蜜柚视频

I met with my mentor daily to receive study materials and discuss any questions concerning tasks or key concepts related to my work. Questions concerning the math, code, and any implications regarding either were always met with valuable guidance.

I had never taken a statistics course as extensive as what I learned over this summer, nor any coding that applied so directly to computational simulations and tasks. Through the avenues of statistics and coding, I was able to learn about the methods used to investigate complex physics subjects that I have not even seen in my normal coursework yet.

As long as the python libraries I was using and code that I was writing aligned with the general statistical relationships and processes necessary to draw certain conclusions and inferences, I was free to write my code however I saw fit. 

Getting any opportunity to see what research might actually be like would have been more than worthwhile for me, but I ended up enjoying my summer internship more than I could have imagined. Not everyone enjoys the topic of their summer internships, but I was lucky to find one that I would love to continue looking into in the future.

I worked closely with my research mentor, Professor Kordesch, throughout the internship. Because the project aligned with his long-standing research interests, he brought a wealth of ideas and direction to our work. Each day, he provided guidance on the next steps in the experimental process, which I would then carry out. He regularly checked in to ensure everything was progressing smoothly, and we would discuss our observations together to determine how to proceed. These frequent discussions allowed us to iteratively refine our approach. Whenever I encountered difficulties or had questions, he was always available to offer detailed explanations and help me understand the underlying concepts and procedures.

This internship introduced me to several advanced concepts and techniques that extended well beyond what I had previously encountered in my coursework. While I had some foundational knowledge relevant to the project, I had never worked directly with thorium segregation, thermionic emission, or high-temperature surface analysis. Learning to operate surface-sensitive instruments, interpret emission and compositional imaging, and connect those observations to atomic-scale material behavior challenged me to think in new ways. Navigating these unfamiliar areas deepened my understanding of condensed matter physics and gave me firsthand experience with the uncertainty and complexity of real experimental research.

Although I received frequent guidance from my mentor, I was given significant responsibility over the daily execution of the project. I managed sample preparation, controlled imaging sessions, and organized data collection independently. I was also responsible for documenting observations and identifying patterns across multiple cycles of heating and analysis. As the project progressed, I contributed to decisions about what conditions to test next, how to interpret unexpected results, and which images to include in our documentation.

This internship served as a turning point in my academic development by giving me firsthand experience with real research in experimental physics. It allowed me to move beyond textbook learning and immerse myself in the investigative process, from designing procedures to interpreting data. It deepened my interest in surface physics and solid-state phenomena and gave me valuable training in microscopy, data analysis, and scientific communication. This experience has not only strengthened my technical foundation but also helped me clarify my long-term goal of pursuing graduate study in physics and contributing to research at a higher level.

I met regularly with my research mentor to review progress, interpret physical results, and refine image analysis methods. We discussed thresholding strategies, expected behavior in forward vs. reverse magnetic field sweeps, and scientific implications of our findings. These interactions provided guidance while still encouraging independent problem solving and ownership of my work.

This internship has pushed me into unfamiliar territory by introducing me to a whole new area of physics. Coming from the nuclear area of research, I had to learn and apply new tools like ImageJ, analyze physical phenomena like magnetic hysteresis, and connect visual data to real quantum effects. It has challenged me to interpret data not just computationally, but conceptually and physically. 

I had a lot of freedom in this project. I took full ownership of the macro development process (Computer scripts), threshold optimization, and data validation. I independently decided how to structure my workflow, which grayscale thresholds best isolate physical regions, and how to interpret reversals in dI/dV contrast. I鈥檝e also taken the initiative to revise our methodology based on unexpected patterns in the data. While I had the guidance for help when I need it, I was given the freedom to do things on my own as well.

As an Applied Physics major, this internship is the most valuable part of my undergraduate education. It applies classroom theory to real research problems and has strengthened my technical, analytical, and communication skills. It has also clarified my interest in pursuing graduate research in condensed matter physics. It aligns with my future goal to apply physics concepts and see physical results. The experience will directly feed into my future academic goals.

We would meet weekly to actively write the paper. We went over the various measurements I had made. Dr. Smith showed me how to use the RHK software to get the heights of the adatoms above the surface from the STM image. We discussed our results. We also had zoom meetings with the theorists and Dr. Yingqiao Ma (Dr. Smith鈥檚 previous student who grew the sample), to discuss the results and how they fit the theory. Dr. Smith has also spent a lot of time explaining concepts from condensed matter physics that I haven鈥檛 learned yet. Topics I could possibly learn in the first-year graduate course, but also some that would only be possible to learn by actually being in a lab and using the equipment. Some of the topics we discussed were hysteresis loops (because there are SQUID results in the paper), how much tip lengths affect errors when taking STM images (which directions are affected and by how much), how to calculate the magnetization of the sample, and many more. He has spent a lot of time teaching me about various aspects of crystal structure.

It is the first time I am writing a paper with the aim to have it published. While I still feel like I have a lot to learn, I do feel like I now have a basic understanding of how materials are grown using MBE (molecular beam epitaxy), RHEED images, STM images. The internship provided an opportunity for me to meet other graduate students in the field and learn from them about their research. When I go to conferences now (AVS Ohio Symposium 2025) or if I go to seminars or Ph.D. defenses, I can understand the basics (or sometimes almost all) of what is being presented and I can appreciate the work that goes into the research. Sometimes the talks inspire me to want to explore a project of my own.

The paper I am writing is the conclusion to two years of work. So, there has been a lot that I have done that wasn鈥檛 necessarily from this summer, but is relevant because it means I have contributed non trivially to the results.

I also have asked questions when discussing our results with the theorists and made the occasional suggestion. I feel like I have put a lot of work into helping establish that the model proposed by the theorists fits the data. When the theoretical model was first proposed, I saw how it could fit the experimental data (during the zoom meeting), even when the theorists didn鈥檛. I showed Dr. Smith how I thought it could work, and he helped me figure out how to overlay the theoretical image over the experimental one. But I did do the work to demonstrate how the model fit.

It was because I originally (prior to this summer) carefully measured the distances, after calibrating the image, that we discovered that their previously proposed model didn鈥檛 work. (The new model used some of their previous calculations, but is significantly different and very interesting.)

This experience goes beyond anything I could learn as an undergraduate. Yes, there are labs, but there is no real true unknown in an undergraduate lab, except maybe for some minor errors. Aside from just working with Dr. Smith, there is the added bonus of being around his graduate students. While not officially part of the project, I now have a good understanding of a MBE lab and the processes involved. Over the years, they have taught me a lot about building an STM, using (and interpreting) RHEED, using the XRD to analyze a sample (I used an XRD in my undergrad lab, but it was nice to see it used for a true unknown), how to use an AFM. They have taught me how to grow materials using MBE.

I feel that if I were to go to graduate school, I would have a slight edge over someone who hasn鈥檛 worked in a lab, and I have an idea of how challenging experimental work is. I really enjoy condensed matter physics and would like to continue studying it and potentially grow a new material with exciting properties and applications.

I have been engaging with Dr. Roche through meetings every 1-3 days to go over my progress and discuss plans moving forward. We started the summer with daily meetings, but eventually moved to one every 2-3 days as the projects grew larger and I gained a better idea of what to work on with less guidance.

I went into this with very little knowledge of nuclear physics in general. Therefore, it was difficult for me to understand how the experiment worked and all the parts that went into it. As a result, early on I didn鈥檛 have a good understanding of how the data was collected and what it should look like. To help with that, I spent some time researching the other parts of the experiment, talked with Dr. Roche about it, and learned from other meetings. In addition, we had "book club" meetings every Friday to learn more about nuclear physics, which were very helpful in understanding the physics behind the experiment.

As I mentioned, the start of the summer largely involved doing whatever was directly instructed to do by Dr. Roche, but as I understood the work better, I was able to do more work using my own judgment. This made things simpler as I could do projects faster since I knew what my strengths were and where my energy should be focused. It also taught me how to proceed with projects on my own as I could use my own ideas to either work faster or to derail myself and learn from those mistakes. Ultimately, I made a directory of code that was uploaded to the MOLLER GitHub repository for use by anyone working on . 

This experience was important to me as it has given me a research project to pursue going forward. Before this summer, I was very unsure about what research area I would be going into. My decision to do research here was very last minute, and I didn鈥檛 have very many options, so I wasn鈥檛 sure how much I would like it. However, I very much enjoyed the research this summer, and I plan on continuing work with Dr. Roche or Dr. King for the foreseeable future (ideally including my thesis). 

My mentor was often off campus, so we organized a teams meeting to have every week and discuss progress as well as discussing what I could be doing better and what I could do next to improve the setup. The meetings were very helpful for getting new ideas to optimize the setup and troubleshooting problems I came across. My mentor also created software I used to track particles that I trapped with the laser. I mainly shared the lab with Debalina Chakraborty, a current grad student, who helped me on a day-to-day basis when I needed it as she had previously done work on the setup.

I鈥檓 an astrophysics major and this is more of a biophysics area, so this is an area of study I never would have experienced sticking to my major and it was really cool to branch out and see what it entailed. Physically, I鈥檓 always worried about messing with setups during labs because I鈥檓 scared I鈥檒l mess it up. I was of a similar mindset going into this project, but as this called for taking apart most of it and putting it back together, I got much more confident with it, and I think that will transfer to other labs and future hardware setups. Overall, it was fun to learn more about biophysics topics and branch out my knowledge.

This project was almost completely up to me, I made almost all the adjustments, and I was left to tweak everything until it was just right. I was given total freedom to work on the set-up and change anything that I saw fit to improve it. This was another factor that contributed to my gained confidence. The results were a direct result of me changing something by myself. I take almost full ownership of the outcome, Dr. David Tees and Debalina are to credit for some of it, but this project was probably 95% me with some aid as needed.

This experience was instrumental in expanding my horizons. It helped me connect with a professor and improved my confidence in reaching out to people like him which is something that I鈥檒l be doing a lot of in my future. This experience also taught me a lot of independence and gave me a lot of general confidence in my work and abilities. Experiencing what it is like to conduct independent research was also a very important thing for me to get under my belt for my future, as I would like to be a researcher someday.
This research will also look good when applying for future grad school and careers. I had also considered looking into medical physics, and this would be a great gateway into something like that. Overall, this experience has given me so much invaluable experience.

Every day, when Dr. Sandler and I were available, we held meetings to discuss progress on my report and data collected from the developed program. These meetings ranged from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Sometimes, Prof. Asmar would also attend, allowing us to discuss and analyze various program outputs. Dr. Sandler acted as a guide in these meetings, answering my questions, correcting my mistakes, and discussing the next steps for the work we still must complete.

While I did have a basic understanding of quantum mechanics and condensed matter physics before the start of this internship, this experience pushed me much beyond what I previously knew. Throughout the internship, I had to develop a new understanding for the Dirac notation of quantum mechanics, as well as a first look into condensed matter applications by performing an analysis on graphene. I had never previously encountered this notation, or the true mathematics involved with wave mechanics in condensed matter. While initially this was a struggle, I have gained a lot of knowledge, and I have learned more from this experience than I did in my introduction to quantum mechanics and condensed matter.

When Dr. Sandler and I are not meeting, I have a lot of opportunities for independent judgment. I am expected to collect data independently, making changes to the program to produce the outputs which we are investigating. The collection of data and presentation are also independent judgments that I am required to make in preparation for all meetings. In terms of the report, I have sole independence. I have had to reproduce results from multiple other papers using different methods. Primarily, I have solved several problems that have not been solved in different papers. The mathematics I perform for the report is done completely independently but checked by Dr. Sandler and Dr. Asmar when I formally write my solutions.

I feel as though this experience has been extremely useful for me and my future goals. I have always been more interested in the engineering aspect of physics; however, I thought that quantum mechanics and engineering were as separate as they could be. From this experience, I have developed a much deeper understanding of condensed matter physics and its applications. I believe that this has provided me with a career option that I am extremely interested in. Because of this, I feel very hopeful and eager to explore this field much more in my future and in the pursuit of a career. This has been one of the most important stepping stones in my time as an undergraduate.

My mentor, my partner, and I were sure to establish weekly meeting times to discuss how progress was going with the project, as well as set goals for that week of what to get done. While working if either my partner or I had any questions, we would contact our mentor through Teams. They have also come into the undergraduate lab to check on us and our progress and discuss concepts. Once the work on the large detector began, there was a lot of collaboration with our mentor on how to best approach setting up the nim bin and testing the individual PMTs. Greg was also a massive part of the summer, as we helped him with odds and ends around the accelerator and he helped us set up a different DAQ more equipped to handle the rate of the Split Annulus Detector.

At the start of the summer, I had little to no real coding experience, which ended up being a large portion of this internship. I also was not familiar with anything surrounding the detectors, including the different types or how they worked. It also allowed me to see the process of experimentation as a whole, and all of the components involved in this process. I also got to participate in accelerator maintenance, which taught me a lot about vacuum as well as the instrumentation needed to run an experiment there.

Independent judgment comes with how you choose to build programs that can turn the data into something usable, as well as the procedure or order in which you test each of the different tubes and the adjustments you make that you think are best to fine tune resolutions. 

Throughout my time working at the lab, I learned a lot about how to learn and how to break things down into individual components. I learned about how to develop a certain process or mindset toward working with physics instead of physics concepts being left to the abstract. I feel like these skills are applicable not only in the classroom but also in future careers and other endeavors, especially because my goal is to be a researcher in a laboratory setting.

My project involved a lot of engagement with my mentor Dr. Parker as well as Dr. Massey. In the early weeks of my project, Dr. Parker helped me find good sources to learn the material and stand procedures. Every time data was collected, one of them was with me to help me learn the process and handle sources. When the detectors needed any physical adjustments or modifications, Dr. Massey would be there to give me the steps and allow me to do much of it myself. Beyond lab work, I also met with Dr. Parker a few times per week. During these meetings she would help me reflect on what we had been doing, allow me to ask questions, and discuss our future steps.

Before this summer, I had almost no experience working in a lab setting. Luckily, I was able to take and pass operator 1 training. This meant I learned radiation safety procedures, standard lab practices, unfamiliar equipment, and a basic understanding of how to operate the accelerator. Each of which was very new to me and required me to overcome a learning curve. Also, part of my project was giving a 15-minute presentation to the rest of the lab about it. I had never given a scientific presentation that long and with such detail before. Through planning, creating and giving the talk, I learned many techniques to effectively communicate ideas and developed more confidence in my public speaking.

While a lot of my lab work was somewhat guided due to the fragility of equipment and uniqueness of data acquisition systems, I was given complete freedom to perform data analysis. I used Python script to create several functions that graphed the data, calculated FWHM, and a figure of merit. This meant I planned what to code and then made adjustments based on my discretion. I also made suggestions during the experiments. For example, I brought up the idea of collecting data from a neutron detector right after it was built and then a few days later to see if there was significant noise from the PMT because it was exposed to light during detector construction.

This experience was super important to my future goals. Right now, I want to work in academia as a researcher in physics. This summer I learned so much about what it means to do research and run an experiment. I genuinely enjoyed the process and getting some hands-on experience. I also did a deep dive into python which until then I had not used very much. Knowing how to analyze data using code will be essential for future opportunities and work. Another thing to consider is that I got to experience nuclear physics, which is one of the topics I鈥檓 most interested in. I definitely want to continue learning about nuclear physics and plan to pursue it more in the future.

I have two weekly meetings with my mentor, a one-on-one meeting and a meeting with the rest of the Statistical Nuclear Physics group. On top of that, I use Teams to ask quick questions, and frequently talk in person when more in-depth discussion is required.

Working at the lab has taught me a lot about working with my hands in ways I had never been exposed to in the classroom. It was a little uncomfortable at first (鈥淲hat if I break something important?鈥�), but thanks to the guidance offered by both my mentor, Dr. Richard, and the Accelerator Engineer, Greg LeBlanc, I was able to move past this discomfort and learn countless new things that I never would have seen in coursework.

I had a lot of agency over my research this summer, which I really enjoyed. Whenever I was confused and a textbook didn鈥檛 help, Dr. Richard, Don, and Greg were always around to help and clear up any confusion. For the most part, it didn鈥檛 feel like I was being handheld throughout my research, and I had plenty of room to make mistakes and learn from them. It was also really nice to be able to work closely with another undergraduate, John Edwards, because we could bounce ideas off of each other and split up the workload a little bit.

My internship allowed me to put what I鈥檝e learned in the classroom to use in an experimental setting, which is invaluable experience for an aspiring physicist. Not only that, but this research internship also gives me an advantage when applying to outside research opportunities by providing experience in an accelerator laboratory. All of this culminates in a wealth of experience that should help me find a career in nuclear energy, a field I鈥檝e wanted to work in for years.

Everyday at 10 a.m., the Stinaff group has a quick research check-in to make sure everything is going smoothly, and every Thursday at 2 p.m. we would have a longer meeting to discuss what kinds of projects we had been working on that week, potential plans for new projects, and to discuss the general direction of the group for the next week. After I was well acclimated with the tools, Dr. Stinaff along with Dr. Jensen and Greg Jensen and Will Poston would routinely check in to help and teach me new things. I would often discuss my questions about the process or any of the tools with one of these three.

Most of the tools and concepts alone in this internship were very new to me. Before this summer, I only had a vague idea of what 2D materials were and how they could be applied to semiconductor technology, but we dove deep into the process of synthesizing these materials, and the many ways you can use and characterize them, which was all new to me. I had no experience in this field, and I deepened my understanding of how 2D materials are made and what kinds of steps go into creating 2D materials.

I focused specifically on the CVD (chemical vapor deposition) process because we had trouble throughout the summer with finding the right amount of thermal conductivity throughout the sample, finding some spots were more 鈥渂urnt鈥� than others, leading to poor growth over samples overall. I tested some solutions to this including placing graphite powder onto the boat and pressing the sample into the powder so that the graphite could provide better thermal conductivity.

I believe this experience exposed me to what physics research looks like and the introductions to semiconductor science. I enjoyed learning the many basics of 2D material and semiconductor science such as lithography, sputtering, CVD, transfer of materials, and many characterization techniques. This also goes well with my future goal of becoming an electrical engineer, specifically in the semiconductor industry, as now I have basic knowledge of some of the aspects of the industry.

Over the summer, I had daily meetings with my mentor to discuss challenges, progress, and next steps in our projects. These meetings were extremely helpful, simply because my mentor was able to thoroughly explain the physics behind the work. These regularly scheduled meetings made it easy for me to ask questions, stay on track, and continuously learn throughout the internship.

This experience pushed me out of my comfort zone because I come from an engineering background and have very limited knowledge of particle physics. Initially, when I first joined this team, I was scared to feel out of place among the other students who had more physics knowledge, but I quickly realized that not having all of the answers is normal and part of the process. As I got used to being out of my comfort zone and learned to ask questions, I was able to become more confident as I adapted and developed new skills that I once was not familiar with.

One of the most valuable aspects of the internship was how much independence I have in the data analysis process. While my mentor provided me with directions on how to interpret the data, I was responsible for figuring out how to get there. Over the course of the past three months, I was able to teach myself the C++ language in order to use ROOT effectively. That ownership not only deepened my technical skills but also gave me confidence in my ability to face new challenges without step-by-step instructions.

This internship has played a major role in shaping my future goals because it helped me discover my strong interest in nuclear physics. Just a couple months ago I was pursuing this position for some research experience, and now my main goal is to pursue a career in Nuclear Engineering. I believe that this internship was a great start to my career, especially now that I have hands-on research experience. In the fall, I plan to continue building on this goal by continuing my work with the accelerator lab鈥檚 engineer.

Despite being a primarily remote role, I actively interact with my mentor, Dr. Govorov, on a regular basis through various forms of communication including email, Teams meetings, in-person meetings in Athens, as well as through our shared notes. Dr. Govorov offers direction for my work and provides me with an idea of what I should expect when looking at any particular set of data. His theory and my simulations coincide to give me a cohesive look into the topics in which we are interested.

This internship has been an excellent way for me to expand my understanding, not only of the physics of the research topic, but also of the methods used to understand problems and answer questions which can be a vital skill in any similar environment. I believe this internship has forced me to hold myself accountable and to produce work of a quality which I hope to be above the standards set by both myself and my mentor. There have been times where I have to seek information in literature, or consult Dr. Govorov, and I have found new ways to approach problems.

This project has been entirely based on my own simulations that I have developed, and the data analysis has been carried out by both myself and my mentor, such that consistency and correctness are ensured. I have been granted the opportunity to say that all simulated data is my own work and that the code that I have developed was made independent of advisory input, with the exception of applicable functionality, i.e. what kinds of simulated conditions I should program.

This project has given me insight into the way that teams work together in this field and the importance of cooperation and communication. I have been fortunate to work with a very knowledgeable advisor, who laid out a clear plan from the first day we began work. I feel this experience has better prepared me for whatever my next venture will be in the professional world, and expanded my understanding of a previously unfamiliar kind of work.

Dr. Hee-Jong Seo and I generally engaged by meeting weekly to discuss questions I had, and to provide an opportunity for me to show what work I have done since the past week. Additionally, we had group meetings on Friday with the graduate students to each talk about what we have been doing.

This experience made me research and learn things previously unfamiliar to me and learn coding methods I hadn鈥檛 known before my summer research internship. I learned to ask more questions that I previously had not thought to ask. I learned more to cooperate and work as a team as well.

I have had many opportunities for independent judgment, especially considering I just have two meetings a week, all of the other time I am working on my code is done independently, in which I am using various papers and packages in order to create and fix bugs in my code.

This experience has helped me to be better prepared for going into graduate school and for whatever career I end up going into. It has allowed me to become better at coding, and to better familiarize myself with statistical methods. I learned more about the field of cosmology and astrophysics, which has helped me know if research in cosmology/astrophysics in general is something I want to pursue in the future.