Name: Emily Schultheis
Internship, Co-op or Research Site: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Position Title: Researcher
Major(s)/Minor(s): Chemical Engineering
Expected Graduation Year: May 2016
Briefly describe your internship, co-op, or research opportunity, including your day-to-day tasks, responsibilities, and assignments.
The best part of this experience has been learning how to use a plethora of equipment around the UMBC campus. Initially, I was introduced to an acousto-optical tunable filter (AOTF) set-up. Troubleshooting this apparatus required me to become familiar with optical table equipment, light filters, and signal generators. I also interacted with a local company in Hunt Valley, called Brimrose, that manufactures AOTF devices. Eventually, I visited their headquarters in person during which I became acquainted with the CEO and toured the facility. I then spent several weeks performing typical chemistry tasks; these included the safe handling of caustic and/or carcinogenic chemicals, use of high-heat furnaces, centrifuging, and various ways of grinding things into fine powders.
I learned how to perform physical vapor transport (PVT), a mechanism by which I placed heavy metals into an extreme vacuum until they sublimated. The pressure in the chamber was raised again, so that the material deposited in a film on the substrate. I was excited to discover that I could apply my chemical engineering theory to this apparatus. Immediately upon learning about the process, I pulled out my Fluid Dynamics and Heat & Mass Transport textbooks in order to reduce the Navier Stokes equation and reference mass transport theory. This derivation resulted in the Poiseuille equation, which we had learned only briefly in class in a previous semester. It was incredibly satisfying to realize that all the hard work we've invested into learning abstract concepts in class is actually worth learning. Those abstract concepts become shockingly practical in the face of research.
Describe the process of obtaining your internship, research, or co-op opportunity.
While taking the required physical chemistry lab, CHEM 311L, one of my TAs gave me my mentor's contact information and told me that my mentor was looking for an undergraduate intern. My TA recommended that I might be a good fit, and I'm glad it's worked out so well thus far. I had not heard of my mentor before this, but was pleasantly surprised to find that his research specialized in material science: particularly crystal growth, which seemed intriguing.
What have you enjoyed the most about your position or organization/company?
There was one instance during which my lab-mates and I transported a scanning electron microscope (SEM) into its new home in the TRC. This piece of equipment appeared to weigh several hundred pounds. Moreover, due to the absence of a permanent ramp anywhere on the exterior of the TRC, we soon realized that it needed to be lifted up several small flights of stairs, all at right angles to one another. Several of these stairs were loose and the severity of the sun was no help either. However, we employed our collective knowledge of mechanical engineering to fashion a makeshift ramp out of plywood (which broke during the process), and were successful in transporting this surprisingly dense and precariously connected piece of equipment inside the TRC laboratory. After this experience, my lab mates and I developed a renewed sense of cohesion that only hard physical effort and free Subway sandwiches could have catalyzed.
How do you believe you have made an impact through your work?
I hope that my research will contribute to my mentor finding a lead-selenide based material that will be used in high operating temperature (HOT) infrared detectors for mid-wave infrared (MWIR) and long-wave infrared (LWIR) sensors. These would have potential military applications. This advancement would reduce the need for cryogenic cooling, presently required in mercury-cadmium-telluride based systems. Eliminating cryogenic cooling would reduce expenses. Furthermore, lead-selenide materials would be much easier to grow.
What advice would you give to another student who is seeking an internship or similar experience?
Whenever there is a dull moment, it is always a good idea to observe peers' projects and see if you can help them. In moments that I could have otherwise spent wasting time, I tried to talk to other people in the lab about their research. On occasion, they invited me to assist in their various experiments. Through active networking with my peers, I learned how to perform chemical vapor deposition (CVD), which can be used to make diamonds (though not in our lab at the moment). I also learned about the Bridgeman Method, used to synthesize crystals. Finally, I learned about a brain-manipulation device that uses induction to adjust neuron firing.
The quality of internship experiences is primarily dependent on what you choose to do with your free time. There will always be lulls in work, but choosing to use these lulls to find more work is always the most satisfying. If this free time is wasted, it's easy to get trapped in a cycle of never having enough to do. Having free time seems nice, until it becomes a habit. Then, it merely results in boredom and a nagging sense that there are better uses of your time. If you don't actively seek out tasks, then it's likely you won't get the opportunity to learn anything new. Thus, when you're on the clock, it's most important that you always continue doing something - even if this something is a task as humble as scrubbing dishware, transporting gas tanks, asking a professor/graduate student in a different department for a tour of their labs, or chatting with a colleague in the hall about the current status of their research with the intent to give them a hand. Internships are always what you make of them.
Like this story on Facebook or Twitter!
Like the Career Center on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram
#UMBCintern
Want to be the next Intern of the Week? Make sure to fill out this form and stay tuned. New interns are announced every Friday!
