General Atomics Internship 2015-2016
A blog about my Junior year internship at General Atomics! Includes reflections, day to day things, and pictures of my experiences. (Although, my gallery is limited, GA has a strict no photo policy.)
How Knowledge Amounts to Not Knowing Anything at All
Albert Einstein said, “The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know”. Though I have heard this quote many times since 7th grade, most notably in Ross’ class during sophomore year, I never realized how much it resonates with me. I began to pick up on the quote’s relevance to me some time towards the end of last year, as I gained more and more interest in dark matter and dark energy. I noticed I could instantly “wow” people with conversation on the topic. Not because I was some incredibly intelligent being, full of all knowledge that had ever existed on dark matter/energy, but rather because I knew just enough to get someone thinking. At least I would like to believe that, rather than believing in the possibility that I bored the hell out of them. The more I read about it, the more I began to see that there were many variables that changed everything I was trying to learn about; in retrospect, it may have seemed this way to me because I didn’t have an understanding of the fundamentals of theoretical physics ingrained into my mind. I thought I knew what information I was lacking, leading to my decision to use my limited knowledge as an excuse to give into my already powerful urge to hide myself from everybody and read for the majority hours of every day. I did not come to a full understanding of dark energy, as there is no full understanding of dark energy. It took me a while to even learn that there is no definition of what exactly dark energy is. Funny how that works out! I am now facing a similar situation with a different topic. Nuclear fusion. I became fascinated with fusion reactors some time last year because they are similar to stellar nucleosynthesis, the fusion of lighter elements in stars and supernovae to create heavier elements. When reading something watered down, I can always tell that there are specific things that I will be missing, that I am only scratching the surface. Sometimes, just scratching the surface is enough; nuclear fusion was definitely not one of said times. The feeling I get as a result of not knowing the small things, the specifics, is what motivates me to continue learning and pushing myself to study what interests me. It’s like butterflies- no, wasps.- that won’t go away, focusing on anything else becomes nearly impossible, or at best…frustratingly difficult. When given the opportunity to learn more about nuclear fusion reactors, such as the planned ITER tokamak and the current DII-D tokamak here in San Diego, I was excited to write a paper on the knowledge I had acquired. I had no idea that my excitement would lead me into a storm of research articles and Wikipedia threads that would overload my brain just a week after I began. I got nearly a page and a half into the paper before something really bad dawned on me, I had been using certain terms out of context. For example, I began mentioning something called a “neutron beam” in conversation and on the paper, it took me a few days to realize that what I had been intending to say was neutral beam. “Neutron beams” had nothing to do with the tokamak reactors. In hindsight I see that I truly didn’t know a single thing about the science behind a tokamak reactor. So a question raised; how am I supposed to write a paper on the importance of the ITER tokamak reactor if I can’t even explain the different parts of the machine scientifically? I got frustrated and quit writing the paper so I could focus on researching fusion without an expectation that I had to immediately do something with the information. Does this mean the intellect I am gathering will be of no use to me? Of course not! Nikola Tesla said something that I greatly agree with, “It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects.” Perhaps the only purpose of learning is to realize yourself that you know nothing at all! That way you are inspired to keep learning and expanding your knowledge and to continue opening “new and greater prospects. Posted in supplement to today's post, since I did it in yesterday's. 1. How did you make a meaningful contribution to your workplace?
I guess it really depends on what you mean by 'meaningful', I would like to think that I've had some impact on the workplace in the sense that I built positive work relationships with many people. I have enjoyed everyone's company and have learned a ton about who they are, and the types of personalities I would most likely encounter if I joined this field of work. I hope I have contributed to the many conversations I have had with people while I was here, because I enjoyed having them. 2. How was your work as an intern meaningful to your education? Although I did not do any work that had an impact on the workplace, I spent a lot of time shadowing and learning from engineers in different fields. Physics and engineering have always been in my interests, but I was able to see first hand what a career in engineering looks like. Now I know that I may not want to be an engineer. I learned that plasma physics (fusion) is immensely interesting to me and that it may be something I would want to have a career in. 3. How was your work significant or meaningful for you beyond school and your specific internship site? The experiences I have gathered while here at General Atomics will help me move out of school and into the real world when I leave college. My paper I began writing about fusion helped to make me realize that one of my key motivations is knowing that I lack the knowledge necessary to do something. 4. How did your project(s) go from an idea or inspiration to a final product?Share out the process. Well, as I said before... I didn't really have any big projects. The reason for this is the nature of the internship, really. There isn't a lot I can do here at GA since everything is very technical and important. The paper I began writing on fusion began with inspiration, then developed through research and studying online, but ended up being put on pause when I noticed I was using many terms out of context. I felt that there were too many things to be said, and not enough time to learn about everything I needed to address. 5. What did you learn about yourself through working on the internship project(s)? I learned that I am far more capable of learning than I ever thought I was. Since I spent most of the time studying, I got to learn a lot of things I would've never even heard of while at school. There was a certain level of easiness that came with having my own space to read and take notes on, as well as the calmness needed to support that. I made up for my lack of projects with the amount of shadowing I did with experts in their field. I learned that I have an absolutely terrible habit of forgetting someone's name the moment I leave conversation with them. I've probably met and had conversations with about 20 people here, and I do not remember the majority of their names. I don't even know why! I try to, I don't just disregard them because I'll never see them again or something like that. Its a nightmare! Section 2 1. What new appreciations did you develop while working as an intern? Why? I've developed the appreciation of dual monitors. I'm serious. I never knew it was so easy to organize your work when you had two screens to do so! But on a more serious note, I've learned to appreciate balance in life. Instead of wanting to play video games, read books, or watch TV all day, I have found myself wanting to go to GA. I think I am realizing that balance makes all the things I do on my free time more worthwhile. This may also have to do with the fact that I enjoy what I learn at GA more than what I learn at school. 2. What qualities or characteristics did you see in the people around you that you want to develop in yourself? Why? First off, there were many traits I saw in people here that I would not want to develop. But there were some things I would like to change about myself that I saw here. Everyone here seems to have a very strong work ethic, I think this is something important to me because I sometimes feel like I don't have a good work ethic. However, I know that not having one will not be an option when I get into college. Some people here are just very generous with their time, as well as patient. I don't know if I would've learned anything, had everyone I met spoke to me as if I already knew everything. (Though I ran into some conversations like that.) It seems that sometimes I can be easily annoyed and impatient with people, although it is not normally because they don't know something, patience in conversation would be a good skill to develop. 3. How did your view of life beyond high school change or develop during your time as an intern? Before I put any real thought into it, I would just tell people that I was interested in going into physics or astrophysics. Apparently those are very general things when going into college. Now, I know more about myself and what sparks my interest; I can use my new found interests to motivate myself through college and into my career. 4. How might internship influence the direction of your life? I don't know exactly how internship will influence the direction of my life. I know for sure that it will look good on a college resume, and I almost know what I want to study in college, so possibly that will change the course of my life? I feel like I was already headed in the direction that I am still currently headed in, but now the path is more clear. 5. How did communication and/or collaboration at work influence your understanding of professional working environments? I already understood how professional work environments were in a generality, but I didn't know how much employees had to say about the management. The first day I went to lunch with Justin and two of his friend's, one of them -Chris Marren, told these words exactly, "The thing you have to realize is this. Lunch with working guys...you're gonna hear good things and you're gonna hear a whole lot more bad. Don't let it put you down." Of course I nodded my head, made a slight joke, and continued on with the lunch. He was correct. I have heard way more bad about various things like process, the higher ups, coworkers, and projects. What I definitely know now, is that there is always gonna be something to complain about; most of the complaining is just for conversation. The best thing about my internship experience has been the access to a calm, quiet environment when I need it. Often times at school, it feels so hectic that I lose about 50% of my thoughts to noise. Maybe this is just the nature of High Tech High's teaching style, but it definitely does get too loud for many people. It becomes nearly impossible to focus. Another thing I have found myself enjoying is the freedom to learn by myself. I feel like I have to be entirely responsible for my own being, and that there are few restraints on what I am working on. Whereas at school, we are structured to the point where students don't even have to think to complete assignments. Time for self reflection and expanding knowledge on individual interests is just as important as working with a curriculum. How can you implement that into the classrooms? I have no idea, but I guarantee that every student could leave with a deeper understanding of the things in curriculum if they were able to understand the specifics of what motivates them. The real change I would like to see is the use of textbooks. I have spent some time at GA (as well as home) studying engineering physics and reading into calculus through textbooks, and I have found that they are significantly more efficient as references than anything else I have used since enrolling in HTHI. Of course, textbooks are expensive, but I did find the online biology textbook to be helpful. A difficulty I could see with using textbooks is that the curriculum never feels structured enough to fully utilize them; this lack of structure, or what feels like a lack of structure, is both a good and bad thing. I think a good change would be the access to online textbooks for students to use when they are at home studying. The purpose of this internship is to bring a sense of perspective for students as to what the real world will look like, to give students an experience that will help them make a decision on what career path they wish to take. My internship has fulfilled both of these purposes, and many others. For one, I have learned to be humble in my search for knowledge. It has helped me realize that knowing one thing means not knowing a million other things.
I cannot say this new perspective will help me improve my academic performance; I can say that it will bring a new sense of perspective to school and may be able to improve the environment around me. I know that it has already improved the way I look at intelligence, as well as the way I look at learning. I spent the majority of my day talking to people who work on the EMALS and AAG, an aircraft launch and recovery system for aircraft carriers. It was a very long day that pretty much fried my brain, but I met two people who worked on the DIII-D reactor back when it was just being built! They had some pretty...epic stories. I spent most of the time just talking to them about their past projects involving fusion, because I find substantially more interesting than the Navy contracted projects.
For the commenting requirements, I visited Christopher Mercer, Emily Everett, and Frederick Gomez's blogs. Internship Blog 1: Frederick (Ziggy/Ezekiel) Gomez Through conversation with Ziggy and reading his blog, it is easy for me to tell that he can sometimes feel a bit outclassed when it comes to the professionalism of the environment. Although, I believe he is doing a great job fitting in with the environment and I cannot wait to see what he does for his final project. Internship Blog 2: Christopher Mercer I recall talking to Chris about his internship before we left, it sounded like the perfect thing for him. His end of the week post for last week revealed a lot about what he was working on. I found it very interesting that he is doing a lot of work on things that will actually impact the company. This is very different from what I have been doing, where I can only do just a little bit. Internship Blog 3: Emily Everett Emily's blog is very well laid out. While Chris' blog looked professional, Emily's looked aesthetically pleasing. I wasn't very surprised to hear that she isn't looking to pursue a career in pension law; it sounds like a lot of paperwork, and I have learned at GA that paperwork is the bane of fun. It is very funny for me to hear that she has smooth mornings because she normally seems to have hectic ones. After my first full week at General Atomics, I think the biggest difference I've noticed in comparison to a school week is free time. I get to study a lot of things that I would never be allowed to study in school. (Because it would be more important to work on assignments that are not as interesting to me.) The free work time is much more productive while working at General Atomics, and I've realized that even my definition of unproductive is still, at the very least, educational.
My responsibility at GA is to take care of myself and whatever work I feel I need to get done, and to learn. While at school, my "responsibility" feels much more forced; 'get the work done, get good grades, don't be mean'. (That is actually something I repeat in my head pretty often while at school.) Something else I've realized while at GA so far is that knowing when to listen in a conversation rather than speaking all the time is a great way to learn. I'm not used to coming into conversations with less knowledge on the topic matter than the person I am conversing with. While in conversation with many of the electrical engineers and even mechanical engineers here, I just do my best to learn from the conversation. I think in a generality, GA has brought me a sense of humility (humility based on what I perceive as my level of intellect) that I can also take with be back to school. Okay! So away with this boring stuff...now to why I missed my blog post deadline. I fell asleep! My day started at 5am this morning when I woke up, I have had a headache since noon, Thursday, and got very little sleep because of it. The reason I woke up so early was to see the D-III-D fusion reactor in Torrey Pines (owned by GA, at their headquarters), we had to arrive there before operations started because we would get in the way. The tour was probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen, I would love to spend a whole day there. What I realized very quickly was that the reactor itself was actually a very small part of the whole project. The whole building we toured was support for the reactor, and it took us a very long time to tour everything. The cryostat (cooling) system for the reactor was massive, and the neutral beams used to 'ignite' the plasma were crazy cool to look at. They each had their own cooling system, as the plasma gets between 100-200 degrees Celsius once it is in the toroid. We were allowed to take pictures, Justin will be sending me a bunch of pictures he took from his fancy smancy camera and I will upload them here. So...yah! I missed the blog because after that, we went to General Atomics, EMS. (Where I intern, and where Justin works.) We were there until about 1:30pm, but left because Justin wasn't feeling well. I still had an 8 hour day, rather than a 12 hour day, but it felt very exhausting and I got home at around 3:30pm after a very long wait for the train. Overall was definitely the best day I've had yet! For the last week of internship, I have been spending time shadowing people to see what sparked my interest. I decided to work on a project regarding nuclear fusion. General Atomics is currently making the magnets for magnetic containment in the ITER tokamak.(Which is being built in southern France through collaboration of several countries, including the US. ) On Friday morning, I will be touring a tokamak to learn more about fusion.
I have been studying nuclear fusion as a commercial energy source and paid special interest into ITER, as it will be the largest tokamak in the world. It will be capable of demonstrating the feasibility of nuclear fusion as a commercial energy source. When I feel like I am knowledgeable enough on nuclear fusion (and fission, as well as current means of energy production), I will begin writing my paper detailing fusion, comparing fusion and fission (fission is the current means of nuclear energy. It works by splitting atoms.), the importance of the ITER tokamak in comparison to other tokamak projects, the history of nuclear fusion, and the roadblocks that have or may occur throughout the building process. Some places I found an abundance of information from are: http://136.142.82.187/eng12/Chair/pdf/5147.pdf -the most important parts of a fusion reactor. http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Current-and-Future-Generation/Nuclear-Fusion-Power -very informative page about current projects in nuclear fusion and their dilemmas/goals. http://www.iter.org/http://iter.org -ITER's website, full of information regarding the ITER and JET project, as well as information regarding the development of the DEMO project. I arrived a few minutes late today and went to the main building to get my visitor pass renewed. (I will have to do this weekly because I am technically not an intern here at GA, but an "extended visitor.") After getting my pass at the main building, Justin and I went back to the building he works in. The building itself is a bit of a maze and I've found that there are multiple ways to get to one area.
Justin normally works inside an office on the second floor, but with me here, he decided to work in a lab downstairs. The lab looks a lot like a workshop, its a chain link fenced in area in a big white room that has some work benches and computers in it. There's equipment to do testing, and a big white board with scrawled writing that looks like it has been ignored for a very long time. My desk space is pretty cluttered, but it is fairly organized as I do most of my work on computer monitors. Originally, I was going to come in every weekday and work 9-5, but I realized that I could cut out one of my days and still surpass the minimum hour requirement. I would most likely be willing to come in every weekday if my Tuesday/Thursday commute wasn't as long as it is. I can't actually take pictures of the interior of the building (for security reasons), so my workplace isn't going to be shown on here. Today was my first Friday at General Atomics and a rather uneventful day. I spent about an hour in the morning shadowing someone named Jason Mota who worked in electrical/mechanical engineering. (He kinda just does a bit of everything...very well.) He talked to me about his experiences in college, at GA, and during specific projects.
After, I walked around the building with Justin, working on some paperwork for a circuit design until lunch came around. For lunch, I had a grilled cheese that was pretty darn good. I went with Justin, Jason, and two of Justin's coworkers that I met on a previous occasion. Unlike yesterday and the day before, I mainly sat silently during lunch after answering a few interview style (feeling) questions thrown at me by two of them. For the last half of the day, I helped edit some documents for circuit designs and then started reading "A Brief History of Time" on my own. I didn't practice much math today, I instead made sure that my DP was correctly organized after a huge scramble of all of my pages due to Weebly's terrible mobile interface. (The same mobile interface that made it impossible for me to post yesterday's blog post until 11:30 at night, after I got home from my Muse concert and had access to a computer. Yay Weebly!) |