Week 8: Getting Stuff Done!

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Sunday, July 23, 2023

By:

Eva Rissanen

I cannot believe we only have two more weeks left in the internship. Like, srsly, where has the time gone? Anyways, here’s what I did for my 8th week!
 
On Monday I went to work, met with my mentor and discussed the computer issues. He also didn’t know what was wrong with it, so we had to wait til Tuesday for IT to come look at it. In the meantime, I started working on my abstract, I think I’ve made a decent start but definitely needs some work. Later on I started putting the pieces for the BOB together, which consisted of soldering a LOT of BNC connectors and switch wires.
After work, I had the most fun night ever! Me and a few other interns went to a cabaret night hosted at an Italian restaurant, and they had a pianist that could play literally any sheet music you gave him, and I got to hear so so so many lovely voices sing beautiful songs!! Most of the interns went up and sang something (props to them, I get too nervous in front of a crowd) and they all did SOSOSOSOSOOO good!!! I also ate the BEST risotto ever. Like that dish was heavenly. Would 100% recommend, so if you ever go to Rosemarino D’Italia, order the sausage and spinach risotto. Absolutely delicious.
After that, we went and got ice cream! It was also suuuuper yummy. I got the mud pie flavor in a waffle cone. I called it a night after that.
 
On Tuesday the computer was FINALLY FIXED!! I got to finally take the measurements I needed for my project! Did that which took most of the day, then worked with graphing it and then called it a day. I got home, then me and my roommate hosted a movie night with the other interns! We ended up watching Magic Mike XXL, which I’ll admit- I really enjoyed. I've never seen a Magic Mike movie before that!
 
I pretty much spent the whole day at work on Wednesday doing the analysis part of my project. I got everything plotted, but by the time I finished that I noticed that my capacitor values were weird so I saved that problem for Thursday cuz at that point it was pretty much almost time to go home. After I got home I pretty much just chilled for the rest of the night. Not gonna lie, I was EXHAUSTED, so sorry I don’t have more to add to this!
 
Thursday I figured out the issue from Wednesday with the help of my mentor and it was actually a reason so stupid (in my opinion) that I am not gonna share it with you guys! :) That’s the learning process for you I guess. It’s a bit frustrating since my errors are really hindering the progress of the project, but I know I’ll get there eventually. I also worked on my abstract, I think it’s coming together little by little. This is actually the first abstract I’ve ever written! I really am doing new stuff every day, and even though sometimes it’s small things, I’m still really grateful that I even get the opportunity to!
 
On Friday work was sooo much better than it had been this past week. I finally have real solid measurements and am almost done with analyzing them! That’s pretty much all I did today at work, there was a looooot to go though. Nonetheless, I’m almost there!! I can’t believe next week is pretty much going to be my last week of going to NIST. Time went by so fast!
 
On Saturday I woke up much later than I would like to admit, and sort of just puttered around. I ordered sushi and they gave me so. much. sushi. And it was so good as well. Later that night I hung out with a few of the interns and then called it a night!
 
Sunday was also pretty chill! I woke up at 11am (earlier than usual!!) and just did some cleaning up around the dorm. I got my stuff ready for work and also worked on my abstract, which I’m almost done with!!
 
Overall I’d say it was a really good week! I’m getting closer and closer to having all of the information I need to have all of my presentation materials, and I think my plan for next week is to focus on finishing that up and starting on the final presentation. Looking forward to what next week has in store for me!

Eva Rissanen