Rethinking Graduate School

Industry or academia? In other words, do I want a job immediately after graduation or do I want to become an expert in my field? Through my first experience in research, I have looked ahead to where I want to be in five years and what I don’t see is a crystal clear path.

All my life I told myself, “After you get your bachelor’s, get a job and never go back to school. Finish all the schooling I am required to do and never set foot in a classroom again.” (Ironically, I would love to be a high school teacher some day.) I was young and didn’t like to write papers, take tests, and read books. Instead I wanted to build and play with Legos or watch fighter jets tear up our skies. As soon as I finished college, I would be forever in industry. No more books. No more papers. No more testing.

Boy had I been wrong my entire life. What I learned has changed how I perceived the academia career: attending graduate school, completing post-doctorates, and even becoming a professor. Pursuing the academia career encompasses much more than just additional years of schooling. A big component of post-bachelor’s studies is research. To me, what you do in research is just the same as what you do in industry. There is an objective, a funding process, and countless hours of work. However, to me, I see one significant difference between industry and academia: the freedom to choose as a professor. Professors are free to pursue their research in their interests. Their interests could have an immediate impact or be useful for applications years down the line. Industry professionals, on the other hand, need to produce something that can sell. Someone has to want what they “research” in order for industries to remain in business. Industry professionals primarily serve their consumers. Professors are free to explore. They please their minds while enriching science.

As my research internship concludes, I don’t know if I want to be done with school after four years. The freedom given a professor is very enticing. I know for sure that graduate school is again an option alongside going directly into industry. The money is nice, but the power of choice to pursue one’s passion is great. Luckily, I have three and counting more years to decide.

EUREKA  Posted by 20 Aug 2015 / 0 comments

Making the Most of an Opportunity

In three weeks, a two-man team under guidance from Professor Philip Lubin and project head, upcoming fourth year Alex (this summer, he is participating in an internship), produced a prototype of a fraction of a morphable telescope. The project focuses on developing a telescope to study the origins of our universe on ground, airborne, and space missions. Looking at old files, the project has been off and on, with papers dating ten years ago. Many have contributed to getting it to the prototype stage that we are currently at.

Right now, that two-man team consists of upcoming third year, Josh, and myself. The thing is, Josh and I had little to no lab experience before being handed the project (at least through the summer.) At least for me, all my lab experience was carefully scripted out in our chemistry lab manual, detailing what to expect and troubleshooting directions. Working in the Lubin lab, I was given a task and a few suggestions. And that was it. So you’re telling me you have pretty much almost no lab experience, but instead an enthusiasm to learn and the eagerness to find challenges? Yeah. And with that, the project was essentially ours.

I mean, the project itself, hasn’t been too mind-blowingly difficult; it’s been so far machining and assembly. Not to say machining parts is easy. Saying something can be done easily is judgmental; like for me, I am pretty inflexible – you can feel the immense tension in my hamstrings when I touch my toes. (I’ve been stretching every day to make it better!) Every project has its easy times and tough times.

The main point here is the power of opportunity. Professor Lubin took a chance and gave me the opportunity to work on the telescope project. As I’ve mentioned, I lacked lab experience, but had a desire to build and construct models and projects. For whatever it may be, I am thankful that he gave me the opportunity to work on this particular project. At least to my knowledge, I don’t think I’ve disappointed him yet. (Knock on wood.) I wouldn’t have been surprised if I was glanced over as a potential new lab researcher. Instead, I became the interim head of a project. Being in charge, I have learned a lot, and continue to learn. This is the type of research experience that I dreamt of – jumping right into the action. Josh and I built the prototype in three weeks. And it all began as an opportunity.

With such an integral part to the project now, I want to get it done. The project started quite a while ago and being only an upcoming second year, I have set my goals to finishing the project. It’s like an old TV show I used to watch, Cold Case. The detectives pull out the files of an unsolved crime many years later and at the end of every show, the detectives are shown putting the files away, in a box stamped “Closed.”

EUREKA  Posted by 28 Jul 2015 / 0 comments