Entry 10

Gonna post two piano videos soon. If there's time, maybe three.

The songs, so I don't forget:

bdts
fl

atthewake

Entry 9

I forgot to mention that I also gotta work on the actuator box controller.

EDIT: Also gotta order a 1/4 inch NPT swagelock fitting.

Entry 8

So Cheyne looked over my personal statement today. I've got a little bit of revising to do, but I'll first see what Alex has to say first too. Aside from that, the last thing I have to do for the Stanford and UCLA apps are to upload my transcript and submit.

In work-related news, I partially polished the cathode today. Still gotta get it down to 1 micron, and then 0.25 microns..... and then 0.05 microns. Then I gotta label a few cables and route them from the bunker through to the laser room. Peter has volunteered to take over the vacuum pump system stuff. Speaking of which, I'll send him a link to the Duniway site. Done. Now I gotta wait for Harry to finish the machining the LN cooler (this is actually something I should have done like 2 months ago, while waiting for a part to be shipped. BIG blunder on my part). I also gotta give one of the IR windows I have to Renkai.

Entry 7

Things to do this week:

Work related:
-Polish cathode
-Ask Harry to drill hole into cross chamber
-Run steering magnet cables from bunker to laser room

Grad app related:
-Pick up transcript, scan, and upload
-Turn in apps by 9pm tomorrow

Entry 6

finally, a draft

Statement of Purpose

I have always been curious in how everything works, but it was not until high school when my curiosity about nature synthesized with my natural love of math. As a child, math was my favorite subject, because math, in contrast to social studies and other subjects, made perfect sense. When I finally took a physics class in high school, I came to the revelation that every physical phenomenon can be described by deceptively simple equations, that math was just a tool to construct an understanding of the physical world.

Why I'm applying

I am applying to your graduate program for two reasons. The first is for preparation to confront future technological problems. The development of the modern world is completely dependent on the advancement of technology. As technology grows, problems become more complex. My undergraduate education has provided me with a solid scientific and mathematical foundation, but my ability to apply it is not quite as developed. I would like to learn more about how to apply this background to practical real world problems. The knowledge and skills I gain from your graduate program will enable me to make a significant contribution to the modern technological world. I feel I would thrive in a graduate environment that emphasizes analysis and real world applications.

The second reason I am applying is for more exposure to working in a team environment. Tackling any of today’s complex technological problems requires the talents and efforts of many scientists and engineers, not just individuals. Although my undergraduate education taught me how to approach problems analytically and quantitatively, it did not primarily focus on teamwork and collaborating with peers. That is not to say that classes requiring group cooperation did not exist; lab courses definitely stressed solving problems as a group. Sometimes, however, it was too easy for one or two people in a group of four to end up handling most of the workload. In my current research lab group, I do work with other members sometimes but mostly on my own assigned individual tasks. In order to succeed as a professional, I need to learn how to work effectively in a team. I feel that a good graduate program will provide me with more opportunities to develop teamwork and leadership skills.

Study and research interests

I currently work at the Particle Beam Physics Lab (PBPL) at UCLA, a state-of-the-art center for research in beam physics and accelerator technologies. Not only has PBPL provided me with a solid base in experimental methods, the lab has made me quite interested in beam dynamics, waveguide systems, and high energy light sources. My work for this lab includes running simulations and experiments, acquiring data, designing waveguide systems, designing custom vacuum components, and assembling electronic devices. As a result, I trained myself how to use various simulation/experimental and computational software such as Matlab, Mathematica, HFSS, Lumerical FDTD, and LabVIEW. In addition, my work in component design has granted me a sufficient mastery of the industrial CAD application SolidWorks. My time at PBPL has also exposed me to a wide range of beam dynamics and accelerator theory/methods. I actively participate in our weekly journal club meetings, where we discuss research papers about various beam dynamics and accelerator related topics; thus far, I have given two presentations on, respectively, x-ray diffraction and e-field enhancement on cathodes due to nanostructures. The experimental foundation I attained from PBPL can only be enhanced by your graduate program.

Like many budding scientists and engineers, I am interested in the development of alternative energy sources. In particular, I hope that fusion as a renewable source of power becomes a reality within my lifetime (and that I’ll have something to do with it). As a child, I thought it was a fantasy that man can harness the power of the sun, but after taking a course in plasma physics and the accompanying lab class, I found out that it was theoretically possible, but almost practically impossible. Nonetheless, I cannot understand this technology completely with my current knowledge of E&M. I am very curious as to whether it will be economically viable or practically possible to sustain controlled fusion and contain the resulting plasma enough to provide an efficient and clean power source. If I do pursue path in the future, I am confident that your graduate program will enable me to contribute to the advancement of this technology

Preparation

My undergraduate career, including both educational and occupational aspects, has prepared me well in the theoretical and experimental aspects of physics. In addition to understanding theory and solving problems analytically, I’ve also honed my ability to imagine complex systems. Analyzing data, using both numerical and mathematical methods, has become a second nature. Furthermore, my exposure to various research papers from weekly journal club meetings has broadened my knowledge about the field. For these reasons, my time at UCLA has prepared me to excel for a graduate program.

Future plans

My short term plans involve finishing my time at PBPL until spring, applying for an internship for the summer, and then enter graduate school in the fall. Before leaving PBPL, I hope to finish a few projects, including the construction of a liquid nitrogen crystal cooling chamber to improve terahertz generation, achievement of increased photoemission due to nanostructure-related field enhancement, and installation of a hybrid photoinjector. For the summer, I hope to get accepted into a 10-week internship at Arete Associates, where I could learn about and potentially help improve their sensor technology. After that, I hope to enter graduate school in the fall.

As for long term plans, I plan to enter into a career in the research and development sector. I will continue developing my experimental and technical skills and gaining theoretical knowledge. I plan to help further the progress of modern technology by improving old ideas and developing new ones, and I hope to inspire others to do so as well. I want to see technology change for the better, and I want to be a contributing source. So I request your cooperation; allow me to pursue this path at your graduate program.

Entry 5

As I mentioned before, I'm basing my personal statement to Carter on this set of questions from UCSD. I don't really want to think about organizing the entire essay yet, so I'll just answer these questions individually and then piece the fragments together.

I'm gonna post one question at a time.

1. How did you become interested in this field? Establish that you have had a long-term interest in the field and that you have taken positive steps in pursuing your interest. Give the committee members a sense of your particular talents and abilities and their relevance to your academic interests.

I have always been curious in how everything works, but it was not until high school when my curiosity about nature synthesized with my natural love of math. As a child, math was my favorite subject, because math, in contrast to social studies and other subjects, made perfect sense. When I finally took a physics class in high school, I came to the revelation that every physical phenomena can be described by deceptively simple equations, that math, the subject that I excelled in, was just a tool to construct an understanding of the physical world.

I took an interest in E&M after taking college physics courses. Until then, my only notable exposure to electric and magnetic phenomena was either jumping car batteries or getting shocked trying to convert disposable cameras into tasers. Learning about E&M gave me new insights into how the world functions and helped further my curiosity in how the universe works.

This is what I threw together real quick. I'll work on it after an episode of The Walking Dead.

Entry 4

The Republican party is retarded.

Anyway, all this talk about the Bush-era tax cuts are boiling my blood. Obama and his administration don't support them, but are forced to because fucking Rep congressmen keep saying no to cutting taxes for just tax brackets below $250,000. Their reasoning: raising taxes for everyone is the worst thing to do in a failing economy. BUT NO ONE WANTS TO RAISE TAXES ON EVERYBODY, JUST ON THE RICH. Where the hell's the problem in that?

Any short history lesson would quickly reveal how Reaganomics didn't work. Now the Rep party wants to try this supply-side economics bullshit again, and hopes for a "trickle-down economy" to kick in. It's too bad that a "trickle-down economy" is basically a two story outhouse with the rich on top and everyone else on the bottom.

They want to give money to the rich, and pray that the rich use that money to invest in more ventures that ultimately lead to job creation. Of course, they ignore that the rich might just take all the money and pocket it for themselves. Then everyone is screwed (except for the rich guys with the pockets).

These huge tax cuts offer absolutely no guarantee, and at best, a very weak incentive, for the rich to create jobs.

Here's a small solution: a large tax break. It'll be a tax break that allows rich people to write off taxable earnings based on the amount of employees they hire. If they want their taxes lowered, they'd best hire a shit ton of employees. We don't need none of that, "Here's some money. I hope you create some jobs with that ^^." We need something like, "Hey bitch, you want a lower tax rate? Go create some damn jobs." There you go, an actual incentive to create jobs.

Entry 3

Things I gotta do this week:

-Order turbo pump
-Find cables for steering magnets (120 feet total)
-Give Harry design for LN chamber

-Send out transcripts
-Get transcript from Murphy to scan to upload to one of the schools

Entry 2

This past week was busier than what I typically expect from a normal work week. It was mostly due to the journal club presentation and learning more about FDTD. The presentations went fairly well. After that, we played several rounds of Starcraft II. Then we went to see Ken play in the Starcraft II tournament on campus. He finished in 2nd place.

Been playing L4D2 a little more lately, but aside from that, it's mostly Starcraft II. I'll try to play more 1v1 ladder now that I won the bet the guys had going at lab (if I can win 3 out of 5 games in diamond league, I get a soda). I have a few things in store for the Protoss race. Let's see how they handle 2 base mass roaches (literally ~15-19 roaches per minute from two fully saturated bases). I doubt they can, since on two bases, they can barely push out 10 stalkers if they don't tech. If they go void ray, I'll just bring along some of my mass queens.

Anyway, the most pressing thing I have to finish at the moment is a personal statement. Of course, I'll be organizing my thoughts here.

The schools I'm applying to are UCLA, UCI, UCSD, and Stanford. I'll have to send out the LOR requests to Carter after I finish a personal statement.

I looked at the Statement of Purpose prompts for each school, and I think I'll write my statement based on the UCSD one. It's the most straightforward.

Opening post

To anyone who stumbles onto my small corner of cyberspace, let me introduce the blog that will soon become a collection of my thoughts, ideas, and attempts at improving my writing. I have no intended audience, which is to say that the intended audience is just myself. For the longest time, I feel as if there's some kind of hole in my mind.

It's quite the uncomfortable feeling, especially when that hole periodically fills itself with infinitely looping music (they call it an earworm). So I thought, "Why do these songs keep playing in my head? Doesn't my brain have something better to do? Has it lost its creativity so much that it compensates by constantly listening to the creativity of others?"

I don't know. I'm just going to assume that the reason is because I don't read or write. After all, it's reading that ultimately keeps the brain sharp, with the brain imagining things and thinking about stuff and all that. Imagination. I'm not just talking imagining silly things that don't matter, like world domination plans or what one should do with super powers, but imagining ideas and thoughts from other people, whether they be in the form of books, novels, or research papers. That is what's missing. Imagination. Reading.

Of course, reading is just the half of it. Writing (well) is just as important. A physics professor once said to me, "Can't write. Can't think." I've always known the importance of being able to write well. But I never took any effort to develop my own writing skill. As a result, my ability to organize my thoughts and spit them out onto a piece of paper has somewhat diminished.

So that explains the purpose of this new blog. It's a place for me to dump my thoughts, to practice my writing, and hopefully to help me redevelop some of creativity that I used to have. Of course, it's not just to regain what I lost, but to build something new. My old creativity has no place in the rational world. To grow mentally, I gotta adapt and bring something fresh to the table.

What should one expect from this blog? I say to one, "Don't expect much." This isn't for entertainment or laughs; it's for mental exercise. I'll be posting about my daily happenings here, things I plan to do, work-related obstacles I encounter, or basically, the things that keep me busy.

And so I start:


Entry 1: Grad school personal statements, surface plasmon resonance, complex electromagnetic field, and Starcraft II strategy

I haven't felt this busy since college, when I actually had to work for a class. Deadlines are approaching. The closest one belongs to tomorrow, when it becomes my turn to present a research paper to the journal club. But I'll first discuss the graduate school applications, since I don't have much to say about those.

I gotta write up a personal statement this weekend and email it out to Troy Carter so he can have some base to write a letter of rec. The earliest grad app deadline is December 14, which is 12 days away. Historically, I've notoriously failed to see the urgency of a 12 day deadline. This time, I must avoid that. There are things that have to be done that cannot take 12 days: sending out transcripts. It sounds almost trivial, but it will bite me in the ass if I don't take care of it soon. Next Monday, probably.

Back to the presentation. Actually, it's two presentations: one about my current research project, and another about Starcraft II strategy.

I am largely unprepared for either (is it 'either' or 'neither'? someone correct me). For my research presentation, I have a decent idea of what is going on, but I don't think I understand plasmons enough both mathematically or conceptually to give a good presentation. I understand the part about my own research, which is just optimizing the dimensions of the nanostructure on a copper cathode to yield maximum field enhancement. Let it be known that the dimensions are indeed optimized (~50 nm width, ~ 85 nm height, ~600 nm separation distance). I found them using equations from a research paper. Maybe I should read the research paper again just for the theory. They talk about some resonance condition that I know nothing about.

Just for reference, here's how I want to outline the presentation.

Gonna be talking about creating a nanometer-scale structure on a cathode to yield three orders of magnitude worth of field enhancement.

Go over: why is there field enhancement? Surface plasmon polaritons? What's a plasmon? How does it couple to an EM wave? Why does this coupling produce reduce reflectivity and increase field absorption? Why does this absorption yield huge ass enhancement?

I gotta find the answer to the questions soon.

I'm much more excited for the Starcraft II presentation. What will I go over? Here's a list:

-Using F1 to split workers and also to dodge Hellions.
-Fighting off a zergling rush with workers, which I will do right now actually. brb
-Back. So it appears that you need 2 or 3 workers per mineral patch (2 for near, 3 for far).
-You get about 1550-1600 minerals per minute, and 480 gas per minute on two bases.
-Gonna hopefully do more testing tomorrow.

Anyway, I need to sleep. Hopefully I can read more about plasmons tomorrow.