What a Semester! Quantum Tunnelling Machine, School, & More!

Holy moly. My first semester at Harvey Mudd was something else.

The last time I made a post, I was still in Waterford. Here's what's happened since then. (Skip to end for QTM and cool stuff).

- Quality of Life

I live at the Arrow Vista Apartments right outside of Mudd! It is literally paradise here - there's a pool, good wifi, a million stores all within a mile or two of my house, and so many people! I've been working out a lot (I'm a weightlifter now, which is super fun), eating healthy, and making tons of new friends. Definitely a big upgrade. As I told my friends after I moved here, just my room here is better than my entire house back home. I got a job, too. Fun stuff.

- School

School's been going amazing! At first, my advisor didn't want me to take some classes that I wanted to take, but by using some skills I learned from Waterford, I got into Electromagnetic Theory and Optics, some scientific research, and also really good leverage to take the classes I need to get my major (more on that later). Who would have thought that Waterford teaching me how to usurp things from administration would be so useful later on? This is the third time I've had to work my magic to get around so-called "rules" for what we're allowed to do at Mudd, and I doubt it will be the last. (The first time I did this was with Abstract Algebra, a Junior/Senior level math class.)

My grades were great this semester, too! I'm certain I passed all my classes (pretty sure I got some high passes, too), and it goes without saying I got a great grade in EM. My classes this semester were Math19 (Calculus), Chem23, Math55 (Discrete Math), Writ1, Phys51 (EM), and Mime (HSA credits). To be transparent, the official grades come out on the fifteenth, but after calculating how my final in each one can affect my current grade, it is very unlikely I didn't pass any of them.

I'm also pretty sure I know what I want to major in. I looked at the required classes for the majors and how my schedule can work around it, and I got a solid plan: I plan to double major in Engineering and the Joint Physics and Mathematics Major and also have a concentration in Economics. The total required credits for the path is 128.5, and my schedule can fit the classes if I take the right ones early on (which I'm doing). I think it's gonna be a lot of fun! I love those subjects.

- SCIENCE (The good stuff)

THE QUANTUM TUNNELLING MACHINEEEE!!!! Just the name is pretty epic. Throughout the semester, I've been working on this bad boy, and lemme tell you it hasn't been easy. I had to learn Electronics and some Electrical Engineering (as you do), and then I had to make a schematic for it and find a way to get all the pieces. I also had to do quantum tunneling calculations, which I can thank past Brandon for.

In summary of this project, its purpose is to manufacture and sell affordable, general-purpose quantum tunnelling machines to scientific research institutions and anyone else who wants to do quantum tunnelling experiments. Right now, there is no machine like this on the market (I've tried really hard to find one and have also asked Physics profs who have experience in this area), and the lack of a machine like this is also shown in current Q. Tunnelling experiments.

Right now, I've made some super good progress on the machine. I have the esteemed Electron Emitter (this was what I was most worried about in the project), and I have the circuitry to do what I want. The only thing I need is a Faraday cup (which Mudd provides) and a high-power vacuum, both of which I'll have access to once I can go back on campus. So.... now it's just a waiting game, and in the meantime I've started some Quantum Field Theory research (I credit Albany Blackburn for help starting it - she made me aware of an invaluable tool that I need for it). This research is still young, but it's promising.

- Conclusion

Welp, gotta get back to work now. As a side note, these posts have been getting a lot of views - it's probably all the people who get here through my LinkedIn. To any of my fellow students who might be reading this, hmu if you wanna do some cool research and need a physics/math/engineering guy. See my WANTED post for my creds.

Adios.