Still Week 3

Today was a pretty busy day. I started off continuing to practice soldering so that I could work on the probe today. Later in the morning, there was a meeting for students and the director of the lab made a speech. After that, the kids from my lab and I went to lunch. After lunch we headed to a lecture on "Dynamic Properties of Materials". It was another interesting talk because it helped me put my classes into perspective. I am realizing more and more each day how important my classes are and how they truly do apply to real life. When I was a physics major, it was hard for me to put the things I learned into reality but with engineering it is very easy. After this summer I will be more focused on learning in my classes, and not just learning to pass the tests or the class but for my future career because I know now how much it matters to me. I'm pretty inspired after only 3 weeks of this internship to complete my degree and get out there and do something meaningful with it. Anyway, after the talk I went back into the lab and worked on the probe. First I had to de-solder the existing wires of the probe tip and detach it from the rest of the probe. Then I had to solder the probe tip on a different probe (I'm not too sure why we are using a different probe but it is smaller so I think it's for a different experiment setup). Soldering is really fun and I really like being able to do something with my hands. I feel like I've accomplished something and seeing a physical product of my work in my hands feels awesome! The science part of research is good and all but I prefer to do more technical work. But for this summer I have to do more science since I will have to produce results of my research in a short amount of time.

Tomorrow I have electrical safety training all day so I will not be in the lab (nor will I have anything interesting to write about tomorrow). Next week there was a slight change of plans. I might be able to go to the conference in Santa Fe that everyone is going to. My mentor and the manager of our group at the mag lab are going to find out if I can get a student pass. The other REU girl in our group may be able to get one too. This would be cool if we both could go because it will be interesting to hear the talks (especially those of our mentors and the others of the mag lab) and we will be able to get to know each other better. I will probably find out sometime tomorrow if I can go. If not, I will be doing data analysis (mostly from home because I do not have a working computer to use at the lab and in order to bring my laptop there I have to go through insanely long procedures). Hopefully I will be able to go to the conference (but if not, it would be nice to have a few days off!)

Peace & Love,

Val