During the semester, I very much enjoyed doing research in Dr. Hong’s group. I have been (and still am) involved in multiple projects involving different areas of work related to the ATLAS detector at CERN. In these last months, I learnt to be more comfortable with working in a collaborative environment, where my contributions are independent, but important for the progress of a whole group’s work.
Something that I realized is valuable is to try to maintain a fluid and periodic communication with other group members. As in any research project, at times one may feel stuck; and it is important to make an active effort to try and overcome that stage. In these cases, if there is a steady communication among a group, in my experience solutions are much more quickly found, and it is usually after these challenging phases that the most remarkable specks of creativity arise. Of course, communication within a group does not only contribute to a more productive environment, but also reminds me that I have a network of people that can support me if I need some help. Throughout these months, I have talked countless times to engineers, one postdoc and more experienced students who are in Dr.Hong’s group, asking questions or opinions about my work.
Furthermore, on April 3rd, I went to the annual April Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) held in Sacramento, California, to present a poster showing the work done in the past year (last semester and this one). It was a very enriching experience, as I could show my work to experts in the field and get feedback from them. Furthermore, I attended talks given by renowned researchers in experimental particle physics; and that helped broaden my view about the field I am studying. Also, after seeing the expositions I felt very excited about the potential progress that particle physics can make in the upcoming decades.
Regarding my future, I will continue to work on these research projects in Dr.Hong’s group over the summer. The nature of the topics I am investigating requires more than a semester to conclude my work, so I am excited to see how I (alongside my collaborators) reach a more advanced stage in all the projects I am involved in. I think that my experience in research is a very important part of my growth as a physics student. The exposure to real-life scientific experiences I got in Dr. Hong’s group reassured me that I want to keep learning physics in graduate school, and therefore incorporate the necessary skills to become a scientist in this field.