Sunday, June 16, 2019
By:
The time has flown by so fast! I am entering the fourth week of being in DC and can’t believe I’m almost halfway done with my internship! Like always, I have had lots to do and still have so much more to explore.
This week the Optical Society hosted a conference where over 200 optical scientists, manufacturers, and engineers gathered to discuss their projects and areas of research. I had the opportunity to attend this meeting and take notes for OSA’s blog. The majority of sessions I attended talked about freeform optics, which is a topic I had never heard of until then. After about two sessions of barely understanding what was going on, I decided to take a break and do some research on the topic. I knew I wouldn’t be able to completely understand it, but if I at least knew the basic concept, I could take better notes. Although it did help some, I’m thankful that I didn’t have to write a blog on that day’s sessions.
On Tuesday I attended yet another session, but this one was much easier to understand. It was a Q and A for a panel discussing the future of additive manufacturing in optical devices. Put in simpler terms, it was about the future of 3D printing. I was able to take a good amount of notes on that session and complete my blog post.
The rest of the week mainly consisted of various PR jobs that I was given. For example, I emailed student chapters to update their roster, organized excel sheets, and updated OSA’s websites.
Thursday was probably my favorite day of the week because we had the opportunity to go to the DC Odyssey Dinner cruise. The view itself was great, but the food was the best part. My chocolate cake was to die for and the ribs I ate was some of the best I’ve had. To make it even more memorable, I danced the night away with the other interns and SPS staff.
On Friday, Andrew and I decided to spend our date night ordering pizza and going to karaoke with the other interns. I am a pretty shy girl, especially when it comes to singing, but it was a lot of fun to belt out my favorite tunes with such a great group of friends.
On Saturday we were invited to The National Orchestral Institute and Festival. It was hosted at the university of Maryland and let me tell you, it was HUGE! The walk from the metro to the performance building was quite long, but it was worth it for such a great concert! The musicianship and skill of the orchestra really blew me away and I couldn’t get over how great the solo pianist was.
I’m excited for this upcoming week and for the new things I can experience here in DC!
Sariah Mevs Phipps