Max Dornfest, 2020 AIP Mather Policy Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: University of California-Berkeley

Originally from Fremont, CA. I am a senior at the University of California, Berkeley. I am graduating as a double major in physics and political science with a minor in public policy. My areas of focus are international relations, national security, and theoretical cosmology.

Off campus, I am an undergraduate researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) at the computational cosmology center, where I write python code to analyze hydrodynamic simulations of the intergalactic medium (neutral hydrogen and dark matter). My honors thesis is on testing and validating the efficiency of neural networks (variational auto-encoders) over brute force supercomputing. In my free time, I am part of the ski and snowboard club, what is the concept of free time anymore, and I write poetry. Looking forward, in the near future I am set to be hired by my research supervisor at LBNL for Fall 2020. I look forward to attending a PhD. program in computational astrophysics next year.

I would like to one day be involved in lobbying for funding education, basic research, and science infrastructure at the federal level. To bring things full circle, that is why I am so excited to be a Mather policy intern at NIST this summer!

Internship

Host: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Project

Abstract

This paper examines the treatment effect of institutes of advanced manufacturing seeded by the interagency Manufacturing USA program. With tens of millions of dollars awarded annually in grants resulting in even more private sector investment it is expected that there is an empirical (and positive) impact because of these manufacturing innovation institutes. First, a standard regression analysis establishing the average national trends for our metrics of choice (unemployment, median wages, productivity, ect) is performed on data obtained from both the Census Bureau’s (CB) county business patterns database, and through EMSI (a data aggregation utility used by U.S. Department of Commerce staff). A second method of analysis is a regression discontinuity design. Many institutes have satellite campuses which were incorporated at later dates. We look at whether introduction into the Manufacturing USA program has a similar impact across a multi-year scale for any given organization—not simply institute headquarters. If we are successful in showing that the utility derived from the establishment and funding of advanced manufacturing programs is real and measurable, then we are also simultaneously providing tangible evidence in support of federal budgets which continue to fund the office’s ongoing mission and the next generation of manufacturing programs that AMNPO and MEP will sheppard.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1 - White Water Rapids

Week one has been an exciting ride through white-water rapids. Given COVID-19, I am already so appreciative to have an internship at all this summer; so it is amazing to have also been assigned a serious caseload of work. The first day, I was tasked with reviewing legislation. Throughout the week I have been examining, reformatting, and organizing the sections relevant for my team. However, by Wednesday I was also working on building the templates for different innovation centers’ annual reports.

This is great! Contributing to the annual report for the innovation centers helps me with my research paper. During my first meeting with my supervisors, when asked what I wanted out of this internship, I proposed a publishable paper. I am narrowing my choices down to two research topics. The first is to write a paper on rare earth metals in US supply chains, specifically, in advanced manufacturing. The data would come from the >10 NIST-affiliated organizations that rely on these in some way or another. However, the topic would be somewhat qualitative in nature, and is an issue that has already been explored extensively.

The other option is to examine labor shortages within the advanced manufacturing sector. I took econometrics at Cal with the head of the Labor Studies Dept., Dr. Card, and he has agreed to help. I plan to find job requirements for various positions at Manufacturing USA centers (which I am assuming at this point, is data I will be able to collect). I would then cluster certain requirements together to form endogenous variables. I would like to employ Bayesian inference somehow, and I know how to perform a simple least-squares regression across different variables. The broader question I would like to address is, what are areas of friction within the labor supply chain within the United States? More specifically: What labor shortages within NIST’s 15 Manufacturing USA centers could benefit from such specialized targeting?

Dr. Card would like to hear three research proposals from me next week. At the moment, my supervisors would like me to finish hyperlinking the legislation they assigned me. I apologize to you, my reader, for not introducing all the great co-interns and other amazing people I have met so far. As I said, though it is only week one, I am already soaked and headed downstream from the rapids at full speed.

Week 2 - Reflecting Pool

Week two has been full of unique opportunities and activities, yet thankfully, I have been able to stay on top of my work load. I am narrowing down my research topic, and am now examining sources for data. AMPO (Advanced Manufacturing Program Office) staff have been incredibly supportive, and have offered to help me find data from sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

However, my meeting on Wednesday with the economics professor willing to help me with this research had to be postponed. Though I was looking forward to the meeting and was prepared, I am glad we took a raincheck. For those readers who may be looking back in time at this post, our country is currently undergoing a period of strife. There are many Americans who are deeply upset by seeing their fellow citizens suffer. Wednesday was an opportunity to reflect on the suffering of Black men in America, minority experiences in general, and what kind of country we want to be moving forward.

My perspective is that the Declaration of Independence moved us from a backwater British colony to the preeminent power and democratic foundation of the world for the last two centuries. While the Declaration is not legally binding, it has immutable explicatory power. The Constitution may be the letter of the law, but the Declaration embodies the spirit of our laws. Our system of laws distinguishes between De Jure and De Facto. Our Supreme Court recognizes legal statutes such as Plessy v. Ferguson or Korematsu v. US, as having been legally valid at the time, but blemishing our democracy and wounding Justice herself. As a Jew, the Nazi Holocaust is a grim reminder that legal does not mean moral.

The founders were well aware that humans “are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.” Without question, the civil unrest we see now is a reflection of society saying that extrajudicial killings and the treatment of people of color in this country are no longer sufferable evils. This will be a messy and transitory time; with history written in watercolor and not precise pen. This does not mean that we will not get through this time, only that as a country we need more than a Wednesday to reflect on race relations throughout our nation’s history.

Though these words are my own, this platform belongs to SPS/AIP. For lack of a better term, it is sad that professionalism dictates that anyone refrain from expressing social or political beliefs and so I have tried to balance my words carefully. Though I understand why, but I would not be a Mather policy fellow if I didn’t care about this country and didn’t want to look at how to improve it.

Week 3 - Down The River, Together.

Though I expect the coming weeks to inevitably include stress and close deadlines, the latest week of this internship has been smooth sailing for me. It is with great relief that I can say that I am ahead or on top of everything requested of my supervisors at NIST. In the meantime, I have not sat on my hands; I have tried to not let the unique opportunity of being a John Mather Policy Fellow go to waste.

This week, I began studying for the graduate quantum field theory (QFT) class I am taking in the Fall (I am using Zee, 2nd edition) and I volunteered to help review applications for partnerships with NIST’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). I mention the QTF class, because I found that in this telecommuting environment, working on physics problems for a 30-90 minute break enhanced my workflow substantially more than looking at my phone or grabbing a bite to eat. Since this blog is about my internship and not theoretical physics, I will focus on the MEP proposal. However, I will say that it is substantially easier to spend hours on NIST work when the alternative is figuring out a step in deriving the Dirac/Feynman path integral formalism that I’m stuck on still.

That isn’t to say there are not equally complicated and confusing things with work associated with my NIST/MEP work. Though the evaluations are due Tuesday, I had hoped to finish my work by tonight (Sunday) and send it out early on Monday. However, though the majority of the form is fillable, when I try to enter the literal numerical scores, I am told the file is an XFA form that can not be edited by Adobe Acrobat. Of course this can not be solved until I hear back from my contact on Monday. I think many readers can relate to working in large organizations, using many disassociated systems, and find themselves shaking or scratching their heads at some trivial yet impassable step. Though small hiccups can be frustrating, it puts a smile on my face knowing that I have made it to adulthood with my pedestrian bureaucratic problems.

Though I will not go into any details about the organization I am reviewing, I will say that I am proud of my work. It includes independently reviewing whether this manufacturing organization has justified why it deserves an award. This organization proposes to distribute this award amongst many subsidiaries and partners—enhancing funding throughout the multi-state region. The dollar figure is large enough to hammer in a deep feeling of responsibility while reviewing the application.

However, there is also a human connection. This application includes the resumes of the organization’s leaders, and letters of recommendation from ongoing partners. There are the brief bios in third person, clearly written by the individual themselves. I am filled with the distinct and fantastic sense of how many people stand behind this application, this organization, and the American manufacturing industry in aggregate.

I really enjoy working with others, and having this sense of deep connection with how important my work this summer is. Outside of MEP work, that came on the Thursday team meeting where a work group adjacent to mine acknowledged how they are using the 2020 annual report templates I wrote last week. With theoretical physics, one is always acutely aware of the shadows of the past, cast by those giants whose shoulders we stand on while learning. There is always darkness and mystery ahead. As a policy intern, the opposite is true. Rather than enigmatic darkness and the mysteries of the universe ahead of me, I see all those who are helped by the work I do. The dichotomy between these paradigms is great, but complement each other like salt and sugar.

Week 4 - Having a good map in hand, and in mind.

I find that I am really growing to appreciate my supervisors asking me to define my own deadlines. This week, I was also asked to begin writing meeting agendas for my bi-weekly meetings with supervisors. This has been great! For one thing, these journals are much easier to write when there is a thorough structure to the workflow to wade through.

I finished my funding request review at the top of the week. It was definitely a surreal feeling reading about the extent of the program and assigning grades for such and such criteria. Overall, I found it to be an enjoyable experience. I feel comfortable in analyzing data and synthesizing meaning from different narratives. I think this is an inveritable quality of a Mather fellow; and is a quality that is needed in any scientist wishing to make headway in policy or government.

The ability to both see the forest and the individual tree in front of yourself is a quality that is called upon during this internship for me, and is enhanced by planning. Take for instance the .xlsx (Google Sheets/MS Excel) file I have set up for emailing institutes for information about their program. Because NIST is part of the Department of Commerce, but affiliates may be funded by the Department of Defence or otherwise by the Department of Energy, official requests for documents are investments in time and political capital.

Therefore, when I asked institutes for their annual reports, I learned from my supervisors that it was not ultimately important to obtain the annual reports for each institute. Instead, what was important was that I had information about each one that I could compile later for more industry facing projects.

However, my supervisors were also happy that I created the .xlsx file (and shared it with them over the cloud as a live document) because I then color coded institutes’ responses with how useful their information was, any outstanding facts, and who my point of contact was. For some institutes, this is simply a web-portal with fields for name, institution, email, and comments. In another, my request was forwarded to the head of government relations of the institute (obviously this cell was filled-in with bright green).

SPS and AIP staff have been amazingly helpful and supportive during this time! In order to enhance our experience and long-term growth, staff organized an interactive hour with Midhat Farooq, APS Careers Program Manager. Midhat was amazing. On the topic of developing our elevator pitches she provided a great taxonomy that allowed me to scaffold my knowledge appropriately.

Between handling the NIST weekly workload well and knowing my weekly routine, I feel as though I am well on my way in this internship. Always gaining new responsibilities from my supervisors makes me feel as though I am continuously growing and have a destination set as I head down this winding river.

Week 5 - Blue Waters, White Foam, and a Blood Red Sun

This fourth of July, while traveling down the river that is my internship, I looked outside sometime around evening. The sun was setting. It was painting a rainbow of autumn colors across the sky. High up, yellow mingled with cerulean sky, interspersed with clouds, soon turning to orange then scarlet; until settling upon a deep blood red hue. You see, there is a lot of sitting involved in captaining my ship down this river; and I miss the exercise and feel of fresh air on my face. I was curious about how America would react to a “Fourth Of July (TM)” without any professional (and legal) display. Though it was only just past five in the afternoon, this was no tranquil moment however. For most of 2020’s summer nights, many Americans noticed the unseasonably early loud bangs and pops of fireworks. In the SF Bay Area and NYC, fireworks have been set off nightly until 2-3am since late-May. Across the country, a storm had been brewing for weeks, and had filled America with the roaring of waves crashing in our streets and the froth of bubbles being popped.

Standing outside, I knew this year was different from all others. Because no fireworks flew high enough to be seen on my horizon, I could only hear that hundreds were going off each minute. Even lulls had five to ten explosions every second. Other years were less voluminous and slowed before stopping as the big displays began. “Voluminous” is an intentional pun, while this year was over six hours of uninterrupted polyphonic chaos, only one boom or so every thirty minutes was as literally as loud as a professional one.

Because of these differences, rather than being reminded of July 4ths of years past, I was reminded of when I traveled to Israel in 2013-14 and visited an old army bunker at Mount Bental/Tal Al-Gharam less than four miles from the Syrian border. This was before the US intervention and Islamists, such as the Islamic State, were just beginning to make themselves known. Syria’s civil war at the time was nearing its peak. On July 4th 2020, the uncharacteristic cancelation of celebratory BBQs, lack of professional shows, and their replacement by the irregular but constant mayhem all around me sounded like the war I could hear from that bunker.

First, understand that the Syrian Civil War was made more real to my ears and eyes than any other. On the ascent to Mt. Bental, the tour guide pointed out live minefields which protect Israel from Syrian and Lebenese armor coming through the valley, as over 1,200 tanks had done in 1973. The Syrian armor offensive had been in the blitzkrieg-style that allowed Hitler to take down France in a matter of weeks. The valley was the site of one of the largest tank battles in history and a defeat would have meant the destruction of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Second, my readers should know that war movies, such as Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, Stalingrad, ect. have always been favorites of mine. I love the rush of adrenaline and testosterone—that masculine fascination and excitement with firepower and valient violent struggles—that I always feel while watching those movies, playing contact sports, or when I have gone shooting.

However, years ago surrounded by sandbags and standing on dirt Israelis and Syrians had died upon, I had an epiphany. It was the distinct realization that the sounds of automatic fire and high caliber shells I heard that day, were the bark of machine guns sending hot lead toward human beings with every intention to kill, and the explosions of +105mm shells from artillery or tanks were just echos of instant moments in time where men, women, and children, were shredded or simply vaporized. I had only come to Mt. Bental that morning, but Syrians had been listening to and dying to these sounds for well over a year, and they continue to this day. On the bus ride back, we could see Israeli armor (Merkava tanks) maneuvering in a field adjacent to the road. I remember realizing how I never saw military units practice maneuvers or anything upclose like this in the US; but in Israel, every 20th person or so that I saw was a soldier with an M-16 slung over their shoulder, and I saw F-16s fly overhead when visiting Masada. Israelis are both afraid and ferrociously prepared for the next invasion of their homeland, a threat to them as real in early October 1973 as it is in 2020.

So, this Saturday evening, I realized how incredibly thankful I am for living in the USA, and my American privilege. I know that there are areas in the US where murders spike around July 4th because fireworks mask shots of gunfire, I know not every American feels safe in their neighborhoods, and that too many fellow citizens do not even have home or food security. However, we live in an interconnected collection of states stretching the width of the entire continent. In fact, I dare write that we are a high functioning collection of fifty states, and other territories. Look, cynics may disagree about how functional our government is and chicken-littles may worry that presently we are on the brink of another civil war; but ask any political scientist and they will tell you: this union, both of states and of individual Americans, is bonded together stronger than even the Federalists who revised the Articles of the Confederation could have imagined. The great American experiment is an ongoing success, despite the many valid criticisms we may have.

Not every American went to sleep on Saturday safe and assured that the bursts of explosions they heard were not hot lead sent toward human beings with every intention to kill. There are real reasons that Chicago has gained the nickname Chiraq from residents. However, the American privilege we all share is that no one was worried that the loudest booms they heard were incoming artillery that could take down buildings and wipe out our families with no warning or escape. We take for granted that no one was worried about waking up the next morning to ISIS as the de-facto local government and Sharia law as the de jure law of the land. Canned food and toilet paper may have ran out in some places at Covid-19’s climax, but our food system is resilient and American supermarket shelves have never seen famine, as humans starve today in Yemen, Syria, etc.

This is why I am proud to be an American, and why I have aligned my education and career with public service over finding lucrative ways to “win” the most in our capitalistic economy. There are multiple multi-millionaires in every dictatorship, but only democracies have outspoken citizens with ideas to improve their government in said governments and not in prison cells. Yes, we are great because we won both world wars. Similarly, it is a testament to American greatness that we have an unprecedented global cultural-hegemony; through worldwide adoption of our language and currency, the popularity of our movies, television shows, and internet sites, and the respect the world has for our core ideals and historic beginnings. However, these are not what I thought about on July 4th nor what inspired me to study physics and political science. America is not great because our country can claim that we invented the lightbulb, personal computers and smartphones, first to carry out manned flight or land on the moon. Rather, America is great because it is a society, composed of cultures and laws, that allows free-thinking. From each thread free thought, we weave a rich tapestry of ideas, opinions, and perspectives. American greatness comes from those in power allowing this tapestry to grow freely without coercion or molestation. These thoughts and perspectives, like individual bubbles racing to the surface of the same river, coalescing into the rich and complex foam of public discourse, free speech which then challenges the status quo. In turn, this free speech and discourse leads to the ingenuity and innovation that pedestrian arguments too often provide as primary evidence of American greatness. It is my personal opinion that the colonists’ rebellion against their own king, the sovereign of the world’s top superpower, challenged the status quo just as much as the atom bomb, the Wright brothers, or NASA’s Apollo program. I say this despite my preeminent love of technology and science: from the deterministic perspective, the American fight for independence supersedes all other accomplishments that we as Americans take pride in.

My patriotism comes from the same mental and spiritual place inside me that makes me proud of myself. I am proud to be a John Mather Policy Fellow, because we have scientists like Dr. Mather who was funded by public monies, whose research broke the status quo, and who was celebrated for doing so. As a Jew, I know enough history to see the stark contrast to how Einstein and “Jewish physics” was outlawed in Nazi Germany with the help of German Nobel laureat Johannes Stark. I share the same pride as my supervisors in Berkeley and Gaithersburg, for the work we do to advance America forward in the 21st century. I am proud to be a policy fellow at NIST’s Advanced Manufacturing Program Office and a scientific research affiliate at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (the lab which was instrumental in Dr. Mather’s discovery) because I can share my ideas and thoughts with my colleagues, and can even use social media to express criticisms of the system and status quo, without worrying about a Stasi/KGB-like secret police taking me in for interrogation and being permanently “disappeared” afterward. I have met and talked with Americans who emigrated from countries where this was a terrifying reality. I am proud of myself for believing that others deserve the right to freedom of expression and to feel the state’s common defence personally ensures security for themselves and their loved ones.

What makes me proudest is that I am a young man who, to the core of my being, values team players and those who take time to think about their fellow countrywoman and countryman. Our republic is only made weaker when selfish bottom-feeders slither their way into governance over their better fellows, and is strongest when filled with leaders such as George Washingon who rejected a royal title and selflessly reliquished power so others could lead the new republic. So, even if my first consideration was how my family was safe, I take pride in the fact that this fourth of July I thought about and prayed for other American’s to feel safe that night; rather than merely being content with my own suburban security. This consciousness of others’ suffering, the self-reflection of my place in the world, and an awareness that I can join the team that’s helping to fix the problem, is why I love my internship. I am very lucky to have very real work assigned by supervisors who see the world similarly. I would like to look back on my life and know that I helped my neighboor, served my country, and ultimately made the world a better place for the human race; that I moved the line of scrimmage forward just a little bit because I volunteered to pick up the ball and move it forward. America, despite our dogma of rugged individualism, plays as a team on the world stage. We win or lose together as a country. We thrive or go extinct as a race.

I thought back to that bunker in northern Israel. You see, bellow Mt. Bental is a place known as the Valley of Tears. It was given this name because of the battle between Syrian and Israeli forces during the Yom Kippur war. After the 4th day of battle, approximately 260 tanks lay destroyed in the valley. The primary Israeli defence force unit, an armored brigade that started with 105-170 tanks, was whittled down to just seven tanks and a fraction of its command structure. Multiple Israeli commanders died with their enlisted soldiers, some tanks holding the valley literally to their very last round. Ultimately, the Syrians who lost around 250-400 tanks, with another +100 vehicles destroyed, retreated. The Israeli soldiers deployed along that boarder facing 1:5 odds held their ground because their families, homes, and the entire country, were a few hours and one military defeat away from complete genocide. Similarly, pro-democracy rebels knowingly fought against ISIS but also Syria and Russia. I remember thinking if they or the Kurds succeeded in their fights for independence, that history would record it as a patriotic revolutionary war, and that if Assad won, their history books would instead describe a civil war between loyalists and terrorists. I remember back in Israel when I had the multifacited epiphany: that men had died 40 years ago on the ground I now stood, but at the very same moment, I was listening to a very active and real war at the doorsteps of this country, and yet still, also acutely aware that I would never hear these noises of death and destruction again back in America.

This is the context behind my fourth of July, where the red of the sun bled and white foam bubbled up, both merging with the blue sky and rushing river of time I have chronical for you. As the air was filled by the cacophonic menagerie, my nosed saturated with saltpeter and sulfur kissing fire and oxygen, I thought about how I knew that I was not hearing guns or other instruments of murder, but I also thought about “Chiraq” and the abysmal reality for too many Americans: that we the people of the United States have failed to insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, or promote the general welfare in all our neighboorhoods. I thought neighboors and friends, about how I wasn’t holding a beer at a BBQ, nor was I in Maryland living out an amazing post-graduation summer with my fellow AIP interns; and how I feel duty-bound to protect my at-risk family members from Covid-19. I thought about if and why I considered my summer work as service to my country. I would consider my life well lived serving our national shared noble enterprise. It should be no surprise then that I am doing so this summer, with both patriotism and personal pride. Most of all, on this fourth of July, I remembered that a part of American privilege is knowing our towns and cities will not be reduced to rubble, that American citizens are not at risk to become war-refugees, and that we live in a stable country where we can continue building homes, families, and innovations that help make the world a better place.

“Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind, let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. And let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance, as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonising spasms of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his long lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful shore; that this should be more felt and feared by some and less by others; and should divide opinions as to measures of safety; but every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.

We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans: we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. I know indeed that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong enough. But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear, that this government, the world’s best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to preserve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, the strongest government on earth. I believe it the only one, where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the public order as his own personal concern.—Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels, in the form of kings, to govern him? Let history answer this question.”

—Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 4 March. 1801

(other citation: Picture provided by Mr. Eitan, https://www.rabbieitan.com/mt-bental-the-valley-of-tears-and-israel-syria-border/ , accessed 7/5/20)

Week 6 - Tailwinds

This internship is going by so quickly. Covid-19 has changed my perception of time, such that the beginning of lock-down in late March seems a lifetime ago; while this internship seems to have only been four weeks. I am shocked that I am writing about week six, the first discrete step on the downhill race to the end of this life changing internship.

My research paper is going along smoothly. This Friday I received the first batch of information from research economists at DoC. I decided to work this Sunday to better understand the data I am working with. As one would expect, .xls and .csv tables of job codes, median incomes, ect. My reasoning is that this research project is really my own work; only I decide if I publish a paper after this internship ends and I know I can make this paper happen.

The DoC economists Nico and Stephen are amazing. I met with them on Tuesday the 7th, and our meeting was incredibly productive! Not only were they happy to help, but they had great ideas as well. One of these was to consider USPTO application and citation rates as independent variables for measuring innovation. We discussed how to leverage using both NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) and SOC (Standard Occupational Classification) systems, and how both had resolution to the county level.

At the full-office meeting, I announced that my meeting with Nico and Stephen went well and that I was looking forward to writing a paper. It was a little intimidating to have my supervisors’ director and deputy director question me, but I think it went well! When I met with my supervisors afterwards for our smaller meeting, the communications director for the Office of Advanced Manufacturing (OAM) was also on the line and interested in my research. She asked me to write an abstract level white paper, and this is what I sent her (minus footnotes):

Shortest:

I would like to publish a quantitative analysis on areas of friction in the advanced manufacturing labor supply chain, and to test for above average growth attributable to the establishment of an institute. Data will be gathered with the help of Nico and Steph, from sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics Standard Occupational Classification (BLS’s SOC) system, and from EMSI, etc.

Shortest:

I would like to conduct a quantitative analysis on areas of friction in the advanced manufacturing labor supply chain, and to test whether growth is attributable to the establishment of an institute. Data will be gathered with the help of NIST MEP economists, Nico and Steve, from sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics Standard Occupational Classification (BLS’s SOC) system, and from EMSI, etc. In conjunction with UC Berkley and AIP (American Institute of Physics), I will seek to publish the results of this analysis for independent peer review.

Abstract level:

This paper examines the treatment effect of institutes of advanced manufacturing seeded by the interagency Manufacturing USA program. With tens of millions of dollars awarded annually in grants resulting in even more private sector investment. With hundreds of individuals involved with each institute’s enterprise, it is expected that there is an empirical (and positive) impact because of these manufacturing innovation institutes.

In order to test this hypothesis, we establish two independent controls. First, a standard regression analysis establishing the average national trends for our metrics of choice (unemployment, median wages, productivity, ect) is performed on data obtained from both the Census Bureau’s (CB) county business patterns database, and through EMSI (a data aggregation utility used by U.S. Department of Commerce staff). Our data scales geographically where it is granular at the county level, and also scales by the 5-6 tiers (or “digits”) of industry and employment taxonomies respectively adopted by NAICS (used by CB) and SOC (used by the U.S.BLS)

Our second control method replaces national behavior with the 5-10 applicants which applied for recognition as a Manufacturing USA institute for the same funding now used by our treatment sample. We expect more homogeneity amongst peer applicants than all county data aggregated to the national level, and that this can be used to identify the effect of treatment. Although this method will rely upon significantly smaller sample sizes, it automatically removes national outliers in our data (e.g. the extreme variance in population densities between mega-metropolis such as NYC, SF, and LA and the myriad sparsely populated counties resting between the Mississippi and the Sierra Navada). Finally, time permitting, least-squares analysis will be compared with a more robust method of analysis known as synthetic control. This is a form of analysis that is well-established and is commonly used in physics. It has begun to gain traction with economists in the last 10-20 years.

A final method of analysis in consideration is a regression discontinuity design. Many institutes have satellite campuses which were incorporated at later dates. We would look at whether introduction into the Manufacturing USA program has a similar impact across a multi-year scale for any given organization—not simply institute headquarters. It is uncertain whether these subsidiaries’ signals will be discernible beyond stochastic noise, but it is a viable path of analysis.

Finally, this research will be original and novel, as our analysis will include both standard foundational measures of economic performance such as unemployment, GDP, etc; and unique metrics which allow specific targeting of our data. One prototype which Nico and Stevephan both liked and knew they could obtain data for, was measuring unfulfilled job openings, but only for a handful occupations we identify as maximally relevant for advanced manufacturing. Nico and Stevephan have told me that they can provide time-series ordered data that can be customized by region, occupation, industry, ect. Finally, because of this, we expect that the tiered nature of both NAICS and SOC can be leveraged when comparing the national data analysis to the regional data analysis. One example: at the national scale there are similar distributions for all engineers and for the combined average of all engineering specialty sub-types. However, if we are interested in knowing the unique impact that NIIMBL has had on it’s regional economy and community, then we can look at whether there is a statistically significant clustering of bioengineers around Newark, DE (headquarters), or NIIMBL’s satellite institutions, or even the locations of members.

If we are successful in showing that the utility derived from the establishment and funding of advanced manufacturing programs is real and measurable, then we are also simultaneously providing tangible evidence in support of federal budgets which continue to fund the office’s ongoing mission and the next generation of manufacturing programs that AMNPO and MEP will sheppard.

Week 7 - A full-sails week

Two weeks ago I was approached by a headhunter (“Steve”) over email. This last week I got the green-light to speak about the company and the opening. This is a position at Citadel that has a starting salary of $400,000, not including bonus. I was so taken back by this I replied to Steve telling him this sounded like a scam, but “best of luck.” Luckily Steve had a good sense of humor about all of it and persisted. He pointed out that my application of neural networks in my computational cosmology research was exactly what these guys were looking for, and I didn’t need a Ph.D.

My step-brother is on Wall-Street doing finance, and has been trying for the last year to convince me that I would be a great quantitative analyst. My family is divorced, and I grew up lower-middle class on both sides, it’s why my two brothers and I all went to community college. Almost half a million dollars, before taxes, straight out of university had simply not been in my plans. I talked with Steve over the phone and asked him, if he was willing to invest this much time into me, how would he make sure his investment paid off? Specifically, this was going to be a very competitive opportunity and I wanted to know what his angle was. He told me that if I didn’t get this job, we would run the gamut of six to ten more companies. I was so impressed by this answer, that I was sold.

My NIST/AMO supervisor Robert actually did a stint on Wall Street and then a PhD. in physics at Stanford. He spent time after our bi-weekly meeting talking to me and was so helpful in giving me advice on what to expect and think about. In light of this, I realize that my econometrics paper is more important than ever. These jobs require model building and just all-around data science. A paper using synthetic control would be an incredible chance to show my ability to perform analysis with advanced methods. The stress and pressure has been palpable for me, but has fueled my drive to work harder. The light at the end of the tunnel seems brighter than ever. Look, I don’t expect to get the job, but I will use it as a learning experience and practice for all other applications Steve asks me to apply to.

Serendipitously, AIP had a resume workshop on the 15th. I learned a lot from Dr. Crystal Bailey. For example, she warned that we should always use a cover-letter and to be safe rather than sorry. Also, rather than beginning with education, her resume grouped skills and gave header-titles that were each relevant skill-group she could identify on the offer letter. Basically, her point was that chronological order did not effectively communicate our qualifications immediately. I really liked her linear-algebra analogies, like when she said that a resume is a function of a job description. I don’t think I could call them homomorphisms much less isomorphisms, but the idea of “the set of words they think are important” mapped to “the set of skills you think are going to showcase” is a very powerful tool. Last, that job descriptions are a unicorn and to just apply even if you’re missing some criteria.

John Mather also met with us interns, which was amazing. He geared his talk for a science audience that did not know astrophysics, which was good because many people were at that level. I decided to stay at that level as well, and asked him about UC Berkeley renaming LeConte Hall (the physics building). He was for it, and gave a great speech about how science needs to be self-aware and willing to change. I thought he was great. I asked to get his personal email, and I am so very grateful and lucky to have the opportunity to now ask him for graduate school advice and guidance. This internship has been life changing.

Week 8 - Out on the Lake

Looking back on past interns’ experiences with the famous SPS boat ride, and presented with the last chance to see family friends before they sold their house in the South Tahoe Keys, I decided to take advantage of working remotely this week.

I had an amazing time, and was able to still submit my work and communicate with my supervisors at NIST. Saturday was both the day we went out on the lake, and the day I spoke again with Steve, the headhunter. The conversation went great. Steve asked me about my philosophy on documenting code while under a tight deadline. I explained that my belief was that it was the efforts of the entire group which would make the company money not what I wrote alone, and that if my code was difficult to implement then it didn’t matter how good it was. A high group velocity is what these companies want for their bottom line.

As someone with ADHD, I normally see my non-linear thinking as a strength. But its weakness is that “firing from the hip” is not always clean and accurate. Coding requires the opposite and I actually relish it, similar to baking v.s. cooking stir-fry. Just for my own optimized workflow, I comment every 2-5 lines on the fly. This deliberate choice has already paid so many dividends at Lawrence Berkeley Labs when supervisors or colleagues examine what I write.

I told the headhunter that any code I submitted for the team needed to clearly communicate what each block of the code did and the purpose of each function. This not only would allow the team to work efficiently, but would be necessary for debugging any problems on the fly. He was really impressed with my answer, and noted that some applicants would fall for the trap of saying they would submit the code ASAP.

I enjoyed my time on the lake and continued to remind everyone that this is a headhunter interested in helping me apply to a job opening. The company doesn’t even know I exist yet. Nonetheless, I worked on the industry 1pager for AMO, and coded up my first regression results!

Week 10 - Into the Big Open Blue

I am listening to Sleep Walk by Santo and Johnny . The soulful riffs requiring hands to swing back and forth upon guitar necks reminds me of the rocking of a boat. The wistful lullaby melodies draw forth an emotion between painful longing and excitement for the future. Like looking at the sunset on the last day of vacation, the end of this internship is both a happy and sad moment.

I really loved the work I did this summer. From reviewing a grant proposal, annotating Sen. Schumer’s Endless Frontier Act, developing a healthcare industry one-pager, and being principal investigator on my econometrics research paper; my experiences had me grow professionally and personally. This was a special moment in time, my cohort was great, the support from SPS was incredible, and my supervisors encouraged me to reach for the stars. For the 2021 SPS Summer Internship Cohort, I don’t know if you will be doing things remote or not. Therefore, I have come up with three points of advice I hope will be useful to each of you no matter what the circumstances:

First, don’t be afraid to speak up and ask for what you need or to ask questions if there is something you don’t understand. You were already selected for this program, SPS and your mentors want you involved and making something palpable out of your time!

Second, try your best to hang out with your cohort. I think the one negative experience I continually had during this internship was an unrequited wish that I could have hung out with the amazing people who were both all around me and yet hundreds of miles away. Whenever us interns would share memes in the group chat or hang out on Zoom, I always thought about how much I would enjoy their company while at SPS events or exploring on our own. I am so grateful for the fun I got to have with them, and that other interns were engaged and open to the idea of forming friendships remotely.

Finally, I would recommend getting work done when it is assigned. This includes immediately responding to work emails. One of my supervisors had me come up with my own deadlines. Similarly, I was told it was established office culture to reply to all emails promptly. Now, I am used to college assignments/finals and long-term coding projects at LBNL and so this was my first time setting my own timetables for submitting work. I answered emails as they came in and always gave myself deadlines ~1-2 weeks out, but then finished the work within 72 hours, weekend or not. I did this because I was worried about the remote-work setting making me complacent. It earned me a huge amount of respect, breathing room to enjoy my summer, and the social currency to ask for a few days off for one week with zero guilt.

Most of all Interns of 2021, I am telling you to be unabashed in your drive to make the most of this internship. Let me put it this way, May-August 2020 was a time of rapid change for the world, but my internship has still changed my world and myself even more. This is in no way to denigrate the changes others have made around me, far from it. Rather, this summer had the cumulative effect of seeing this change and finding my agency. I am working to publish a paper, I fundamentally changed how I delegated work for myself, and gained a lot of confidence knowing that just being myself led to supervisors happy to write me a letter of recommendation. Thank you SPS and John Mather for providing this opportunity for growth.

I am now listening to the Vitamin String Quartet’s cover of The Scientist by Coldplay . I wonder what I will be listening to a year from now when I read about the next generation’s experiences and moments of eureka? I can not wait!

Cheers,

Max Asa Albert Dornfest