Reflective Essay
Research has been a key part of my learning experiences and has been important for improving my skills and teaching me things I could not learn in a classroom. Without research I would not be in the same place in my life or heading to the same place. I have done research in Physics and Applied Math, focused on computer modelling and image reconstruction. I have worked with many professors on this, it has changed my thinking and was very important to my educational journey.
In 2019 I started in the Engineering Program at TRU, I was interested in Mechatronics and wanted to work in robotics. I had not thought about research; I was interested in learning how to create solutions to problems and becoming an engineer. I completed the first-year engineering courses and enjoyed the projects. I especially liked creating a product to solve a problem. In second year, engineering, I took courses in electromagnetism and condensed matter physics. I enjoyed these, especially the labs, rather than solving a problem I worked on creating and testing mathematical models of physical systems; this eventually led me to switch into physics.
After taking more physics courses I became interested in creating new knowledge rather than replicating what others had done in the lab. I then began to work with Dr. Mohammad Tawhid on improving swarm algorithms at the start of my third year. I had been curious about it and expanding on my lab experience to learn new things and figure out how the world works. This curiosity that drove me to research is why I switched to physics. Doing research encouraged and expanded my curiosity, the more I did the more curious I became. With Dr. Tawhid on our first project I learned my first key research skills, programming in Python and MATLAB, and scientific communication.
Dr. Tawhid and I went to the 2022 American Physical Society Northwest Section Meeting which was my first academic conference. At this conference I got to share my work with others and learn what other people were doing. I was especially interested in a talk by Dr. Christina Haston on Medical Physics, I found her work very interesting and got to speak with her one-on-one about it. After this I began to consider Medical Physics as an option for my future.
As I continued to work with Dr. Tawhid, I continued to improve my skills. In summer 2022 I was awarded a UREAP; over this project, my thinking about how to do research continued to grow; the key change was in analytical thinking, when I was curious about something I began to think in terms of how to create an experiment to test it. This change in thinking was complimented by several new skills: how to analyze and interpret data using computer statistical programs, creating simulations to model real world effects, and reading and learning from others scientific work.
After this experience I began to seek out more research experience, I completed my last required lab in Fall 2022, and seeking more lab experience, I reached out to Dr. Anusha Venkataraman about a project we had discussed previously, using the Scanning Electron Microscope as an analytical tool for physics experiments. I worked on utilizing the SEM to take images of semiconductor and solar cell samples. This project expanded my lab skills. In addition to SEM use, I learned clean lab procedures, and proper record keeping. The solar cell materials were volatile and proved unsuitable for the SEM. This taught me how to deal with a failure in an experiment and still produce a presentable final product.
I shared my work at the 2023 TRU Undergraduate and Science Undergraduate Conferences. I discussed my work with others, this was a valuable experience for me. Creating these two posters in a short time along with final projects for my coursework helped me figure out a process to sit down and write when I really need to.
After this I was awarded an NSERC USRA to continue my work with Dr. Tawhid again. In this continuation of work, I was much more productive due to my better skills and improved thinking. During this I picked up several key technical skills, the most important of which is using High Performance Computing for research. I learned how to implement and run simulations on the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (DRA, formerly Compute Canada) servers. This is very useful to learn as an undergraduate and is one of my most important skills for my interest in modelling of physical systems.
I next spoke with Dr. Mark Paetkau about research opportunities in Medical Physics to learn more and improve my graduate school applications. He gave me a project to improve the image reconstruction of a laser CT scanner. This allowed me to continue improving my computer modelling skills and programming. I also learned how to work with images on the computer and evaluate them with statistics.
My research experience made me vary curious and with the encouragement and support of my professors I applied for graduate school. I did this to continue doing research and learning more physics. Fortunately, I was accepted into the University of Victoria’s Master of Science in Physics with a concentration in Medical Physics (fall 2024); an accredited program in Medical Physics which will let me continue my research journey and work towards becoming a clinical medical physicist. I will continue research in my masters project in Monte Carlo modelling of radiation interactions with cancer cells and radiation sensitizing drugs to improve the understanding of how radiation sensitizing agents can be used to treat cancer.
Research has been an important part of my undergraduate degree. My research experiences have directly informed my career plans and led to my graduate school acceptance. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to pursue it. In addition to the many skills I have gained, my thinking has shifted towards learning through experimentation. Research has been an important part of my education, and I am excited to continue to do research and learn more.