Daniil Ivannikov, 2023 NIST Research Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Florida Polytechnic University

Who I am:
• Junior Student in Engineering Physics degree at Florida Polytechnic University.
• Aspiring Researcher. Currently I am training to become proficient in scientific process (creating and publishing meaningful scientific work).
• Participant in Summer 2023 SPS Internship Programs as a NIST intern.

My Goals:
• To improve my research skills and understanding in Natural Sciences, especially in disciplines that pertain to Physics.
• To further my understanding of the value of scientific process and its impact on society.
• To observe and learn more about leadership in science (and outside of it).

Internship

Host: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Project

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are a class of nanomaterials that consist of a single- or few-layers of atoms and possess exceptional physical and chemical properties. Such unique properties of 2D materials made them a focal point of research with the goal to use them in production of electronic and nano-electronic devices such as transistors, sensors of various applications, electrodes, etc. There are several ways to make 2D materials, and one of the easiest and widely used research methods is the Mechanical Exfoliation, also known as the Scotch Tape method, where flakes of various size and thickness are randomly split from bulk materials and transferred to a chosen substrate using adhesive tape. Before flakes can be further utilized, they need to be identified on the substrate and that process is usually done manually using optical microscopy as a starting tool and other lower-throughput methods for more reliable final identification. Manual search and identification of flakes is a time consuming and involved process that requires expertise to be done efficiently. Furthermore, it gets less effective the smaller the flakes. There have been efforts to automate flake search and characterization using machine learning (ML) [1,2]. There are examples of ML algorithms that are extremely accurate in identifying flakes. However, ML has some drawbacks that prevent it from being a widely applied tool for 2D materials flakes, especially for new material types or new transfer methods: lack of training data for the model, variable samples/substrates, high requirement for computing power or time. Proposed solution to the efficient recognition and sorting of 2D material supported by the automation is to use a general non-ML algorithm that relies on some user input and general visual properties of 2D material flakes such as transparency and color difference between single and multiple layers of material to identify and possibly characterize flakes with minimum computing power/time required.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1 Blog

Blogpost content:

• Things I did during week one.
• Impressions I have after week one.
• Anticipations I have after week one.

Things I did during week one.

• I arrived in Washington D.C. and sat in my dorm room, stocked up on food and figured out a reliable way to get drinking water.

• After acquainting myself with others SPS Summer interns we all undergone an Intern Orientation that has informed us about the origin, goals, and outcomes of the Internship program. After orientation the structure and organization of the Internship program became clearer to me, as the differences in functions of the interns depend on their placement institution.

• I have visited several notable places in D.C. metropolitan:

Smithsonian National Zoological Park:

Very well-developed zoo has a great variety of species, moreover situation of animals and level of development of their habitats suggests that great care and thought have been placed in care for the animals making them not just attraction to the public, but rather an effort to study and preserve these species. Free entrance was greatly appreciated by me.

Famous National Monuments of D.C.:

Monuments visited: George Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, National World War 2 Memorial, Watergate Steps.

I cannot say much about monuments, due to my limited knowledge (and therefore, appreciation) of history they monumentalize. However, they seem to serve as a splendid spot for group gathering.

• I have visited my internship placement site, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST):

NIST is the most advanced scientific facility I have seen so far, Labs, equipment, and personnel seem to be concentrated on professional conductance of scientific labor. I cannot make any further judgment due to my lack of experience.

• I have been introduced to the project I am going to work on:

Project goal and my working conditions seem to be clear. No issues have been encountered, so far.

Impressions I have after week one.

• D.C. is somewhat different in terms of transportation and prices of food.
• Students who have been placed in this internship program are people of different backgrounds and constitutions of mind and character, I probably can learn something from interacting with them.
• Being in such a densely populated environment is somewhat unusual and at times strenuous.
• My project, while being well defined, requires skills and experience I do not possess (now, at least). This may pose a challenge in producing scientifically relevant results.

Anticipations I have after week one.

• I believe my project will pose a challenge to me and may not bring a publication even if I am successful in accomplishing it.

The End of Week one blogpost.

Week 2 blog

Blogpost content:

¨ Things I did during week two.

¨ Impressions I have after week two.

¨ Anticipations I have after week two.

Things I did this week:

Participated in Wikipedia Editing event.

I enjoyed the event. I have gained skill of Wikipedia article editing and understood how time consuming it is.

Visited a ballet performance for the first time.

The performance was good, I certainly can commend dancers’ choreography and toes strength. However, I do not have understanding or deep appreciation for this artform.

Visited National Museum of American History

Extremely interesting place and has a vast number of things from pop culture to transportation throughout the history of US. The ground floor has an entire hall dedicated to various inventions (engines, turbines, boilers, etc.) along with complete history of lightbulb invention and development.

Visited National Museum of Asian Art

I visited only a small part of the museum, but I had a chance to see some beautiful ornaments in Japanese section, Egypt section contains copious amount of small glass amulets (I think about all Egypt deities were there), and Islamic section had some Syrian glass (always wanted to see some of these glass works).

Impressions I have after week two:

The big part of this week was smoke from wildfires in Canada ascending on DC, on Wednesday first signs of smoke were visually identifiable (fog over long distance view), and on Thursday air quality had dipped to Extremely Unhealthy (purple). Fortunately, air is no longer Extremely Unhealthy, but still of Poor quality, from Tuesday I still see fog when I look on distanced objects. It is depressing to see that this situation might become a new normal in the near future.

Seeing that DC has a fair amount of homeless people has surprized me, I guess it is normal for here, however I had different expectations for the capital of US (DC so far seemed fairly progressive up until this point).

I had some productive talking about my projects with other NIST employees on department (laboratory? division?) wide coffee hour. I am glad coffee hour exists; it is a good way to get to know your colleagues.

Anticipations I have after week two:

There are few interesting SPS sponsored events coming up, as well as intern organized outings and events.

Week 3 Blog

Blogpost content:

¨ Things I did during week three.

¨ Impressions I have after week three.

¨ Anticipations I have after week three.

Things I did during week three:

Week three was less heavy on museums.

I have visited an SPS dinner, attended by current SPS interns, some previous SPS interns, and current executive committee. The dinner was very informative, everyone was willing to share their experience and knowledge. It was a nice slightly-formal event.

I have visited the performance of NOI orchestra. This was the first time for me to attend an orchestra performance and see how it functions up close. It is truly a complicated process, multiple instruments and even more people are playing, mechanics of the performance were complicated and beautiful. That was a good experience, and I am glad I went, however listening to orchestra is not my preferred way of enjoying the music.

Impressions I have after week three:

This week was not as eventful (by number of events) but it was still good and enjoyable.

It is weird to realize, but the thing I enjoyed the most attending the concert performance is the actual location. At the back of the concert hall there was a little grass alley and further there was a bamboo forest (I really love bamboo), I even saw a family of foxes running around. It was a great experience in addition to the concert.

There was some progress to my NIST project and maybe it even came out successful.

Anticipations I have after week three:

I do want to visit more museums next week.

Week 4 blog

Blogpost content:

¨ Things I did during week four.

¨ Impressions I have after week four.

¨ Anticipations I have after week four.

Things I did during week four:

Juneteenth SPS student’s potluck - together with other SPS interns we have organized a themed potluck. The theme was Italian. Every one of the interns brought some food or drink for the table. There was lots of food, various pastas, salads, and a variety of desserts. I brought a hastily improvised lasagna, pepperoni pizza, and an unrefined version of caprese salad.

Astronomy at the mall – on Saturday all available SPS interns were tasked with attending an outreach event, The Astronomy Festival on the National Mall (it was hosted in Arts and Industries Building because of rain chance). The event itself was a very interesting gathering of multiple institutions and several universities were presenting something. The sheer variety of exhibits and enthusiasm of people were electric.

Natural History Museum after hours– afterthe Astronomy at the mall some of us attended a late-night exhibitions at Smithsonian Natural History Museum. This was my second time in this museum. I visited several others exhibits and a new temporary one about cell phones. Unfortunately, minerals section was packed beyond any reason and I have had no chance of enjoying it.

Impressions I have after week four:

Overall week four was pretty eventful, I really enjoyed all the activities I had. One of the most memorable things was the Astronomy at the Mall, specifically the difference in people level of science knowledge and backgrounds: one person asked me to explain how solar system is structures and where space is with relationship to earth atmosphere, and another person not only had knowledge to correct me on the demo, but also told me some interesting things about NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and how they are connected to astronomy. That was a very pleasant experience.

Anticipations I have after week four:

I have been wanting to find some hiking trail near DC for several weeks now. During week 5 I am planning to zero in on the trail and go for a hike on a weekend.

Week 5 blog

Blogpost content:

¨ Things I did during week five.

¨ Impressions I have after week five.

¨ Anticipations I have after week five.

Things I did during week five:

Astronomy on Tap – was an interesting event, there were three talks on different topics about astronomy: sun and its magnetic field phenomena, exoplanet search, theoretical research of black holes. All talks were very interesting; however, the black holes talk was the most interesting to me, it was new to me to hear a purely theoretical physics work.

Capitol tour – I got a chance to visit the US Capitol building, the tour was given by one of the SPS interns, Ruthie Vogel. The tour was great, the building contains a lot of historical significance, certainly contains lots of statues (I did not imagine that there will be That many statues).

Great Falls Park visit – this week I visited a national park near DC for the first time. The park was great, green, rocky, not too crowded. Great option to retreat after a week in populated city. I am thinking of going on different trails every week for the rest of my time here.

Impressions I have after week five:

To do theoretical physics one must sacrifice their sanity (potentially twice, as per account of actual theoretical physicist). It would be interesting to understand exactly how much sanity is sacrificed.

It seems that smoke in DC will be a regular occurrence, I am considering getting a proper respirator.

Anticipations I have after week five:

I am really looking forward to continuing my national park venture next weekend.

Week 6 blog

Blogpost content:

¨ Things I did during week six.

¨ Impressions I have after week six.

¨ Anticipations I have after week six.

Things I did during week six:

Baseball Game – on Monday SPS provided everyone with a ticket for a Washington Nationals baseball game (I honestly have no clue who they were playing against). I have never seen a baseball game before (nor do I know rules precisely) so the experience was quite unusual for me, but it was enjoyable.

Science Trust Project – On Thursday SPS interns gathered at ACP for a Science Trust Project seminar. So, as I understood it is an APS project to combat misinformation in science overall. This specific seminar was directed on conversation techniques, specifically highlighting reflective listening technique. I picked up several important ques that I can use during conversations.

Hiking at Harpers Ferry National Park – the highlight of the week, on Sunday I visited a Harpers Ferry National Park. A beautiful park on the Potomac River near historical Civil War town of Harpers Ferry (industrial center at the time) that now is a museum of Civil War time. The main attraction of the park for me was its hiking trails, I hiked the Stone Fort trail that goes through the ruins of Civil War fort. The views were spellbinding, especially given the fact that I went through the trail during a rain as clouds covered the mountain. That was a divine experience.

Impressions I have after week six:

From a baseball game I kind of got the impression that majority of people go to the stadium as a social event (for music, food, entertainment, etc.) rather than to see the athletic performance itself. While I liked that new experience, I do not think that I will frequent stadium visits (no matter the purpose). I still need to see an American Football match thou.

Science Trust Project seem to be a good initiative, especially in today world where false information and facts are so plentiful that it is almost impossible to eliminate the sources of it. I do plan to attend other seminars on the project.

At this point hiking trip is a weekly thing. Next weekend I plan to visit a bigger park in Virginia. Park has harder trails, and I will probably need a pair of dedicated hiking boots, which means painful week of breaking in a pair of new boots...

Anticipations I have after week six:

My project is almost over so I need to concentrate on wrapping it up and preparing for the presentation. I can not declare it a success yet, but it will at least partially fulfill its purpose.

Week 7 blog

Blogpost content:

¨ Things I did during week seventh.

¨ Impressions I have after week seventh.

¨ Anticipations I have after week seventh.

Things I did during week seventh.

Second SPS Interns Potluck – On Thursday we had a second potluck (it has been delayed for couple of weeks). This potluck theme was food with what you grew up, so everyone brought some interesting dishes. All dishes at the potluck were great. I brought some pierogies (honestly, I wanted to make some for myself for a long time).

Shenandoah National Park (Whiteoak Canal trail) – On Sunday, as per my new weekly tradition, I visited another National Park. This time I went on a trail in Shenandoah Park. Whiteoak Canal trail has several great waterfalls, and I was planning to see them all (there are 7 of them according to the map). Unfortunately, 6 out of 7 waterfalls were in a hard section of the trail and I did not have enough time to finish the trail. However, the one waterfall I saw was beautiful.

Impressions I have after week seventh.

Week 7 was a regular week with some events and some project work, nothing special. Overall a regular week.

Anticipations I have after week seventh.

I am facing some crunches on the project, so next week is going to be a bit charged, but I think that I issues can be resolved timely.

Week 8 blog

Old Rag Mountain

This week was relatively scars in number of vibrant experiences, therefore I decided to diverge from my usual format (list of experiences) and try something different.

During Sunday of week 8 I visited Shenandoah National Park and hiked an Old Rag Circuit trail, a trail about 9.4 miles long and elevation of 2400 feet, it took me 8.5 hours to complete. That was the most difficult trail I had a chance to visit so far.

The trail started with a gradual ascension, some rocks, some roots, but overall, an easy terrain. Further, the trail started going steeper uphill, until it reached the first lookout. Lookout was the first place where I could see other mountains and valleys around the Old Rag, the views were beautiful. When I reached the outlook, I thought: “Huh, is that it? The summit? Well, that was easy!”, little did I know that that was the start of the most difficult and long part of the trail: the rock scrambling. I read a bit about rock scrambling before preparing, but what I saw on the trail was far beyond my expectations. I needed to use all my hands, feet, elbows, knees, and hips that I had just to barely make it on some rocks, upper buddy strength required for this trail was greater than my own. In a couple places I needed to jump across the bridge between two boulders (a task beyond my current skills and confidence), those were the points where I almost turned back. Honestly, I was scarred quite a bit doing the rock scrambling, the chance to injure myself (or fall of the mountain and subsequently become permanently disabled or die) was never so real to me. But I am sure I remember things more dramatically than they were. After the rock scrambling part, I have finally reached the actual summit (it was marked as such, so I am sure it was actual summit), I saw eagles fly underneath me, the raining cloud, all the mountains in the view were lower than me (or so seemed), that was a breathtaking feeling. With that the hardest part of the trail was over, or so I thought. Due to my insufficient experience, I made another mistake: not taking enough water (usually people take 3-4 liters for this hike, I had only 2). When I descended the mountain, I was completely out, I had no filter (river water may not be suitable for drinking, especially without boiling), nor there were any places I could refill, furthermore I had about 3–4-mile hike back to my car. Fortunately, the terrain was mostly flat, but I was exhausted, and the lack of water was very uncomfortable and was slowing me down. While I am almost 100% certain that I would made it safely to my car without getting severely dehydrated, I came across some people who were refilling their wetter in the river nearby (they did have filters) and they were generous enough to give me some water. With the water refilled the rest of the trail was not especially hard. After I got back home, I experienced possibly the most satisfying part of the trip: getting in my bed. I definitely overexerted myself, but I had the best time.

Week 9 blog

Week 9 blog

I did not plan many things for weeks 9 and 10 and for good reason, I am spending most of my time finishing my project work, preparing presentation slides, and getting ready to present.

However busy I am now; I would be disappointed if I did not have my last hiking outing. Yet again I returned to Shenandoah national park and went through the Cedar Run trail, which encompassed all the waterfalls I missed when I hiked Whiteoak canal trail. The trail was hard (though not as hard as Old Rag) and very scenic.

It is, unfortunately, all I can say about week 8. I hope we all will finish this internship strong.

Final Blog

Final week blog

And so, it has ended. My summer came to an end, and it is time to put my concluding words on to digital paper.

It was a great experience; I had the chance to meet a lot of great people and visit some exciting places.

Work:

My placement was at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). I was given a project of creating an algorithm to detect and characterize two-dimensional materials. Coding has never been my strong side and I spend some time just trying to understand the problem I needed to solve. During the project progression there was multitude of things new to me and I needed to learn to apply them as fast as I could. Sometimes it was a time crunch, sometimes it was fairly easy, and sometimes I was not sure I would be able to crack the problem at hand. At the end I was able to complete the project and I am happy about it.

Non-work:

While I think one of more important aspects of the internship is the work I has done, I will be lying if I say that I lacked non-work experience during my internship. DC is a beautiful city; old buildings, lots of greens, and it is walkable! I loved it. Apart from the architecture and scenery DC has an opulence of various events going on from exotic music and art to public science lectures, everyone will find something they like. Together with other interns I enjoyed several social events during the internship. I wish I could visit DC during spring and witness cherry blossoms and visit Sakura Matsuri festival. However, I found something even better, apparently there are a LOT of national parks around DC, and since I live in Florida, where landscape consists mostly of beaches, flatlands, and swamps, I was very excited to go in an actual forests and mountains. I have made several outings to various parks (described in previous blogs) and had a time of my life enjoying nature and solitude.

Conclusion:

This was a very interesting and intense experience, I learned something about myself and acquainted with some great people, I had the time of my life.

P.S.

I want to thank entirety of Society of Physics Students and American Institute of Physics for organizing this wonderful experience, I can not adequately put in writing how big of a deal this internship was to me and how I am grateful to you all for it.

The End.