General Reflections

1. Of the myriad of options available, why did this particular experience appeal to you?

I began a precursor to this research during the Spring 2009 semester. I signed up for the research during the semester to satisfy a Mechanical Engineering elective requirement. After working on the research, I came to greatly enjoy the freedom and responsibility involved in the research process. It was my job to search through the vast amounts of scientific literature for any information relevant to our project and conduct the experimentation. I worked with multiple people to learn about the equipment I would be using and how best to set it up. Most importantly, it was my job to make any decisions regarding problems or questions with the research. For example I chose dopant percentages for the phosphors I created, synthesized them myself after getting the necessary supplies, designed much of the optics setup used for testing, and analyzed and compiled the data for presentation. Ultimately I had to report results to the professors involved, but I had plenty of freedom in how to conduct the research. After my research this past semester I felt I could extend the project I was doing into the summer by working with additional types of phosphors. This idea really appealed to me since I already gained a lot of experience and knowledge about the field with my research during the summer.


2. What do you know about yourself now that you didn't know prior to this experience?

I learned that I enjoyed the vast responsibility and freedom that came with an independent research project. I had professors and graduate students guiding me but much of the specific details involved were new to them as well. I liked that the success of the research was primarily a product of my effort, responsibility, and initiative. I had a large assortment of resources to pore through for each part of the research. I was able to exhaust these resources to determine how to synthesize the pyrochlores, perform the synthesis, conduct the various types of testing (XRD, spectroscopy, etc.), interpret the data, and present the results in a meaningful fashion. Seeing the success of my research and the data I was presented with enforced my appreciation for the freedom and responsiblity I was given when I took on this project.


3. What impact will this experience have on the short-term (class selection, major, minor) and long-term choices you will make regarding your education?

This experience was a result of my major in Mechanical Engineering and will not have much impact on my short-term choices involving my education. I will be doing independent study with the same faculty advisers this coming semester in order to follow up on my research. I will focus my time on completing and extending the interpretation of the data and writing a paper detailing the findings. I will present the findings at a conference held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Orlando. Prior to this research experience I became very interested in law and have decided to apply to law school. This experience has only furthered my interest in law. Although ostensibly different, the field of law and scientific research have many similarities that I appreciate. In scientific research, one must consult numerous resources such as scientific literature and correspondence with experts in the field to design a worthy experiment. Similarly, in the field of law one must pore through the stories of witnesses and experts and recognize precedents to construct a case. Both fundamentally require one to exhaust all available resources to create an experiment or case with as few holes as possible.


4. How have your career/graduate study plans been affected by this experience?

As mentioned above, this experience has only increased my interest in the field of law. I had already decided to pursue a legal career based on previous experiences and interactions with people. I feel like this experience has helped me gain and improve many skills that will benefit me in a legal profession. For example, the ability to extract the important information from dense, highly technical scientific literature. In addition, this experience has generally improved my initiative, my ability to think of innovative solutions to problems, and my methods of searching for useful information.