Lehigh REU 2011 Results (Janus Ellipsoids)

Hi all,
Once again I don't really have time to write much (unpacking, repacking, GREs, family visits, you know). So, I will direct you firstly to the paper that the Lehigh research group is working on publishing. It's up at the ArXiv: http://arxiv.org/abs/1108.2571 (not my own project, but it's what inspired all the work I did [and yes, I helped write it, woo having my name on there]).

From what was 90% my own sweat tears and blood, here's the poster on my project:

Hopefully it'll be a paper some day, but the grad student who's theoretically been working on writing it hasn't responded to my emails this week, so I don't know what's happening there. Oh well. I'm planning to take the poster to the March APS meeting, so if you have questions that aren't easy to ask in writing, you could ask me then.
ttfn

Lehigh REU research: a Brief summary

Below you'll find the 'abstract' we'll be sending to the NSF summarizing my summer work. I did some other stuff besides what's mentioned, and later I'll give more details, but for now I just want to put something up before I leave tomorrow.

Monte Carlo Simulations

A Monte Carlo (MC) simulation is a method commonly used in thermodynamics and statistical mechanics.  While in general MC is just a sampling scheme, it is normally used for importance sampling.  The MC method starts from a given 'position' and takes a random walk, returning information from wherever it travels.  With importance sampling, MC does not take a purely random walk, but instead will take a random step and then check the final position against some requirement. If the final position meets the requirements, the information for that position is recorded as data and a new step is tried. Otherwise, the simulation goes back and takes a new random step.

Pontification, Pondering, and Some Things to Read

Hello,
I know I usually write about science. But today I spent a long lunch break discussing religion with one of my colleagues. And one reason she kept bringing up for her faith in God guiding her actions in life is the desire to work towards God's good, because what He considers good may not make sense to us flawed humans.

Janus Particles and Spheres

So, posting about the project right away didn't happen because deciding on the project didn't happen and then coding didn't happen. But now it all has!

I'm working in theoretical statistical mechanics with Professor Jim Gunton at Lehigh. More specifically, this summer the research group is studying anisotropic (orientation-dependent) Janus particles.

Lehigh Physics REU Day 1

Hi all,
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but finals happened. Now I have moved in to my dorm at Lehigh for the summer REU program. While I haven't actually met my adviser yet, I have found relevant offices, buildings, shops, etc. I also got an ID and met most of the other students in the program. It looks, oddly enough, like we have more women than men. Which is not good in terms of showering, but is good in terms of the future of physics (at least in my mind).
Anyway, I will actually get started tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow night I will describe my project (aka after I figure out what I'm doing I'll put it here so I don't forget the end goals).
I hope everyone out there is managing the summer job thing alright.

Consider Quebec

Having returned from l'Universite de Sherbrooke in Quebec province in Canada and visited my friends at a couple of American schools, I have a few things to say about the education system. Primarily that I like Quebec's better.