Thursday, September 10, 2015
By:
I am all settled in San Jose, California now, my first semester as an Aerospace Engineering grad student at San Jose State is well underway. As a physics undergrad turned engineering grad, I was worried about leaving physics behind and not being involved in the physics world anymore. However, through my interviews for my project, I heard from multiple people who also switched between the two fields and they all had excellent real life examples to demonstrate how having experience in both fields can only benefit your career. This is the main take away of my outreach project with the American Physical Society. I hope students and the general public who is curious about the relationship between the two fields can use this app and see the connection through the examples and interviews! The Public Outreach department, aka Becky and James were wonderful when I presented my idea for designing an app. While they could not necessarily help me with the programming questions very much, they were so supportive for every step and were a big help when figuring out what the main focus should be. I am so happy to have been given the freedom to choose my project. It was a great experience to have seen a project through, from start to finish.
Living on the other side of the country from my friends and family was a new experience and way easier than expected. In fact, I cannot wait to return, maybe after my masters is complete! My favorite parts of the summer were the Memorial Day Parade on the first weekend in town, Science Nights at The Argonaut, and of course just exploring the city! A few of the interns and myself spent an extra week in DC after internships were over and we took the time to check out some of the sights that we did not get to during the summer, like George Washington University!
Through this internship I met some lifelong friends, including my summer roommate, Katie. I ended up with a non-SPS roommate but she was dubbed a honorary member by the end of summer! And not to mention my new roommate, Connor :) she just drove across the country just to live with me! (And she wants to work in Silicon Valley before heading into grad school). I really hope to see everyone else soon, maybe at the 2016 Quadrennial Physics Congress!
Looking forward, I am very much excited for grad school and happy to have had such a wonderful summer in DC as a SPS National intern!
Amandeep Gill