Karthik Rao (he/him/his), 2021 NIST Research Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Texas A&M University

I am a graduating senior at Texas A&M University earning a B.S. in Physics and a B.S. in Computer Science with minors in Math and Cybersecurity. After graduating, I plan to pursue a PhD in condensed matter physics and my overall goal is to stay in physics and continue research.

I have had several research experiences at my home institution in areas such as computational chemistry, superconductivity, nuclear astrophysics, theoretical quantum optics, and deep learning. My biggest research experience involved creating a particle detector at the Cyclotron Institute to be used in nuclear astrophysics experiments involving detection of low energy heavy ions using indirect methods. I am really excited to be interning with NIST this summer.

Outside of research, I have served leadership positions in student organisations such as the Corps of Cadets, our local chapter of SPS, and such. I love to read, play video games, board games and DnD.

Internship

Host: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Project

Abstract

Electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) is one of the non-contact atomic force microscopy techniques that gives access to electrostatic and electronic surface properties of samples with high precision. This technique involves applying a bias voltage to excite a cantilever oscillation, which oscillates with an amplitude that depends on the electrostatic force interaction between the probe tip and sample. COMSOL Multiphysics is a finite element analysis and multiphysics simulation software that allows conventional physics-based user interfaces. Using this software, simulations of EFM with different probe shapes was performed in both 2-D and 3-D. The results of these simulations will be compiled into a database that will be used in determining unknown probe shapes in the future.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1: The beginning!

Week 1 is officially over! To everyone reading this post, hi :)

I am a recent Physics and Computer Science graduate from Texas A&M University. This summer, I am one of the NIST research interns, and I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity.

Week 1 started with an orientation, followed by initial meetings with my mentors at NIST. It was nice getting to know my cohort and meeting the people in charge of organizing the internship. There were several topics discussed on how to have a successful and enjoyable internship experience, which I found helpful since this was my first “real job” outside of college. The following days involved daily meetings with my mentors at NIST, completing required trainings and getting a general idea of the projects I would be involved in. Specifically, the projects are investigating the use of physically unclonable functions (PUFs) and Blockchain Technology in ensuring electronic hardware security, and imaging electric field distributions on the surface of integrated circuits with electrostatic force microscopy. I will be working closely with another SPS intern on both projects. I hope to learn a lot and contribute towards these projects.

The week ended with a “Bad Physics” movie night, where several interns got together on discord and watched Ant-Man. It was a fun experience pointing out the various physics-related fictional concepts in the movie with other physicists. I look forward to bonding with my cohort and really getting to know everyone.

Week 2: Getting into it!

Hey y’all! Welcome to week 2.

This week involved getting things set up with NIST and acquiring access to their servers and secure sites. Unfortunately, I did not receive the hardware required to do so until the end of the week, so I could not make as much progress in it as I would have liked. I did gain an increased understanding of the projects I was assigned, and I presented a PowerPoint at our daily group meetings at the end of the week. The presentation summarized what I had understood so far and had questions to facilitate discussions. I hope to present at least once a week so that I can keep track of what I have been doing, and I can keep my mentors updated each week.

In terms of social activities, the highlight of the week for me was Brad’s seminar on networking. It had several useful takeaways, such as how to generate a good headshot, and how to prepare an effective elevator pitch. I am excited for this upcoming week, and I hope I can make some serious progress into my projects.

Week 3: Things are rolling!

Hey y’all :)

Bit late posting my blog this week. I was travelling this past week and attending a friend’s wedding in Colorado, which was lots of fun, and a welcome break from Texas and its 100 degree weather.

As for work, things are progressing slowly but surely. I am getting used to working with NIST’s secure servers and sites, and the log-in process to access them is quite intensive. I have been learning a lot about various topics such as simulating probes in COMSOL and blockchain technology. I hope I can finish setting things up in the coming week and start making contributions.

Week 4: Getting started (finally)

Hey y’all!

Exciting things have happened this week (okay, maybe not so exciting). I finally got access to my NIST official email and Office 365 profiles. The trick was to download a different browser and use that instead of the one their IT office recommended. I wish I had know this eariler since it would have saved me about a week’s worth of time trying to figure things out.

But I can finally run COMSOL on their workstations. My specific tasks for these next couple of weeks would involve simulating different probe shapes and trying to see how the potential of the plates we are measuring is affected. All of this is in 2D for now, and one of the end goals is to be able to simulate this in 3D, which is likely going to be tricky. Nevertheless, figuring this out is the fun part!

Nothing as exciting to report on the personal side of things however. I’m getting ready to move to Houston and go IKEA shopping pretty soon, which I’ve never done before. Hopefully, I can survive that XD

Week 5: Progress, progress, and more progress

Hey y’all!

Finally started making contributions on my project. This week, I set up some COMSOL simulations that involved using a platinum probe across two strips of gold and platinum at different voltages. This was mainly an introduction to using COMSOL, but it gave me a good idea on how to proceed with the rest of the project.

Specifically, the next couple of weeks would involve me using different probe shapes to perform several 2D simulations. Based on the results from these simulations, I will attempt to make a 3D simulation, which is considerably more complicated than the 2D ones but also closest to what we can do experimentally.

Aside from this, I had a fun fourth of July weekend (which is also partly why this blog post is so late). I went on a hike with some friends, and we walked about 8 miles in Huntsvile National Park. Later that day, we met up, grilled some food and had a good old fashioned hangout.

Week 6: (More than) Halfway

Hey y’all!

Welcome to another (late) blog post.

I finally started running long COMSOL simulations that took hours to complete. Thankfully, I was pleased with my results and they were as expected. It would have been a major pain to have to redo some of these longer simulations. Since I am using a NIST workstation, I can just set it up and let it run, while I focus on other important things such as watching YouTube videos about impressive animal crossing designs and baking. On another note, I have a better idea of what my final presentation is going to be like. I will spend next week finalizing the abstract, so that it is ready in time.

Week 7: Begin The End

Hi y’all!

This past week, I had been trying to finalize my research work and figure out exactly everything I need to get done before the end of 10 weeks. My mentors were involved in this process as well. This way, I would not have to deal with any surprises towards the end and I could just focus on getting my final presentation done. There’s still a lot to be done, but as long as I set things up correctly in COMSOL, it should be fairly simple.

In terms of personal changes, I moved to Houston, and I have been setting things up in my new apartment. It is unfurnished, and I have never owned furniture before, so I have a lot of ikea assembly left to do :(

Cheers!

Week 8: Presentation Preparation Process

Hey y’all!

We are almost at the end. This week was spent mostly getting together materials for my presentation, watching the Olympics and begining my final tasks before the end of this internship. I have a pretty solid idea of what I will be talking about and there is still some simulations left to run, but they should be straightforward for the most part.

In other news, I visited another state this weekend. I went to Illinois to visit a friend and this marks the fifth state in the U.S. that I have been to. The weekend was pretty good, and I got to explore a lot of Chicago. It provided a much needed relief from being in Texas the entire summer as well.

Week 9: The End Is Near

Hey y’all :)

Welcome to the second last blog post. This past week has been me trying to catch up on all the deadlines for the presentation and put together all the work I have been doing over the course of the internship. Fortunately, I had been good about having everything organized by week, so it was easy for me to find the materials I need to put together my final presentation. It still needs a lot of work, but I plan to go over it with my mentors during the final week, so it will be polished before Thursday.

In other news, a few of the interns got together for movie night and we decided to watch “The Velocipastor”, which was as ridiculous as the name sounds. I couldn’t stay for the entire duration, but it was a fun movie to watch together. I also visited Atlanta, Georgia to meet up with some friends living there, and this marks the seventh state in the U.S. that I have visited since I first came here in 2017.

Week 10: The End

Hey y’all :)

Welcome to the final blog post. All the interns presented today, and we all did a great job! These past ten weeks have went by quickly, and I am glad I could get to experience this with such an incredible cohort of people. I am thankful to my mentors at NIST, and to everyone at SPS and AIP that put together this internship.

I have learned a lot from my internship experience, and I hope to apply everything I learned in my career. I am sad that this is over so soon, but I am excited for the future. I should start grad school in one week, so this gives me a little break between the end of this internship and the start of that, where I can just relax.