REUers' Experiences - Feeling Useless in Vacuum System Tweaking?

[tim_lou]

I'm currently in a REU program... the whole thing involves an ion accelerator. Currently, the vacuum system needs come tweaking, and my job is to play around with the program called "vaktrak" (coded by a physics... to calculate pressure profile for a lattice structure), and find what is the best way to improve the vacuum system. Sounds exciting? not really, otherwise I wouldn't be typing here. I did a lot of guestimation when inputing the data into the program, and I'm not even sure if the results that I am getting are correct or not... I doubt any of those guestimation and my playing-around-with-the-program would be taken very seriously. so, basically, I feel that my work here is pretty much... not very useful. would've been nice if I can gather data, interpret them, and make some sense out of physics.

does anyone else feel the same way? or are you guys doing some more exciting projects?

 

[mgiddy911]

Mine is fairly boring
We are mid experiment so there's not much for me to do until the next experiment begins
I a working in a Chemistry lab doing Intra-Cavity Absorption Spectroscopy, currently analyzing Methane, soon to begin Diatomics like Palladium Carbide
Theres not much work for me to do as of yet, I have been organizing the lab, taking inventory

 

[Brad Barker]

just starting. read a few pages of notes.

 

[leright]

I was there part time last semester (10 hours a week) and I am there full-time this summer. I generally help my advisor with whatever he needs done, read the literature, and I am teaching myself AutoCAD, LabView, and C programming on the side. However, from the sounds of it, I will be getting a project soon.

I am learning a lot though.

 

[G01]

I am currently reading papers and teaching myself LabVIEW.

My full project involves quantum dots and is still not really been specified to me. Tomorrow I have a conference with my adviser and I think he's planning on shedding some of the light there.

I'm currently doing a lot labVIEW in preparation for my actual project. Eventually I'll be able to give more info I hope! I am having fun though, and learning, and getting paid while I'm at it, AND getting some nice resume fodder! I'm definitely happy I did this and I haven't even started my main project yet, so I think it was a good decision to apply.

 

[leright]

I am currently reading papers and teaching myself LabVIEW.

My full project involves quantum dots and is still not really been specified to me. Tomorrow I have a conference with my adviser and I think he's planning on shedding some of the light there.

I'm currently doing a lot labVIEW in preparation for my actual project. Eventually I'll be able to give more info I hope! I am having fun though, and learning, and getting paid while I'm at it, AND getting some nice resume fodder! I'm definitely happy I did this and I haven't even started my main project yet, so I think it was a good decision to apply.

yeah, the greatest thing about the REUs is you are getting paid to learn new things, whereas at a company in industry, you are paid to do grunt work that the engineers don't want to do.

I am learning a good amount of new things, and soon I will have a project. This lab is rather large and multidisciplinary, but my advisor (and this is what I am learning about) is working on growing aluminum nitride crystals by plasma source molecular beam epitaxy. So, I am learning a lot about ultra high vacuum equipment, all the different characterization methods used for thin film crystals, some crystallography that I didn't learn in my solid state physics coursework, molecular beam epitaxy and many other things. It has definitely been a worthwhile experience even if I haven't had a project yet, but from what the PI has said I will be getting a project soon.

I am always putting out possible ideas that I get out of the literature, but usually there's some problem, or we don't have the equipment set up to do it. So, if I did a project I would first need to set up the equipment or modify it. to carry out my experiment. This will probably require some machine shop work.

 

[jesuslovesu]

Just be glad you guys are in an REU, I can't wait to start my job that pays $6.50/hr...

 

[Diffraction]

Hey at least you found a job! And yes, be very thankful that you got positions in REU programs. I probably won't get admitted into graduate school because I haven't had one yet and I am applying next semester. >.<

 

[mattmns]

Hey at least you found a job! And yes, be very thankful that you got positions in REU programs. I probably won't get admitted into graduate school because I haven't had one yet and I am applying next semester. >.<

Please, you will still get accepted to a grad school, you just might have to slightly lower your standards. At the school I attend ("ranked" in the 80s for grad math) only one grad student that I know of attended an REU.




The REU I am attending does not start for a few more weeks.

 

[InbredDummy]

I'm currently at a math REU.

Here is some advice for people applying to REU's in the future:
Make sure you have some kind of clue where you will be staying! This is a big deal. I'm from a huge diverse city and I am currently in a small town with nearly no diversity, 5% minority population. I did not think about this before I applied. There is nearly nothing to do, especially since I am not 21 yet.

 

[mrjeffy321]

Today was my first day at my Physics REU and I have been blow away by all the amazing instruments and such at my [our] disposal.
I have a lot of acronyms to learn (PECPD, AFP, STEM, something something, ...).
Something that amused me was that pressures on the order of E-4 torr are referred to as "high pressure" since a lot of the experiments we will be doing will need very high vacuums on the order of E-6 and E-7 torr.

I have not started doing anything yet, just had a tour of the different labs, but my first impression is that I am going to have a great time.

 

[qualgorithm]

I'm currently at a math REU.

Here is some advice for people applying to REU's in the future:
Make sure you have some kind of clue where you will be staying! This is a big deal. I'm from a huge diverse city and I am currently in a small town with nearly no diversity, 5% minority population. I did not think about this before I applied. There is nearly nothing to do, especially since I am not 21 yet.

Let me second this. I did an REU at large public university in small town where without a car I couldn't even get to a grocery store. Not that being 21 stopped anyone in the dorms where I was staying from drinking, but that was most of what was going on.