Buzzzzzzzz. The giant doors to my laboratory unlocked after sliding my finger through the fingerprint scanner. As I reached for the knob, my eyes skimmed across the sign with the laboratory’s name: “Experimental Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics Laboratory.” Phew, isn’t that a mouthful? I don’t actually know what it means, but it certainly sounds interesting. Nevertheless, walking through the giant doorway is like opening the gates to a factory of busy – PhDs and professors mentoring, graduate students working, and undergraduates questioning.
From the day I submitted my application to the Science Research program in eighth grade until today has been a powerful journey – a long journey with little baby steps. I can’t plot out all the points on a map for someone to connect it; however, I can tell you it’s led to one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve had so far. I still remember having a million tabs opened on Google Chrome on the personal pages of researchers at several local universities to learn about their work so that I can send a meaningful email. The process was frustrating. Yet, somehow, I managed to make myself a part of a fifteen-person research group with a common underlying goal. Greeks, South Africans, Iranians, Russians, French, Brazilian, Indian, Chinese. Scientists of varying ethnicities, of varying age, of varying personalities, work together to achieve a greater goal without discrimination
I spent the last summer researching a fascinating topic: energy harvesting. It’s pretty cool to think that we can store energy from our environment without much effort; it’s even cooler to acknowledge that the stored energy can potentially charge or provide power for our cellphones, our laptops, or our cars. That only begins to scratch the surface of its potential purpose. There are just so many applications for energy harvesters and it has such an exciting future! Habitants of developing-world countries without access to the power grid have a way to use the technology that we’re all so comfortable using. Unfortunately, our understanding of energy harvesters is limited and primitive; the good news, however, is that our knowledge and technology are rapidly growing. Soon, our ability to use energy harvesters commercially will seem like a reality and more than just a science fiction concept.
My summer was intimidating, to say the very least. As I walked around with my intern ID card clipped to my t-shirt, I can barely overhear the nerdy conversations of the professors. Listening to them talking about all sorts of physics and engineering topics that might have been mentioned on The Big Bang Theory makes it seem like a thing of Hollywood – not reality. I wish I understood them as they talk about the importance of certain forces and vectors and integrals and all this obscure and crazy advanced science stuff. But, I loved every moment of it. Hearing the different topics helped me satiate my thirst for knowledge and the one summer proved, within me, that knowledge beyond a curriculum is far more pleasurable and far more satisfying. To my dismay, it takes learning from a curriculum in order for the extracurricular learning to be rewarding.
Although I don’t plan on pursuing a life of science and engineering, I’m still fascinated by the advances made and I’m excited to know what science can bring in the years to come. Whenever I can, I follow up with the latest science innovations produced by the brilliant scientists, engineers, and geniuses (not the ones that work at the Apple Store though). From my summer laboratory experiences, I learned that advancing toward a common scientific goal is a powerful unifying force and I hope that the current and future generations make good use of it.
From the day I submitted my application to the Science Research program in eighth grade until today has been a powerful journey – a long journey with little baby steps. I can’t plot out all the points on a map for someone to connect it; however, I can tell you it’s led to one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve had so far. I still remember having a million tabs opened on Google Chrome on the personal pages of researchers at several local universities to learn about their work so that I can send a meaningful email. The process was frustrating. Yet, somehow, I managed to make myself a part of a fifteen-person research group with a common underlying goal. Greeks, South Africans, Iranians, Russians, French, Brazilian, Indian, Chinese. Scientists of varying ethnicities, of varying age, of varying personalities, work together to achieve a greater goal without discrimination
I spent the last summer researching a fascinating topic: energy harvesting. It’s pretty cool to think that we can store energy from our environment without much effort; it’s even cooler to acknowledge that the stored energy can potentially charge or provide power for our cellphones, our laptops, or our cars. That only begins to scratch the surface of its potential purpose. There are just so many applications for energy harvesters and it has such an exciting future! Habitants of developing-world countries without access to the power grid have a way to use the technology that we’re all so comfortable using. Unfortunately, our understanding of energy harvesters is limited and primitive; the good news, however, is that our knowledge and technology are rapidly growing. Soon, our ability to use energy harvesters commercially will seem like a reality and more than just a science fiction concept.
My summer was intimidating, to say the very least. As I walked around with my intern ID card clipped to my t-shirt, I can barely overhear the nerdy conversations of the professors. Listening to them talking about all sorts of physics and engineering topics that might have been mentioned on The Big Bang Theory makes it seem like a thing of Hollywood – not reality. I wish I understood them as they talk about the importance of certain forces and vectors and integrals and all this obscure and crazy advanced science stuff. But, I loved every moment of it. Hearing the different topics helped me satiate my thirst for knowledge and the one summer proved, within me, that knowledge beyond a curriculum is far more pleasurable and far more satisfying. To my dismay, it takes learning from a curriculum in order for the extracurricular learning to be rewarding.
Although I don’t plan on pursuing a life of science and engineering, I’m still fascinated by the advances made and I’m excited to know what science can bring in the years to come. Whenever I can, I follow up with the latest science innovations produced by the brilliant scientists, engineers, and geniuses (not the ones that work at the Apple Store though). From my summer laboratory experiences, I learned that advancing toward a common scientific goal is a powerful unifying force and I hope that the current and future generations make good use of it.