My summer: SURF

As promised, I will briefly explain what I’m actually doing this summer.

Earlier this spring I applied for, and was accepted, into a summer research program at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN (that’s the abbreviation for Indiana). So, now I’m here.

The program is called SURF: Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships. My major is Chemical Engineering (which I study at Northeastern University in Boston, MA (Massachusetts)), but the research team I’m a part of at Purdue is mainly in Nuclear Engineering. The work is fairly interdisciplinary though. My main task is to program this expensive instrument that we are building by buying several different other instruments and combining them. It’s a fairly daunting task, but I have yet to realize just how hard it is.

If anyone has experience with LabVIEW software, IDL (interactive data language), or Igor Pro software, please let me know.

I’m actually involved with two other projects as well: nanomaterials and biomaterials. The nanomaterials project simply involved looking at a bunch of nanostructures that we and others have grown for us, and memorizing the data about them. The biomaterials project is more complicated, because it involves magnetizing material for applications in treating aneurysms.

I’ve worked here for less than 2 weeks, and so far it’s just reading and doing literary reviews, but it’s interesting ^^

Toodles, darlings.

Oh, quantum physics

Despite being waay over my head, I’m studying quantum physics/mechanics because it’s a fundamental part of Nukie (Nuclear Engineering), and Chemistry. I’m just getting off work right now, and thought I’d share a most hilarious quote from the book I’m reading…

“So [equation 2.14] corresponds to saying that there is unit probability [ie 100% probability] that a measurement of the position of the particle finds that the particle is actually somewhere.”

Oh, quantum physics.

Goodbye, Bear

This’ll be a short post, because there isn’t much to say. One of my grandparents’ Golden Retrievers, 11 year-old Bear, died yesterday. His heart just gave out, in my Grandpa’s car right as they reached the vet, after two or three days of not moving around much.

Here we go again.

So hello everyone. As some of may remember, I started a blog a year ago or so, and failed MISERABLY at maintaining it. I’m giving it another shot.

As all you Swedes know, and a few others, I am currently in Indiana working as a research assistant in Nuclear Engineering [more details later] for the summer, although my major is Chemical Engineering. I just finished my freshman year in Boston.

I flew from Copenhagen to Boston to Indianapolis exactly one week ago, and have been fighting the 6-hour jet lag most of the week. So far I’ve had a great time: we’re 27 visiting scholars in Purdue’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships program, living in the Hilltop apartments on the north end of campus. There’s a total of 195 students overall. The vast majority study at Purdue during the year.

Toodles for now ^^