurant location?

You’ll have to return to find out.