First Day of Study

First and foremost I would like to express my gratitude for being selected as a participant in this REU. I am a sophomore and this is my first research experience plus this is my first trip to Texas which so far has been excellent, humid, reminiscent of the tropics minus the ocean. People have a great personality down here and my suite mates, both Texans, have been absolutely awesome and incredibly friendly. Its incredibly green here on campus stunningly beautiful. Gigantic brick fountains are everywhere coupled with green parks, leafy trees, and tremendously tall buildings that rise like spires into blue skies. This is far different from my mountainous culture in Washington where we live in valleys surrounded by snowy peaks that trump any building built by man. I'm still trying to find my way around here and get lost regularly which is entertaining at times except I've missed two dinners. The orientation was straight forward and the group was very shy, not much conversation to be had. I would have appreciated a little more encouragement to engage with each other but I suppose in time that will come. The orientation was excellent and I was fairly impressed my particular project, the Wind Project, headed by Dr. Yazdani and Istiaque Hasan PhD Student. It looks like it will be challenging and hopefully stretch my understanding physics to the greatest potential. We were also encouraged to present at conferences with our project and publish our results. I would be astonished if my project drew that much attention but I will certainly give this project my all. Today we explored research and professional ethics. This was a little dry at times however on the whole I found it engaging, mostly due to the good humor and quick smile of Dr. Weatherton. I learned more about ethics than I thought possible. Before the lecture I understood ethics as principals governing right and wrong. By the end I had learned there are specific principals which frame the actions of researchers and professionals, depending on the setting. My personal reflection was that in the end we need to follow our own judgement and use the ethic rules as guidelines. Its too easy to follow a rule and justify actions by what is written down by authority. Remember always what principals guide the rules and you should be able to sail straight.