Summer Employment

This evening was Rachel and my eleven month anniversary. We celebrated by going out for ice cream and then walking along the levy. I can't believe it has almost been a year. It's gone by quick and at the same time not so quick. =) I mean it was not too long ago that Rachel and I met for the first time, and yet I can't hardly remember what life was like with out her.

I have been enjoying the work I am doing this summer. Instead of having one full time job I have had a couple part time jobs. First off I have an internship through the university. I am working for CAMD which stands for Center for Advanced Micro-structures and Devices. Basically in simple terms CAMD is a great big X-ray. The internship is for “pure” math majors to work in the “applied” sciences. It is really neat because most of the time what I am doing at LSU is sitting in front of a black board filling it up with equations and such. The question “What is this used for?” is the last thing on my mind.

The specific branch of CAMD I am working for is the tomography department. What they do is they take 2 dimensional shots of some object and try to reconstruct what it looks like inside 3 dimensionally. They have showed us 3d models of the way a cat claw grows. The first time I was at CAMD they were checking out the porousness of sandstone for the off shore drilling that Exxon is doing in the gulf.


So what am I working on? Plastics! So you are reading this on my blog. The monitor you are looking at is mostly plastic. But chemically that plastic is very similar to gasoline. That is why the plastics are made with flame retardants. What we are working on is several shot of plastic that is being melted. What were are studying is the movement of the plastic as it melts.

The pictures below are 3d images of an air bubble floating inside the plastic. As the plastic is heated the bubble is moving. The flakes all around the bubble are the flame retardant. We could try to follow the movement of the retardant, but it’s easier to follow the bubbles since they are bigger. There are multiple bubbles in the plastic but the pictures below have just focused on a single bubble over six time frames. So the bubble is expanding and moving upward as the plastic is being heated.

In addition to the work at CAMD I have also been doing work through a temp agency. I have been driving around the surrounding areas working for COX which is a phone and cable company. My work has entailed taking a disposable camera and taking picture of what are known as VRADS. What is a VRAD? It is a video ready access device according to Wikipedia. It is basically a big box connecting to underground cables. Cox has the latitude and longitude of where these VRADs are located. My job was to look up these locations on google maps then drive around to take pictures of them when I find them.

What’s funny about this job is how it makes you look at the world differently. For example did you know that next to every four way traffic light and every railroad track that has lights of some sort there will be a big box nearby. Look for them, they will be there. The reason I noticed this is by looking for VRADs and realizing those were not them. The specific thing that distinguishes VRAD will be the Att&T logo or the old bell logo on older equipment. The older smaller boxes are not actually VRADs, but they often are up graded to become VRADs.

The other part of my work this summer has been studying. (no pictures regarding this, but it would mostly be blackboards filled with equations) I have a Phd adviser and I am scheduled to have my oral exam in the Fall. I don’t know yet how much longer I will be working on the Phd, but things are moving forward.

I know I don’t post very often. I’d like to post more. But I hope that my small fan base enjoys it when I do post.