Eva Rissanen, 2023 NIST Research Intern

Biography

SPS Chapter: Appalachian State University

I am currently a sophomore attending Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. My major is Physics with a concentration in Astronomy. I am a member of our school’s PandA Club, which is how I learned about SPS. I have also recently been appointed as an officer of our PandA Club chapter. Since the start of Freshman year, I have worked in the Physics Department. I help out with setting up general physics labs, and I grade assignments for other physics classes. Currently, I’m interested in studying space, but optics and circuits are also very interesting to me! I plan on attending graduate school in physics once I graduate with my Bachelor’s degree.

Before applying to college, I was torn between majoring in Chemistry or Physics, but my high school physics teacher showed me how awesome physics could be, and how physics is involved in pretty much everything we see and do. I particularly love how it combines math and science. I love both subjects and I will likely minor in Math. Since starting school at App State, I’ve fallen in love with physics and I’m really excited to learn even more about it during my time as a NIST Intern this upcoming summer.

Outside of school, I love to read, cook, exercise, and spend time with my friends!

Internship

Host: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Project

Abstract

Measuring a small-scale capacitor from the bottom of a cryostat with a large parasitic capacitance can prove to be tricky! Most electronics are designed to function at temperatures ranging from 280 to 300 Kelvin, so it is essential, as science looks to space, to know how the physical properties and functions of circuits change once subjected to cryogenic temperatures. A small circuit chip containing several capacitors in the pico-farad to nano-farad scale was developed for this project. The voltage drop of each capacitor was measured using a time and frequency domain at room temperature, then again at a temperature of 4 Kelvin. Results concluded that the capacitance decreases in cryogenic environments. By quantifying the changes in many minuscule capacitors from warm to very cold, this project will help future endeavors in building larger scale cryoelectronics.

Final Presentation

Internship Blog

Week 1: Settling In

This week was probably one of the most eventful weeks I’ve had in a while.

Moving in on Sunday was a lot less difficult than I would have imagined- I just dropped off my (probably overweight) bags and flew right to DC.

After the most stressful taxi ride of my life, (I’ve learned that DC drivers drive like maniacs compared to NC drivers) I made it to campus, where I got checked in. After that I finally made it to my room and I met my roommate! We eventually found our way to Walmart to do some shopping later that day.

Monday was less eventful, since it was Memorial Day there wasn’t any work. I ended up puttering around and shopping for more dorm essentials. Later in the night all of the interns went to dinner, then hung out in me and my roommates dorm, where we played card games and got to know each other a little more!

Tuesday was orientation day! All of us interns got dressed up and commuted together to the American Center for Physics (or ACP for short), where we had our orientation and professional headshots taken of us. The orientation was very informative, and I can’t stress enough how great it was to finally meet the people we had been emailing back and forth with since April! I left the ACP with new knowledge, new connections, and many, many new stickers.

Wednesday was (I think) our first official day of working! I got to find my way to NIST campus, which I (sadly) discovered was an hour and 15 minute commute from where I’m living. 95% of the commute is just me sitting on the metro, so it could be worse :). I met some incredibly nice employees who showed me around, and I got to see my workspace! Also, apparently there are deer on the campus. I saw two or three of them in broad daylight! In NC, I rarely see deer, let alone in the daytime!

Later that night a bunch of us went to the Washington mall to play spikeball, talk, and watch the sunset. I also bought a matcha latte with boba from an ice cream food truck, it was absolutely delicious.

Thursday was more or less the same as Wednesday. The majority of my day consisted of traveling to NIST, working through some technical difficulties on my laptop, then attempting to pick up my badge, and commuting back! I also went to a craft store with my roommate, and then Chipotle! :) It was super fun taking the metro, we passed by the Ronald Reagan Airport, and the view was beautiful. I wish I had taken a picture, the sun was setting so everything was bright and orange.

I went back to NIST on Friday as well, to pick up my badge. I’d been visiting NIST since Wednesday to (hopefully) get my badge, and luck was on my side on Friday! From there I worked at my desk and finished training so I can hit the ground running next week! Unfortunately my mentor had to be out of town this week, which only makes me more excited to get to work this upcoming week!

Towards the evening, a few of us went to the Union Market, where we got dinner. I had a salmon burger (best thing I’ve eaten in a while) with curly fries and a matcha latte! (I don’t think I’ll ever find a matcha latte I don’t like, this one was also delicious)

My Saturday was pretty relaxing. It was really great to sleep in after waking up early during the week, and later that night the interns gathered to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, which was as good as I remembered it to be the last time I saw it! A few other interns and myself went to get crepes after that, it was the perfect late night snack. Be warned; if you go to Crepeaway and order the Pani, they will absolutely load your crepe with powdered sugar. It was yummy though, so no regrets.

So, again, a pretty eventful week. I’m super happy to have had the opportunity to spend time with the other interns doing fun stuff in a fun city, and I’m really looking forward to all that is to come in these next few weeks!

Week 2: Fail Until You Fail To Fail

This week, I did indeed hit the ground running.

I successfully woke up at 7am and was out the door by 7:45. I traveled to work, met my mentor for the first time in person (exciting!!!) and then did some alone work which just consisted of me messing around with basic circuits. Then with the help of my mentor, ran an online simulation of the circuits I had drawn up and compared current, voltages, etc. with the math behind it to make sure the results were what we expected. I had my lunch break, then back to more experimenting with stuff I was unfamiliar with. I learnt about what the term “phase angle” actually means (before anyone asks, up to this point I’ve really only taken the general physics courses at school). Then my mentor took me on a tour to see the labs! I’m not sure how much I am allowed to talk about them, but let’s just say that my mind was blown. After work, I went to the mall later with the other interns and had another matcha tea from the same ice cream truck last week! (It wasn’t good at all this time I’m not sure what happened) then I chilled for the rest of my night!

On Tuesday I woke up, went to work, worked with a few circuits on the simulator then visited the labs again. I replaced a battery in a multimeter (which, surprisingly I have never done before, considering I worked in lab set up back at Appalachian State), and I went to a couple of meetings. The last meeting I went to was a group meeting where a couple of group members talked about their research and experimentation. I, to be quite frank, had no idea what anybody was talking about the entire time. Even so, I really enjoyed just being there. In a way, it showed me where I’m at in terms of physics knowledge, and how much work I’m really going to have to put in to get to these people’s level. Normally, I’d be really intimidated, but at the end of the day these physicists have many years of experience compared to me, and my excitement to (hopefully) be like them one day overpowers that intimidated feeling. I was super tired by the end of the day, but made it back to the dorms and relaxed for the rest of the night.

On Wednesday, I woke up late (sadly, I’ve discovered I cannot fix my awful sleep schedule in two days), made it to work at a reasonable time, checked some emails and then went down to the lab and experimented with an SMU (source measurement unit). Basically, I made a series circuit with two resistors and a capacitor and was able to convert data points into an I-V (Current vs. Voltage) graph with a linear curve fit and the Siemen (inverse Ohm) as the slope. Then I had lunch, and came back and messed around with that stuff for a bit more. Also, my mentor jumpscared the life out of me. I’m not sure when he appeared but I was listening to music while working (probably at a louder volume than I should have had it at) and when I turned my head he was just standing there silently. LOL. With his help, we wired a circuit connecting a waveform generator (a power source with a set frequency) to an oscilloscope and in the circuit there was a resistor then a capacitor. The oscilloscope showed the discharge of the capacitor! I also went with my mentor to a coffee and donuts event hosted by NIST, where I talked with him and his boss! Turns out his boss also lived in Boone (where Appalachian State is) for a few months!

On Thursday, my mentor was pretty tied up with actual work stuff, so I ran a few simulated circuits on my own in the morning. Later that day, my mentor taught me how to compare real data with the simulated data by uploading both data sets into the same graph. I also finally learned how to solder!! I definitely need more practice, but it was so fun doing hands-on stuff like that. Doing hands-on work is how I learn the best. I also took a few different data sets from different circuits, which honestly took a bit of time to figure out since I was using the oscilloscope to “read” the charge and then went back home!

I tele-worked from home on Friday since my mentor was also tele-working. At midnight, me and a couple other interns went to see a movie called “Rocky Horror Picture Show”. It was so much fun! They played the movie, but the twist was that the stage crew also re-enacted the movie in the front, in more of a sarcastic/comedic way. They also had first timers go to the front and do different activites. It was a super interactive movie, where the audience members yell and make jokes about the characters. Very different from your average movie theater trip, and it was such a fun experience!

I slept in on Saturday!! With no early alarms to wake me up!! Traveling to NIST and needing to be there by 9:30am means I need to wake up verrrrry early, so it was good to wake up (much) later than I normally have to. Then me and a bunch of the other interns went to the pride parade!! Again, a super cool experience! My roommate put glitter on my face and in my hair, it looked so pretty. I’m going to upload a picture of it below, but I beg of you, please ignore the single strand of hair that I parted to the wrong side of my head. Everybody walking in the parade really went all out and honestly, so did the crowd members. Everybody looked so beautiful, and it was so nice to see all of these people band together and celebrate pride!

All in all, this week went smoother than I expected! I’ve developed a good schedule to stick by, and work has been really fun. I’ve already learned so much this week and I haven’t even really started on any official experiments! I’m a little scared to start research, but something my mentor said helped me feel a lot better about my inexperience. He told me: “The point of this is to fail and fail and fail and fail until you fail to fail.” It reminds me that everybody has to start somewhere, and it’s totally okay to break things (not purposefully of course) and fail! Everybody’s been there! So every time I get nervous that I might be doing something wrong, or there’s something I don’t know, I tell myself that it’s okay if I’m wrong. It’s a learning experience, it’s okay to not know everything. The whole point of me being there is to learn, and you bet I will be taking advantage of that in these next few weeks!

Week Three! (Can’t think of a creative title)

This is the rundown of my third week in DC!

On Monday I struggled to wake up, but made it to work on time-ish. Work was fine, I mostly practiced using this graphing software called Origin. There’s a lot you can do on that program, so it took some time getting used to.

After I did that, I also made some simple circuits (measuring capacitance once again) using a waveform generator and an oscilloscope, then scaling it so it looked nice on the display screen :)

After work I just went home and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Tuesday was pretty average, just went to work and then also went to Trader Joe’s to get some groceries. I think I just chilled the rest of that night, since the walk to the store (and back, for that matter) kinda took the energy outta me.

Wednesday was a lot more eventful! At work, I made circuits once again, but instead of using the capacitors I usually do, I used capacitors that are connected to some complicated machine that I don’t really know how to explain that was connected to a break out box (or BOB). With the help of my mentor, I made a plan to measure the capacitance of these capacitors in room temperature and then, with the machine thing, in cryogenic temperature (4 Kelvin) and measure the difference! I was told that I am probably gonna have to present my findings next Wednesday, so hopefully everything goes according to plan and I have data to present!

After work, me and a few other interns went to a reggae concert that was basically on a boat dock!! I don’t usually listen to reggae, but I love live music, not to mention it was free to go see. We stopped by Shake Shack after that, and I got a root beer float!! Haven’t had one of those in a while, and it was really yummy.

Thursday was also really eventful! At work, I started on the first part of my plan. I spent pretty much the whole time saving data sets of discharging capacitors at different resistances. There’s 10 capacitors in the chip thingie- and I used 4 different resistors for each of them, so believe me when I say it took me quite a long while to collect all of the data I needed.

After work though, all of us interns went to a super fun networking/dinner event hosted by SPS! The food was great. They had these chips called “PC Chips” and they were chocolate chip cookies with plain potato chips sprinkled on top. They were surprisingly good so I brought like four more of them home with me. I also got to talk to a lot of new people! A lot of them have very different and equally interesting jobs involving physics. It’s so interesting to me how you can really go anywhere you want with physics!

Friday was so tiring for some reason. I think I was just looking forward to the end of the week. I feel like I haven’t done that much compared to previous weeks, yet I’m so exhausted!! “Exhausted” in a good way though, I think this is the most active (socially, physically, work-wise.. etc) I’ve been in a looooong time. I’m really glad we are writing these journals, because I for sure would not be able to keep track of what I’ve been doing otherwise. Anyways, I went to work as per usual, then went home and a few of us interns went to a boba place!!! Guys, when I say this is the best boba I’ve had here I mean it. There’s a really good boba place in North Carolina called Milklab, where I was a regular customer. I looooove their matcha latte, and so obviously I ordered that same thing in DC. It tasted exactly like how Milklab makes their matcha latte. I will definitely be going back!

Soooo I woke up at 1pm on Saturday (I told y’all I was tired) and I made myself the delicious meal of bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon. Then got ready and went to the NOIF Orchestra concert! We had some yummy pizza and got to meet with and talk to the director of the program and a couple of the performers! Tbh, I was a little scared I’d find the program boring, since the last time I went to an orchestra I was almost falling asleep, BUT every song they played was beautiful, I got goosebumps at least 70 times throughout the whole thing. Needless to say I will definitely be going to more of those.

Yet again a super fun week! I’m really happy to be able to experience such cool events here in DC. There is so much stuff to go do and go see, and I can’t wait to see where next week takes me!

Week 4!

Hey guys! Here’s the rundown of my fourth week in DC. I will preface this by saying I didn’t really do a ton of stuff outside of work, but it was a pretty eventful week nontheless.

Monday- We had an off day!!! I got some muuuch needed rest and later in the night the interns had an italian themed potluck!! Everybody really went all out- there was homemade pizza, salad, and sooo many different kinds of pasta. I kinda felt bad for just bringing frozen desserts but overall it was a huge success and I had a great time!

Tuesday- I went to work as per usual, and unfortunately I had to retake all of my data from last week because for some reason the cryocooler only cooled to 13 Kelvin when I needed it to be at 4 Kelvin. This week we successfully cooled the capacitors down to 4K, so I spent most of my time doing that. Then, I went home and worked on my presentation for Wednesday!

Wednesday- Today at work we had a group meeting where my mentors group presented their research progress! Including me! I was a bit nervous because my data could have looked a lot better- there was a lot of visual noise in my graphed data which I wasn’t too happy about. But, I presented and I was able to answer the questions asked (which is the most nerve wracking thing for me)! After that I went and began retaking the room temperature data again, my mentor was able to reduce the noise a lot so I figured it was a good opportunity to get better data. I started on that, then puttered around NIST for the rest of the day.

Thursday was an off campus work day! All of the interns met at the American Center for Physics, where we were blessed with the opportunity to meet and talk to Dr. John Mather!! For those who may not know, Dr. Mather is a Nobel Prize laureate, and he played a big role in studying cosmic background radiation, which in turn proved that the Big Bang actually happened. He’s an incredibly intelligent, super down to earth guy, and getting to meet him is probably the biggest physics flex ever. Definitely telling all of my physics friends when I get home.

Friday was a full work day! I went into NIST at 10am, and left at 4:30ish. I (finally) finished taking the room temperature data and formatted all of the graphs, all that’s left is to analyze the slope and compare the voltage drop in Room temp. vs Cryogenic temp. I think I’ll try and finish that this weekend, since I feel that I’ve spent enough time on this small project anyways, and I want a new challenge to get absorbed into. Before I left work, I started soldering wires to BNC connectors. Next week, I’m going to be helping out a lot with making a new break out box (BOB!), so after I solder the wires to the BNC connectors, I’m also going to have to solder the switch wires to them as well. I foresee a lot of soldering in my future. Later that night, a few of us interns went to see the monuments at night! I will definitely be going again. It’s so different compared to seeing them in the day. I’ll attach some pics I took during our walk.

Saturday, I slept in til 1pm (Don’t ask questions. I like to sleep.) and me and my roommate went to Starbucks! A little after that, the interns had lunch together then it was off to the Smithsonian (the art and industry one I think?) for Astronomy on the Mall! Except, I guess now it’s Astronomy at the Smithsonian. It’s been really rainy this entire week, so the event had to be moved indoors. It’s a little funny because I woke up to clear blue skies, but you never know, it could rain later (it did not rain later). The turnout was awesome!! I worked mostly with the gravity well and gave kids marbles to send flying into oblivion. I swear, we lost like 50 marbles. I also worked at the trivia table, and I was honestly quite impressed with how knowedgeable some people were. They knew answers to some questions that I had no clue what the answer was. I also took some time to tour the other tables, and grabbed some super cool space pictures. Overall, I had a great time, and kudos to Emily (the SOCK intern) for all of her hard work setting our group up to participate!!

So that was my week! I think since its been raining for pretty much the whole week it limited the things we could go out and do, but it’s looking like (mostly) clear skies next week, so I’m looking forward to getting back out there!

Week 5: We’re halfway there!!!

Hi guys! We’re officially halfway through!! These exclamation points may make it seem like I’m happy but actually I’m really confused!! Why is time moving so fast?!! Anyways, here’s the rundown of my week. Disclaimer: I didn’t do much except for work.

Monday I wasn’t feeling super good so I stayed home from work and did some work from home! I desperately wish I had more to add but I really just stayed in all day.

At work on Tuesday I began comparing the data I had collected last week. The data I collected modeled the exponential decay of the capacitor’s voltage drop, and by plotting this data in a graphing software called Origin and by changing the plot from a linear fit to a natural log fit, it changes how the data looks (so from exponential to linear) and I am able to get a linear curve fit! The slope gives me the time constant of the circuit (the time constant varies depending on which resistance I use). I fiddled around with that for a little bit then went home. After I got back, me and my roommate went to good ol’ Trader Joes and got the ingredients necessary to make a nice lil charcuterie board! We invited a few of the other interns over and we all snacked and talked. I had a great time!

At work on Wednesday I started a new, but similar project. This time I am measuring the difference in the voltage drop of 5 or 6 different capacitors in a circuit versus the voltage drop of the circuit itself (no capacitors attached). This is to, once again, help me with taking measurements, but also to help me be able to practice analyzing data. I soldered a few small capacitors to a chip and once again connected it to the cryocooler to find the voltage drop of each capacitor. I also took this data for each capacitor at different resistances as well. I finished all that I could, then went home.

Thursday was a pretty easy work day. I went in to finish the data collection, then once I was done I went home and started doing the graphing stuff I mentioned earlier. Once I find the time constants of both the bare wires of the circuit and then the time constant for the capacitor attached to the circuit, I plot them together for each resistance. With that I will be able to see how much the bare wire contributes to the overall voltage drop of the capacitor since you have to take the parasitic capacitance of the circuit wires into account! I think if I am able to see a difference, I will take the measurements again but at cryogenic temperature. After work, me and my roommate adventured out to the mall where we bought a bunch of goodies. Not to flex or anything, but I bought the Shining Fates pokemon Elite Trainer box for like $30. The retail price on those is about $60!

On Friday I worked from home and at around 1pm went on a tour of Capitol Hill hosted by our AIP Mather Policy intern, Ruthie! The experience was super cool, and I learned a lot of new things! My favorite part was walking into the building called Capitol Rotunda (I think?) that has a ceiling so high you could fit the Statue of Liberty in it! After the tour we stopped by the cafeteria, and can I just say, the dessert bar was insane. They had these little capitol building shaped cakes, and also just a lot of yummy looking cake in general. Anyways, props to Ruthie for setting this up! It was a really great experience!

Saturday I didn’t really do anything again (LOL). In my defense I honestly have not been feeling the greatest. I think it’s the humidity and bad air quality finally getting to me. I slept in which was good, then made a trip to Target and got some much needed groceries. My night was peaceful, I got some PopEyes and read for a while.

Usually I don’t write about my Sundays, just because usually I rot in bed all day. But since I’ve been doing that a looooot this week, I decided to take it upon myself to get up and do something. So, I did some cleaning, ate my leftover Popeyes, ventured out to go get some boba (I immensely regretted doing this, I decided to walk there right after it had rained so I walked like 20 minutes in super humid 90 degree weather) and did some more NIST work.

All in all, not a bad week. I wish I could’ve been out and about more, but it was super hot and humid out, plus bad air quality, which is weather I really don’t deal well with. I’m looking forward to this upcoming week though! There are a few events planned and I’m excited to attend those. Happy early 4th of July!!

Week 6: Zzz...

Get ready for my super epic week of doing absolutely nothing and missing everything and also suffering immensely!!!

It all started ~Saturday-ish of week 5. I developed reeeaaally swollen lymph nodes in my neck, which I thought may be related to the bad air quality we’d been having earlier that week. I figured out that was probably not the case since over the weekend it got worse! Like a lot worse. Like by Monday I was pretty much a walking corpse.

Anyways, so this entire week I’ve been battling this “mystery illness” , which was, in my humble opinion, definitely some kind of strand of strep throat combined into a weird fever. BUT! I tested negative for Covid and for Strep type A, which meant I couldn’t get antibiotics. So, I pretty much had to work with a lot of ibuprofen, tylenol, and mouth gargles, none of which helped. Like, at all. It got to the point where I couldn’t even drink water cuz it literally felt like I was swallowing razors. Super fun and cool!

Anyways! I went to Urgent Care on Monday where they tested me and I was negative and yada yada, then scheduled a teladoc appointment on either Tuesday or Wednesday (I forget), and to my dismay I was prescribed a lidocaine mouth swish that had the consistency of glue and also tasted like it (at least it’s what I imagine glue to taste like). Also I feel like I should mention at this point in time I couldn’t even open my mouth wide enough to cover the areas that hurt so that was super sick and cool (It was not, I’m being extremely sarcastic). So I suffered a little longer, then on Thursday I called again and FINALLY!!! got antibiotics. And let me just tell you guys, I woke up the next day feeling like a new woman. Like, I was still a bit sore, but by god I could drink water and eat things again.

And now it’s Saturday! As I’m writing this I can now say that for other than some mildly tender and swollen lymph nodes, I finally feel like myself again. I went to Starbucks this morning, grabbed a super yum cup of coffee, went to Ulta and Target (I wore a mask of course, can’t ever be too careful) and now I’m about to go to a cool bookstore/restaurant/bar called Kramers with a few other interns! I know I should be taking it easy-ish, but I’ve spent my entire week in bed, and half of that time probably sleeping, so ya girl has some energy to spend.

Now it’s Sunday! Kramers from yesterday was so much fun. I ordered this suuuuper yum fettuccine alfredo that had spicy sausage, chicken, and shrimp in it. I’m so glad I can eat again because it was probably the best pasta dish I’ve ever had. The manager of the store was also super cool and gave us free dessert! We had some kind of peanut butter cheesecake and a MONSTER slice of chocolate cake. I had some of the chocolate cake, it was delish.

After we ate, we made our way to the bookstore and I got two new books!

Now that we’re caught up, my Sunday has been pretty chill so far. I slept in, did some chores, and played a lot of minecraft! I’m also really excited to get back to work tomorrow. Being bedridden this entire week has definitely gotten to me. I’m super sad that I had to miss the baseball game, the fireworks, and an in-person intern event, but it is what it is. Hopefully the upcoming week will be uhhh... better than this one.

Week 7: Technical Difficulties...

Hi guys! This week was a bit uneventful work-wise, but it was definitely much much better than last week.

On Monday I went into work, my mentor was out of town for the rest of the week so I made a game plan for what I was gonna do while he was gone. (Spoiler alert: my entire weeks plan fell apart). But anyways, I puttered around, took some measurements, worked with plotting them in Origin, you know, the usual. There was a scheduled power outage for Tuesday in the lab I work in, so at the end of the day I had to shut everything off properly.

Tuesday I teleworked, or at least tried to, but Origin decided to not let me use it! Something about the maximum amount of licenses being used, so it would close itself every three minutes. Super cool! (this is me being very sarcastic). Thanks to that I got pretty much no work done!!!! Anyways, later that night me and a couple other interns went to see the sunset on the water by the Kennedy Center. It was beautiful, albeit suuuuper buggy.

On Wednesday, I went into work, and turned everything in the lab back on. Everything turned on EXCEPT for the lab computer that I absolutely need to have working so I can take my measurements. I literally have no idea why it won’t turn back on, I even got one of the veteran employees to come help me and take a look at it, and even he had no idea what was wrong with it, so I had to put in an IT request to fix it. Then, I had to manually write down data points for like 20 different curves, which was incredibly tedious and took me a couple hours to do. After that I called it a day and went home. Later that night, a few interns and myself went to the Wharf! They played funk music and it was a great time.

Thursday I also teleworked, at least tried to. Origin was still not working, and with the computer also not working, I can’t take measurements nor cool down the cryocooler. So there’s little to be done. Later in the night the interns got together and had another potluck! The theme was “Hometown Glory”, so I decided to make this Finnish holiday cookie called Joulutorttu. For it being my second time making them, I think I did a pretty good job!

On Friday I went in to see if there had been any updates, but alas, I learned that the computer wouldn’t be looked at until Tuesday of next week, and Origin STILL wouldn’t work, so I also had to put in an IT request for that as well. It was a short day at NIST since I literally could not complete any of my work, and I won’t lie that was reeeeaaaally disappointing. After work I hung out with some of the interns and then called it a night!

I slept in on Saturday, then later went to H&M and got some super cute clothes! Later that night the interns had a get together and the theme was Barbenheimer (in reference to the Barbie Movie and Oppenheimer) and then I went back to my dorm room and chilled for the rest of the night.

Sunday was a pretty good day! I went to the Georgetown flea market and got to see some really cool vendors! Stuff was pretty expensive so I just bought a ring, but I will definitely be going again. I chilled for a bit after that, played some video games and then later in the afternoon I played my first Dungeons and Dragons game! It was SO fun, and we are meeting again later this week to finish the story. Props to MJ and Emily for setting it up, the story is SO elaborate and overall just amazing.

So that was my week! I’m really hoping that this week I can get some work done and the tech issues I’ve been having can get resolved.

Week 8: Getting Stuff Done!

I cannot believe we only have two more weeks left in the internship. Like, srsly, where has the time gone? Anyways, here’s what I did for my 8th week!

On Monday I went to work, met with my mentor and discussed the computer issues. He also didn’t know what was wrong with it, so we had to wait til Tuesday for IT to come look at it. In the meantime, I started working on my abstract, I think I’ve made a decent start but definitely needs some work. Later on I started putting the pieces for the BOB together, which consisted of soldering a LOT of BNC connectors and switch wires.

After work, I had the most fun night ever! Me and a few other interns went to a cabaret night hosted at an Italian restaurant, and they had a pianist that could play literally any sheet music you gave him, and I got to hear so so so many lovely voices sing beautiful songs!! Most of the interns went up and sang something (props to them, I get too nervous in front of a crowd) and they all did SOSOSOSOSOOO good!!! I also ate the BEST risotto ever. Like that dish was heavenly. Would 100% recommend, so if you ever go to Rosemarino D’Italia, order the sausage and spinach risotto. Absolutely delicious.

After that, we went and got ice cream! It was also suuuuper yummy. I got the mud pie flavor in a waffle cone. I called it a night after that.

On Tuesday the computer was FINALLY FIXED!! I got to finally take the measurements I needed for my project! Did that which took most of the day, then worked with graphing it and then called it a day. I got home, then me and my roommate hosted a movie night with the other interns! We ended up watching Magic Mike XXL, which I’ll admit- I really enjoyed. I’ve never seen a Magic Mike movie before that!

I pretty much spent the whole day at work on Wednesday doing the analysis part of my project. I got everything plotted, but by the time I finished that I noticed that my capacitor values were weird so I saved that problem for Thursday cuz at that point it was pretty much almost time to go home. After I got home I pretty much just chilled for the rest of the night. Not gonna lie, I was EXHAUSTED, so sorry I don’t have more to add to this!

Thursday I figured out the issue from Wednesday with the help of my mentor and it was actually a reason so stupid (in my opinion) that I am not gonna share it with you guys! :) That’s the learning process for you I guess. It’s a bit frustrating since my errors are really hindering the progress of the project, but I know I’ll get there eventually. I also worked on my abstract, I think it’s coming together little by little. This is actually the first abstract I’ve ever written! I really am doing new stuff every day, and even though sometimes it’s small things, I’m still really grateful that I even get the opportunity to!

On Friday work was sooo much better than it had been this past week. I finally have real solid measurements and am almost done with analyzing them! That’s pretty much all I did today at work, there was a looooot to go though. Nonetheless, I’m almost there!! I can’t believe next week is pretty much going to be my last week of going to NIST. Time went by so fast!

On Saturday I woke up much later than I would like to admit, and sort of just puttered around. I ordered sushi and they gave me so. much. sushi. And it was so good as well. Later that night I hung out with a few of the interns and then called it a night!

Sunday was also pretty chill! I woke up at 11am (earlier than usual!!) and just did some cleaning up around the dorm. I got my stuff ready for work and also worked on my abstract, which I’m almost done with!!

Overall I’d say it was a really good week! I’m getting closer and closer to having all of the information I need to have all of my presentation materials, and I think my plan for next week is to focus on finishing that up and starting on the final presentation. Looking forward to what next week has in store for me!

Week 9! Yay!

I’m sitting here writing this and I still can’t believe we’re so close to the end of this internship!! Here’s how my ninth week in DC went!

I haven’t really done much this week except for work. Monday thru Thursday was pretty much just me working on my presentation draft, and also still working on the analysis part of my results. Not much to add there, sorry guys!! I think my presentation is really coming together though, and I’m excited for when I do finish it!! Sorry I don’t have more to add... when I get home from work I’m just too tired to get up and do anything. Also, it’s been WAY too hot this week. I’m pretty sure there was an extreme heat warning, so being outside is just not pleasant at the moment.

Friday was pretty fun! We had a tour for the other interns at NIST! I had to leave after lunch, but before that I got to see some really cool labs! The first lab we saw had machines that could 3D print METAL parts! The next one we saw was fluid dynamics, and we got to see some really cool demos, one that showed the heat emission from your hands and then a video that showed how gun powder residue moves around after a bullet is shot! The third lab I saw was the 1 million pound dead weight machine!! This thing had several giant plates of metal, each weighing about 50,000 pounds. The scale of it was absolutely insane. I went back to work after that, then later that night hung out with some of the interns after and played Quiplash :)

Saturday was also super fun!! Me and the other interns Julia and Ruthie went to Adams Morgan- and to our surprise they had a block party! Unfortunately, a crazy storm rolled in and kind of ruined it, there were winds up to 80 mph and it was POURING rain for like 45 minutes. Before that, we got pizza, went to a bookstore and vintage clothes shop, and after the rain subsided we puttered around and looked at a few different shops. After all of that walking I decided to call it a day and just chilled for the rest of the night.

Sunday was also pretty eventful, me and Julia went to Potomac Yard, and went to Micheals, Barnes and Noble, TJ Maxx and Target! Safe to say I will have enough to read for a good while. I also bought a new suitcase for my trip home! After that I just chilled and finished up this journal, and did some general cleaning to get me ready for the next week.

All in all, it was a good week! The days seem to be going by faster now and I can’t believe that the next time I write my weekly blog I’ll pretty much be home. I’m excited, but I know it’s gonna be so sad to leave. I’ll try not to think about it too much. Til next week!!

Week 10: We’re Done ALREADY???

Hi guys! Currently writing this back at home in NC and I cannot believe the 10 weeks in DC is officially over.

Monday thru Wednesday was pretty much just working on the presentation and getting results finalized for that. I didn’t do too much other than that so I’m sorry I don’t have a lot to add... I had to turn in my work badge and laptop on Wednesday which was really sad actually, I don’t think many people my age can say they worked at NIST for a summer, so having the badge would’ve been cool to show to my physics friends back in Boone.

This week was honestly kind of sad for me!! I had to say goodbye to a wonderful job, and many many wonderful people. It kind of hit me when we were practicing our final presentations on Thursday, and all I could think about was our very first day, when we were all at ACP having the intern orientation. Time flew by!!!

After presentation rehearsal on Thursday, a lot of us went to Tonic, which was where we went on our first group outing as well. I was thinking “Wow, we’ve really come full circle”. Before I get too sentimental, let me tell you about my dinner. I got a blackened salmon caesar salad, which was DELISH!!! One thing I am really going to miss about DC is the food. I’ve eaten some of the best foods here I think, nothing like what there is here in North Carolina.

Friday was presentation day!!! I absolutely LOVED seeing everyone’s presentations. You could just see how hard everyone worked over the summer, and that was apparent in everyone’s presentations. I was so nervous to present mine that I think I started getting stress hives, but it went really well! My mentor had been out of town this entire week but he was able to come and see me present which meant a lot to me. After I presented I asked him how he thought I did and he said that I did great! Which was awesome to hear. I also got a lot of comments saying my information was really easy to follow along with, which also meant a lot to me. I think it’s really important to be able to explain complicated subjects in a way that the general public (who may not have the same knowledge) can understand.

After presentations, I went back and started packing! It didn’t take too long, I really only brought what I needed- since I was flying I was limited to two suitcases of stuff.

Saturday was wheels up! At 6am, I got an Uber to Ronald Reagan Airport where I flew home!

It’s really nice being back home with my family (and my extremely comfy bed) but I am really really sad to have left. I’m gonna miss all of the interns a lot, I got so lucky to be put in this group of such amazing people. I had so much more fun than I thought I was going to have during my time in DC!! I made new friends and together we were able to experience everything DC had to offer.

I’m definitely going to be reading everyone’s blog posts for this week so if the other guys are, first of all HI!! and also I am SO excited to see where everyone ends up going with their future careers!!! You guys are gonna go so far!! I love y’all!!