Reflection: 2013 Summer UROP

Wow. This summer has been incredibly busy, productive, and fun all at once. I can't believe it's already over!

So what did I do this summer?
My primary concern this summer was my UROP. I have been able to bring it very close to an end point; I wasn't able to finish it up completely, but I guess that was an unrealistic expectation because that's just not how science works. It doesn't wrap up cleanly; it's an ongoing process. I learned a whole lot more about Scheme and MEEP in the process, though, which was great.
On a related note, another UROP project fell by the wayside (as I wrote about earlier this summer) once I realized it was based on flawed calculations. To be honest, I'm not really sure if I want to pick up that project again and try to bring it to some sort of conclusion or if that's really worth my time.
My secondary concern was preparing for graduate school. I took the GRE this past Tuesday, and I am happy to say that went quite well. I have also been studying for the Physics GRE, along with making my list of graduate schools/programs/professors that I want to further investigate and send applications.
My tertiary concern was making another video for the MIT-K12 project. That went off successfully as well.

Apart from that, not being around my usual set of friends for the summer had a silver lining. While I would have certainly liked to have been able to hang out with them more, I was able to become a lot closer to a few people who usually live on my floor during the semester and hang out with them a lot more. Compared to the end of last semester, where I would basically just say "hi" to them but not a whole lot more, I now intend to hang out with them significantly more during this coming semester.

What didn't I do? These things didn't happen because I didn't have the time or energy to carry them out.
I wasn't able to edit and publish all the videos I took of 8.033 lectures from 2 years ago. In fact, I couldn't really look at those at all.
I wasn't able to do much work for OCW as I had planned.
(Actually, that's mostly it.)

I'm excited for the coming semester. My classes all look quite exciting, and I'm still deciding what I want to do regarding my UROP once my current project can truly said to be concluded. That said, I feel a bit sad that this has been my last summer at MIT, and it is already over. After that, I only have 9 more months at this place. I hope I can make those 9 months really special. Before that, though, I'll be going on a vacation with my family for a few days and then spending the remaining 1.5 weeks of August at home. Yay!

Reflection: 2012 Summer UROP

The long-term reviews I have been doing this summer have been on the desktop that I have been using for my UROP work this summer. Most of my thoughts about that have basically been along the lines of "UROP work went fine today". But I've realized that I haven't properly discussed what I've done this summer, I figured that I should share a little bit about that today because tomorrow is my last day here for the summer before I go home for a few weeks' break.

Let us start with the basics. A dielectric is essentially any material medium that changes the average speed at which light propagates due to the interaction of the electromagnetic field with the atoms and molecules constituting the dielectric. A photonic crystal is a periodic array of dielectric, and this periodicity can be found in 1, 2, or 3 dimensions. The photonic crystals that I was modeling this summer are in 2 dimensions; specifically, they are rectangular slabs of dielectric material with cylindrical holes of air/vacuum punched through the center along one axis. These sorts of periodic structures are special because they have certain bands of natural resonant frequencies at which the electromagnetic field is very well supported and other bands of frequencies where the field basically can't exist in the structure at all. This allows for very efficient manipulation of light at various frequencies. For instance, last fall, I was looking at optimizing photonic crystals to absorb the most light at various angles of incidence given a range of frequencies. This summer, I have been characterizing the electromagnetic energy flux from the photonic crystal structure that I mentioned before as a function of frequency and wavevector; the energy flux comes from localized current sources embedded in the dielectric material, and this models spontaneous emission. Such spectra should and do show peaks near the resonant frequencies. I was working closely with a postdoctoral associate and graduate student who had previously determined the functional dependence of the flux spectrum analytically and verified it experimentally. I was essentially providing a third method of verification through numerical analysis in MEEP. I have also asked the graduate student with whom I work about the ultimate applications of these flux spectrum modeling techniques, and the closest thing I have gotten to a good answer is that many macromolecules look like photonic crystals locally, so knowing the resonant frequencies and wavevectors for the flux spectrum makes imaging said macromolecules much easier.

In the process, I've become much more accustomed to using MEEP. I'm no longer scared of Scheme despite my C++/JAVA programming background; in fact I'm almost used to using Scheme. I've gotten a better handle on the tricks of the Linux terminal. And this was the first time that I was able to have a good level of appreciation for what I was doing, because this was the first full term that I was able to UROP after the lecture in my 8.04 (Quantum Physics I) class in 2012 May about photonics. Overall, I would say that my UROP was a success in that I really enjoyed every bit of it!

First UROP: Thermophotovoltaics

I apologize for not having posted anything in a while. For one, I've already become quite busy, so I haven't had much time to do stuff like this. For another, I have been (and still am, as of now) sick for over a week, so I've just been trying to rest whenever I can.
This week, though, I started my first UROP! Yay! It regards modeling new thermophotovoltaics (thermal solar cells) that use photonic crystals. Photonics are to light what electronics are to electrons, so the idea is that photonic crystals will give enough fine-grained control over photons to make capturing more parts of incoming solar radiation even easier and more efficient; this will of course increase the overall efficiency of solar cells too. Right now, photonic crystals have a lot of room for improvement, and ceramic-metal composites called cermets are currently the best at selectively absorbing different wavelengths of solar radiation, but the idea is that with time and many improvements, photonic crystals will be the way to go.
Currently, I'm just reading up on the basics of photonic crystals, but I can't wait to begin working on a topic and in a group that have both been recently featured in Slashdot, and which will probably have a pretty big impact on renewable energy sources!

Third Semester at College

Today was the first day of my third semester at MIT! I was excited to start with the classes that I want to take (and am not just taking to meet some requirements). This semester I'm taking classes in wave mechanics, special relativity, thermodynamics, and microeconomics.
There are a couple new things I noticed. First, there seems to be a lot of restoration work. I wonder why, given that the sesquicentennial celebrations have come and gone. Second, I've noticed that a lot more on-campus Athena computers that previously used Microsoft Windows now use Ubuntu, which is cool. Related to that, the Ubuntu version used has been upgraded to version 11.04 "Natty Narwhal"; Classic GNOME as opposed to Unity is the default, though Unity is an option when logging in, as are TWM/Ratpoison, WindowMaker, and a few others.
I'm really excited for this semester not just because of the classes I'm taking, but also because I'm going to start a new research opportunity regarding solar cells. It's pretty cool stuff, and I'll probably write more about it a few weeks after I actually start.

Reflection: 2011 Summer at NIST

I've mentioned a few times here that I have been interning at NIST this summer. Well, after 12 weeks, today was my last day, and for the next 3 weeks before I go back to college I get to chill out and bum around at home with family and friends. Yay!
I am really, really happy that I got to be able to do my internship this summer. It almost didn't happen; it wasn't until a few weeks before I started that I got confirmation that I could start in the first place. (That's better than my 2009 summer internship at NIST, where I didn't find anything until a few days before I started.) Thankfully, it all worked out in the end, and for the first time, I got paid too! Yay!
Last time, I was working on random stuff regarding reflective surfaces. I enjoyed this one more because I feel like LEDs are more relevant to and more popularly talked about in the discussion about energy conservation than is reflective roofing; this has become especially true with all the debate about the bill that would outlaw the sale of lightbulbs below a certain energy efficiency level. (That bill did not pass in the end, but it did bring LEDs into the spotlight of national attention.) The other reasons why I enjoyed this internship more were that in this one, I got to work in the lab more, I had more coursework background (for obvious reasons), and this internship was much more structured than the last one, where I basically did random data analysis here and there every few days and that was it (along with going to the lab 2 or 3 times in all the 8 weeks of the 2009 summer). This summer, I was able to rigorously detect problems in some of the equipment we were using; these were not manufacturing defects but were fundamental issues in the design of the equipment, because these machines, which I would use to maintain individual chip LEDs at a stable set junction temperature by altering the forward voltage and the temperature of the variable heat sink upon which the LED would sit, would often report that the heat sink was hotter than the LED at low (~<100 mA) currents, which made no sense. I was also able to develop an algorithm for removing flicker from existing LED lamp data. Finally, I got to play around with a spectroscope measuring properties of LEDs inside an integrating sphere.
I doubt my supervisors will read this, but I want to thank them (again) for letting me experience this awesome opportunity. But after that, if you'll excuse me, I have some relaxing to do. Woohoo!

A Few Loose Ends - 2009 October 2

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged in a while as there hasn't been much to talk about recently. I'm just finishing up college essays, and even this post will be a few smaller ones combined.

1.
This is a follow-up to the story about Joe Wilson and "YOU LIE!"
(source - Brett Dykes, Y! News; I've been told that I should cite my sources a bit more thoroughly (i.e. a simple link isn't enough))
To summarize, Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL) decided to make a similar ruckus on the House floor. He held up a series of signs describing the Republican health care plan as "1. Don't Get Sick\2. And If You Do Get Sick ...\3. Die Quickly".
["But Prashanth, don't you agree with this? You are pretty liberal after all!"]
Shenanigans on both sides need to be called out.
No, I don't think the Republican plan will work, as it essentially maintains the status quo (in favor of private insurers).
But no, I don't think Grayson's signs were fair, necessary, or decent. For one, those signs portray the GOP plan in an unfairly negative light and really exaggerate (and in some cases lie) about the plan. It's just as bad as the whole "death panels" furor, as both dealt with (and lied about) the respective plans' stance on the very touchy issue of death.
To add insult to injury, Grayson hasn't even apologized yet. While I'm still mad that Joe Wilson didn't apologize on the House floor (figuratively, not literally - I'm not that sadistic), at least he made some sort of apology and the target in question (the President) accepted the apology and asked the rest of us to collectively move on. Grayson, where's your decency?
Even with a Democrat-controlled Congress, I think House Democrats should make it a point to give Grayson the same punishment they gave to Wilson. It's only fair.

2.
I'm doing an internship at NIST; I've been doing it since the beginning of summer and am doing it this semester for credit. The thing is, I need to go through a certain coordinator (whom I shall not name). It sucks.
I already turned in my site information form twice, and the coordinator asks for another one.
I need to turn in an emergency form too (even though all information on the sheet is redundant - literally).
The coordinator gave me all of this stuff last Friday (2009 September 25). This week, I was sick for 2 days and out of school for 1. The coordinator claims that [s/he] gave the forms to me many weeks before and threatens to revoke all of my credit-hours for the quarter if I don't hand it in by the next Monday (2009 October 5). This, when I'm not given a due date in advance and I'm basically out for 2 days.
What?
It's patently ridiculous that [s/he] can do this. I'll be glad when I don't have to talk to [him/her] anymore.

3.
Don't worry, the house is fine, though there is a nasty burnt smell lingering in that area. There is no visible damage anywhere.

UPDATE:
I can't believe I forgot this one!
4.
I'm really happy that Rio de Janeiro got the selection for the 2016 Summer Olympics. I like and admire Obama as a person and as a president, but I don't think Chicago was the right city. It has too many issues to be dealt with right now (compared to the other cities). Plus, even multiple polls among Chicago residents showed that they didn't want the Olympics there.
Furthermore, Tokyo has already hosted the games, and Madrid didn't really need it (due to relative proximity to former Olympic host cities).
Above all, there has never been a Game in South America.
Congrats, Rio de Janeiro!