We have all been in a situation where we find ourselves dealing with a really hard problem and we don’t even know how to approach it. We lift our heads up and see all our classmates working on this hard problem with ease as if it was child’ play to them. The question comes up of “how is it that they understand this problem and I don’t?” We want to solve this problem and get it over with but are too scared to ask for help. We fear that others will judge us thinking that they will tell us were too dumb to solve this problem and shouldn’t even be inside this class. I know this from experience that I’ve been in these situations many times. The only thing I learned in that time was how to spend an hour staring blankly at a problem I never understood.

The first step is always the hardest, going up to your neighbor and asking for help hoping that they will say yes. But after that first step your fear goes away. You’ll be surprised of the kindness people will offer when you most need it. Many of those students have also been in your shoes and understand that some problems aren’t always friendly. Some even enjoy teaching and explaining to others how to solve a problem step by step. Both you and your neighbor benefit, you get to finally understand how to approach your nightmare of a problem and your neighbor gets to enhance his/hers understanding even more. Not to mention that you can now solve this problem and maybe even use the same steps that your neighbor provided to solve other similar questions. There is always the possibility that this certain problem could be in the upcoming test and if you never asked for help then you would probably skip a problem missing crucial points on the exam.

Everyone has felt fear to ask question when they don’t understand a concept, but we can’t let this fear hold us back. If we do then we’ll never move forward and if we never move forward then were left behind in the past. Remember that many others have been if your shoes before and are willing to help you when you most need it. Ask questions when you don’t understand and you will learn. For those who do understand these hard problems give aid to those who need it. In teaching them you get to improve your knowledge of the problem. Give help to those who need it and help will come to you. So remember everyone ask questions.

Because you will read a lot. Probably more than you thought you were ever going to. But this post is short, and hopefully my experiences will help to guide your endeavors.

Before I keep going, I want to offer my congratulations for those who will be participating in a research program, and to offer encouragement to those who have not yet or who are on the fence about participating in one. It is an exciting time and there is much to learn, both about the material and about yourself.

The first statement I made is true, you will read much more than you think you will need. As undergrads, we don’t have all the knowledge that a second or third year graduate student has, and even they don’t know everything, so be prepared to be flooded with information. However, don’t get yourself down about what you don’t know and focus instead on what you do know and how to be open to the new information you will have. Right now, we are about half way done and at this point I have a good general understanding of what this project is and why we should be doing it, but I definitely could not derive and prove the equations needed to explain the theory behind it all. Even so, it’s not necessary to understand every detail in order to be able to function.

What’s more, you will have a great team behind you; your mentor, your faculty advisor, any other grad students you meet, peers and other interns in the same research group, coordinators who helped choose you to participate, will all stand for you when you need help. It could be an explanation for a code that you need to write, or a listening ear to tell someone about how hard the commute is because there is no other option. You have many people that want to see you succeed and because of that, you are not alone. We are all here because we want to be, we crave that experience and the delight in learning how these small projects make up a larger, fundamental idea that can change the way we think about the world.

My experiences may not be so much like yours, or it may be exactly what you are going through. Everyone’s experience is different; for some it may be more difficult, and others may not feel the challenge. Whatever position you are in, use your time to get to know yourself, what you do and do not like, what you may need improvement in, what things pique your interest and possibly be the thing that you may want to study in the future. You have much time to figure it out and there is no expectation that you will know exactly what you want when you are asked. Be present to your experiences and take whatever offers seem like they hold promise to your career as a scientist; who knows, you may be doing what you thought was never possible in research.

This is a short sum of advice that came from what I have experienced so far, and some of it I needed to hear from myself. Chances are, this will not be the end of the advice you will hear, and some of this I’m sure you will hear again. But for now, explore the world, explore yourself, and make sure to get your eyes checked yearly in case you need glasses, like I do.

Time flies. I am already three weeks into my summer internship with the AIM Photonics program at UCSB.  I do research under professor Meinhart and Rustin Mirsafavi, and conduct my daily work in both Meinhart’s and Moskovits’ lab. A lot has happened since starting the program. Being a frequent list-maker, and lacking other ways to efficiently convey everything that I have learned and done so far, I decided to make one to cover the highlights of my research experience thus far.

Following is a short list I have assembled of some of the things that has made this summer research internship an awesome experience:

I learned how to make these microfluidics devices.  They might not look like much, but they have the potential to accomplish great things, such as detecting substances of forensic significance in various fluids (like blood or saliva). They each have three inputs, seen on the right, for the sample and the solutions that we need to analyze it. The slightly bigger output is seen on the left. In between the two glass slits is a microfluidics chip that contains the micro channels the fluid travels through.

Below is a close-up of the micro channels through a microscope. In case you’re wondering why it is has all that dust in it, it is because this was my first-ever attempt at making a device.

My mentor is good at explaining things, so I learn a lot. To be honest, I was a little hesitant to begin conducting research in a field that was so different from what I study. I major in physics and focus mainly on astrophysics in my other research and classes. This research involves a lot of chemistry, which I have not taken a class for in about 3 years (and with those classes being taught in Swedish). I expected that I would have to spend a lot of time reading up on things that I didn’t understand, but Rustin goes over the concepts thoroughly.  I feel like I get a very good grasp of the theory behind what we do, and I also learn quite a bit of chemistry in the process.

Weekly talks, workshops, and networking opportunities. This is one of my favorite things about the program. So many resources are available to us interns. In addition to attending workshops and talks on various topics, there are occasional networking events. Just this Friday we got to sit down and have dinner with a few UCSB professors, and another dinner with industry will be held in about two weeks. I am really excited.

I get to practice public speaking. This one is overdue.  I can say with great confidence that public speaking is certainly not my thing. It is a vital skill that I will inevitably have to use in my future career, and I have done next to nothing to help me get over being terrified of it. This being said, I am actually very thankful that we are required to prepare weekly presentations for our internship groups. While we have only had two meetings so far, I am already feeling better about it.

Not only are you learning new material during the internship and inside the lab but you are also learning outside from that. During my internship, AIM Photonics, I was giving a schedule that has many fascinating things to do outside the lab. From professors presenting materials, dinner with faculty and industries, meeting other interns and learning about their projects, and talks giving by a variety of different people. I know studying too much may be overwhelming and frustrating but having outside activities and learning different material outside the lab helps clear the mind and may motivate you to get back in the lab and solve your problem.

We have general meetings on Friday, presentation talks throughout the week, personal(self) presentations of our own projects, dinner with faculty/industries, and many other exciting things to do throughout the week to attend. During our general meetings on Friday all the interns from different internship meet to have a free lunch provided by the internship and have guest speakers that teach us all new material about academics and material that can help us in the real world. The general meetings are great because you get to see your peers, time outside the lab to relax and socialize, and learn new material other than what you are doing in the lab. Not only is their presentation talks during general meetings on Friday, they’re outside talks from different faculty professors on campus as well. The talks are optional and you may attend any one that you want. There are talks from different majors, startup talks, and talks that can help you become a better student.

Other than the talks, you get to have dinner with the faculty from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and get to learn from them as well. You may ask them questions about their journey to become a professor, engineer, or whatever there major is. Many professor have fascinating stories about their life and what they went through to be where they’re at right now. The dinner with faculty is the best time to learn new things from the professors and see that life isn’t so broad to become a professor. Many have done different things in life to get where they’re at right now from traveling, attending different schools before ending up at UCSB, retired and still having their labs at UCSB, and other amazing stories. These opportunities that we, interns, get is amazing because most professors are so busy to talk to students but at this dinner you have a chance to learn from them about their background, make a great impression, and get your foot in the door to become close with them. Most people would die or do anything for an opportunity like this and I am happy that I was able to see and chat to many different professors for an hour and a half. I would say talking and having dinner with these professors is a highlight of my first 3 weeks of my intern because they may remember you that you can get a spot in their labs in the future, a tour of their labs, and maybe a future positions as a graduate student or postdoc. This dinner you may learn a lot from different professors that you didn’t know about from their background, research, and life. Great way to learn outside the lab and maybe see your professor that you can get more details about your research or help personally from them.

Going into the dinner with faculty event, I had I absolutely no idea what to expect. This was the first time I was going to attend an event anything like this, and it’s safe to say I was pretty dang nervous. In typical anxious fashion I left about thirty minutes in case anything went wrong, which of course nothing did, and showed up with time to spare. I walked in the door, and being 15 minutes early I was one of the first ones there.

Once my nametag was on and all of the professors found their way inside, I instantly recognized one of them as he had been my professor a few quarters back, and was one of my favorites. I always had a gut instinct that we had a lot in common, but never had the chance to test my hypothesis. Of course, his table was the first one I chose to sit at, and I was not disappointed. I never had the chance to go to any of his office hours while I was a student, but I always had heard that he was an interesting guy and I wanted my own crack at asking him some questions.

My goal going into the night was simply asking a professor about his career path, and then seeing how much correlation there is between my personal goals at the moment and their goals at the same age. It’s quite remarkable how sometimes the simplest questions can provide you with the most complex, fascinating answers, and I struck gold on my first try with this professor. As he went through his personal path and his mindset at each point in his life, I realized that my overarching goals were very similar to his. However, my path I was going to take was a little different than the one he took, so I asked his thoughts on my situation. He responded with such intellectual clarity that it made me think that I had planned out my senior year with my eyes closed. Even though the classes I was taking were interesting, the ones I would have missed out on because of them were fundamental to my goals. I promptly went home and hit the redo button on my schedule.

It’s amazing how a simple conversation can open your eyes sometimes. Although the conversation only lasted a quarter of the entire event, I knew the whole night was instantly worth it after it concluded.