Week 1 as an Intern

My last post was about me getting a job at BYU-Idaho. I worked there for 6 weeks but while I was there I got offered a position as an intern at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) through the Society of Physics Students. This internship has lots of bonuses than other internships. The first is that it is paid. Second, I get to live in DC. Third, I am close enough to home that I can come home easily. The program requires me to write a weekly update to the people that hired me because they aren't seeing me work. I decided to keep everyone else updated that had been asking me that I would post my weekly update as a blog post. Below is my first update.

So, this was the first week, meaning it was very disorganized. I moved into the apartment and am trying to adjust to life in Washington D.C. The metro is an easy system to use and so it wasn’t hard finding my route to work. Over the summer I will be working at NIST. Though that is not where I started my week. On Tuesday, June 1^st all interns reported to ACP for orientation in the morning. After meeting people who work in different places in the building and being told what a great opportunity I have as an Intern, I was taken to NIST. That afternoon, I met John Suehle who is the group leader and the management who I blame things on. He gave Zach, the other SPS intern, and I a little knowledge of what we will be working on. After the brief introduction I met my supervisor for the summer, Dr. Nhan V. Nguyen. I talked to him about the basics of ym project but not a lot. I was assigned to a desk but had computer difficulties and am currently at a computer in the lab that I am going to be working in. The people at NIST are very nice and helped me out when I asked questions about where I needed to go at the end of the day to catch the shuttle for the Metro.

Day 2 started out waiting to be trained in safety so that I can actually work in a lab. The training wasn’t going to happen until 1:30pm so I had time to kill. I sat around and had an early lunch at the cafeteria which is way too expensive that I will be bringing a lunch with me from now on. The training went on forever but there are lots of safety hazards when working in a laboratory that we need to know about. I am done with training now and am able to start actually working on the project.

So when I came in yesterday I was actually able to learn more about the project. My project is to find external quantum efficiency (EQE) of a photovoltaic device. Currently, I am trying to calibrate a silicon diode detector so that I can use that to measure the intensity of the light at certain parts in the experiment set-up. Pictures of the set-up will be up next week. So I was able to run one scan yesterday to measure the intensity but haven’t been able to run anymore or do any data analysis. After my first scan was complete another person need the cord we are using to power our light source.

As far as doing anything in DC besides work, I haven’t adventured out yet. I am from Maryland and my younger sister graduated from High School on Wednesday and we had family in town and so I have gone home to visit every night. I am excited for the weekend and next week to learn more about DC and see what is available.