Friday, August 2, 2013
By:
I can’t believe it’s August! This summer has absolutely flown by. I’m busy wrapping up my project at NIST and preparing for my presentation next week at ACP. My mentors have all been tremendously helpful – giving me feedback on my Powerpoint slides, helping me review background information, and supporting me through the last round of pretty intense math. I’ve had a bit of trouble lately getting all of the expressions into the correct format for analysis, but other than that, I’ve been making great progress.
I know that a great deal of the knowledge and skills that I’ve learned this summer will help me in my quantum mechanics class this fall and in the rest of my courses as well. I’ve definitely learned how to work more independently, how to do theoretical work, and how to communicate more effectively about my work. Everything I encountered this summer has given me some new skill or insight, and I am very grateful for that.
Earlier this week I met with Dr. David Seiler, the division chief for the Semiconductor and Dimensional Metrology Division. He was really supportive and we had a nice discussion. I’m glad Kendra encouraged me to reach out to him; it was a great experience and I’m looking forward to keeping in touch with him in the future.
I’m really looking forward to next week! It will be exciting to hear about everyone else’s projects in more detail and to share my work with others. We’re also going on tours of the State Department and ACP, which will be a great way for all of the interns to spend time together during the last few days of our time together. It’s been an amazing and rewarding summer, and I’m sad that it’s ending.
Alexandra Day