{"id":27,"date":"2014-02-14T22:00:58","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T22:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/?p=27"},"modified":"2014-02-15T21:43:08","modified_gmt":"2014-02-15T21:43:08","slug":"audreys-conference-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/2014\/02\/14\/audreys-conference-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Audrey’s conference experience!"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Audrey Kvam<\/a>, CWLT physics tutor
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"

Audrey and her poster!<\/p><\/div>\n

I spent this past summer doing a theoretical research project (\u201cAnalyzing the
\nPropagation of Light through Composite Dark Matter\u201d) with one of my professors in the
\nphysics department, David Latimer. (It was fantastic, I highly recommend doing summer research here at UPS!) By mid-August, I was wrapping up my research, making my
\nposter, writing up my results, and David sent me a link to something called the Conference Experience for Undergraduates (CEU). This conference is held in conjunction with the American Physical Society\u02bcs fall meeting of the Division of Nuclear Physics, and is an opportunity for undergraduate researchers to get experience
\npresenting their research to the physics community, learn about the research currently
\nhappening in the field of nuclear physics, and network to get connections for future
\nresearch\/grad school. On somewhat of a whim, I sent in an application and received
\nfunding both from the conference itself and UPS to attend with my research poster.<\/p>\n

School took over and I barely had time to think about the conference until last
\nweek, when I suddenly realized I was about to fly across the country (the conference
\nwas held in Virginia this year), alone, to talk about my research with people who would
\nnot only understand everything I did over the summer, but could also ask all kinds of
\ncomplicated questions that would go way over my head. I spent the next few days trying
\nvaliantly not to panic.<\/p>\n

It turns out all my angst was for nothing; small talk is not my forte, but luckily
\nphysicists are not known for their social prowess and no one was thrown off by a little
\nawkwardness. By the second day, I\u02bcd made friends with a few other undergrads and
\ntogether we explored the area and went to endless talks given by current researchers at
\nuniversities and labs across the world. At the poster session, I fielded questions from
\nvarious graduate students and fully-qualified physicists and rather impressed myself
\nwith how much I did know (although I had to admit to ignorance several times). There
\nwas an ice cream social and a graduate school fair, where I talked to representatives
\nfrom schools such as Rutger, Duke, and MIT about what their programs are like, which
\nfields I\u02bcm most interested in, and what they look for in a strong application to grad
\nschool.<\/p>\n

\"11\"<\/a>

A group photo of all of the undergraduate researchers at the conference<\/p><\/div>\n

Overall, the conference was incredibly inspiring. Hearing talks about current research made me realize how much I have yet to learn (I need to take a quantum
\nmechanics class STAT) and how much I really want to learn it. It was also apparent how
\nmuch the physics community really cares about the next generation of physicists-to-be by the ready willingness to give advice and recommend research and\/or grad school opportunities. In just a few days, I made friends that I can see myself staying in touch with for years to come. For anyone who has the opportunity to attend a conference — for any field, not just physics — do it!!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Audrey Kvam, CWLT physics tutor I spent this past summer doing a theoretical research project (\u201cAnalyzing the Propagation of Light through Composite Dark Matter\u201d) with one of my professors in the physics department, David Latimer. (It was fantastic, I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":394,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,3,5],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-experiences","tag-conference","tag-physics","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/394"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.pugetsound.edu\/cwlt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}