Here's the gang. We are a bunch of high school soon-to-be
seniors from up and down the Central Coast, or least from Sanata
Barabara, Goleta and Santa Maria.
The lot of us got lucky enough to be a part
of this incredible program through UCSB. Each of us got a chance
to work with a grad student in nanotechnology for six weeks. Nano-
means 10 to the -9, so we're dealing with really, really small stuff
( a thousandth of a thousandth of a millimeter.) Our mentors represent
a wide range of fields, from biology and medicine to engineering and physics.
This program gave each of us a chance to experience reasearch in
actual labs and grad student life, as well gain a better picture of what
our own plans for the future may be. This oppurtunity to be part
of important new research with a personal mentor has definitely had an
impact on my own outlook for the future.
OK, so who am I?
I'm the nosy little guy with the
glasses. I'm here with Sarah and Katia tearing apart an old phone
for one of our exploratory activities.
The picture is fitting,
as I love to tear stuff apart and check out components. My name
is David Sanchez and I'm a senior at Santa Maria High. I'm thinking about
pursuing mechanical engineering in the future. I'm not too bad
with math and science, so I decided I'd check out the program to see
if nanotechnology research really was for me. Six weeks later I realize
that I want to work with big stuff, nuts and bolts, and big machinery. Forget
the little (nanometer range) stuff. Besides tearing apart and messing
with paintball guns
, my Dad's
engines
, our airplane
, and big skateboards
I also play bass and wrestle for the high school. Check out my
band,
Artifice.
My mentor's name is Alok Paranjpye. He's a materials
engineer and only has a few more months of work before he can get his doctorate
and get out. He's been working on a new composite material for Micro
Electro-Mechanical Systems (Tiny machines.) Here's some cool examples with
dust mites (300 microns) for comparison.
People mainly use silicon for really tiny machines,
but its really brittle and requires a lot of protective packaging.
Alok is trying to make a composite material of silicon and silicon dioxide
that will be more fracture resistant than silicon , yet still enable engineers
to use the electrical properties of silicon (which is why we can't just
use metal.) Anyway, he tested his material by making little cantilevers
and bending them until they break. My project this year has been to
model the cantilevers in a computer simulation program called ANSYS to
get information that he can compare to his experimental results. Check
out my Final Presentation for the details. I also got to experience
a lot of clean room time as Alok built his cantilevers. More and more
I realize that Clean-room Lab research is not something I want to do as
a career. I definitely don't want to work with small stuff. This
program is really valuable in the respect that it will give you a better
perspective on what you want to spend your life doing.
For more info about MEMS check out my mentor's advisor's website,
Professor MacDonald's group at UCSB
.
In addition to mentor research, the program also arranged for speakers,
computer and electronics classes, sports, "tutoring" for elementary school
kids and even a couple of field trips to nearby engineering companies, Able
and Veeco. Check out the pics. I definitely recommend the program
to everyone who is even remotely considering a career in science. It's
a real eye-opener.
Louis and me in the
practice clean room. We learned a little bit about photolithography
and got to build thin-film resistors.
Right to left- Eli, Rachel, Alex,
Louis, me
This gives you a better idea of the elbow
sticking out of my face.
Fun in the practice clean room. Left
to right- Katia, Rachel, Alex, Eli, Eric (cool college guy), Louis, me,
Sarah
CHECKS!
