Taking a look back as my research internship as well as the first half of my undergraduate career comes to an end, it’s absolutely unreal to imagine how much has happened in such a short time. Although much of our lab equipment is still broken, I’ve learned a great deal in my research during this quarter. I had a chance to make a new graphical user interface to automate painstakingly long thermal conductivity data analysis as well as take data and analyze the electrical properties of some diodes.

Research details aside, the highlight of this quarter for me came last Friday, when my mentor Ryan was presented with the CSEP Excellence in Mentoring award. The work and dedication he has put into making me a better scientist over the past year has made him truly deserving of this award and I’m absolutely delighted that he got it.

This is also the first quarter in which I’ve taken an extra-special interest in one of my classes, Physics 5, which introduced quantum mechanics and particle physics. I had heard a quote by Richard Feynman a year or two ago: “If you think you understand quantum mechanics, you don’t understand quantum mechanics.” The truth of this statement did not resonate with me until now, a day before my final. This field has legitimately made me question everything I have ever held true about physics, and every question that gets “answered” springs up about 1000 more. As terrified as I am for this final, I’m still very excited to experience the trippy adventures on which the next quantum class will take me.

Just as there are up quarks and down quarks in physics, this quarter has had its highs and lows. The tragedy that afflicted us on May 23, 2014 hit me and my peers quite hard in the days that followed it. On Sunday, May 25, we learned the names of the last three victims that were until then unidentified. To my dismay, my friend and classmate James Hong was among those names, along with two other brilliant IEEE members. I was a complete mess the following week and had to take a break from work and research, trying my best to focus on my coursework and keep up with the unrelenting flow of information. The astonishing support and solidarity of our campus and community was heartwarming and made the healing process much easier. I wish I could have met the other victims as they all seemed like amazing people, but knowing first-hand the wonderful memories and smiles that James left behind and the immense number of lives he touched is truly remarkable.

Soon I will be packing up my things and heading to Fudan University in Shanghai, China for my next research internship (CISEI). I will be there for ten weeks and be doing research on (most probably) optoelectronics, after which I’ll be taking an 18-day trip to Japan just to explore!

I look fondly back on the memories I’ve made and the knowledge I’ve gained in the past two years, and look eagerly forward to the adventures I’ll have this summer and in the years to come.