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March 29, 2024, 05:50:38 am

Author Topic: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal  (Read 14614 times)

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ThunderDragon

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal アシュ
« Reply #15 on: September 16, 2021, 09:59:12 pm »
+1
Woahh an update from Ashmi crazy!!! Those images from your lab look soo cool. From the Solar Systems to the Earth looks so fun. Lowkey regrets dropping the Astronomy unit and not Biophysics haha.
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blueycan

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal アシュ
« Reply #16 on: September 16, 2021, 10:16:44 pm »
+1
An update, yay! Glad to hear you're enjoying your subjects, From the Solar Systems to the Cosmos seems so fascinating! Especially how you can take photos from telescopes, that second photo literally took my breath away– it looks like something out of a movie or an album cover.
Have a good end to the week, Ashmi!! (:

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal アシュ
« Reply #17 on: September 20, 2021, 08:41:12 pm »
+1
Love an Ashmi update  8)!! As the others said the images look INCREDIBLE!!! I'm really glad that you are enjoying your course, despite the online learning. Can't wait to hear more! All the best for the rest of semester Ash!!!
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hums_student

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal アシュ
« Reply #18 on: September 20, 2021, 11:59:10 pm »
+4
Unimelb's limit of level 1 subjects being restricted to 10. Since I'm doing Linear Algebra in the summer term, I realised that I would only have one slot left for level 1 (which I wanted to use as a breadth) and then the other problem was that I wanted to take Foundation of Computing and Foundation of Algorithms, which is 2 level 1 subjects...

Hey Ashmi,

You should definitely look into subject auditing. If, in the future, you want to do a subject but you might not have space for it on your study plan, you can email the subject coordinator and request to audit the subject instead. You'll have access to the Canvas page and will be doing the exact same content as someone who is enrolled in the subject, except it wouldn't take up a slot on your study plan so you're still free to take other subjects. In my experience (auditing my 5th subject this sem!), subject coordinators are usually more than happy to let you audit their class. It can be a bit more difficult for subjects with prereqs but generally if you can demonstrate that you'll be able to keep up in the course you'll easily get approved.

I was also in a similar situation as you where I wanted to take CS subjects but my study plan didn't allow, so I audited media comp, FoA, EODP, machine learning, and am currently auditing TSA. It's really great because you don't have to pay for audited subjects and they are also not recorded on your transcript, meaning you don't have to worry about doing well in them lol.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the midsem break and looking forward to your future updates!
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The Cat In The Hat

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal アシュ
« Reply #19 on: September 24, 2021, 01:38:28 pm »
+1
Those pictures are awesome, in the old and great meaning of the word! I love them.
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ashmi

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal アシュ
« Reply #20 on: December 13, 2021, 01:25:41 pm »
+11
hums_student
Hey Ashmi,

You should definitely look into subject auditing. If, in the future, you want to do a subject but you might not have space for it on your study plan, you can email the subject coordinator and request to audit the subject instead. You'll have access to the Canvas page and will be doing the exact same content as someone who is enrolled in the subject, except it wouldn't take up a slot on your study plan so you're still free to take other subjects. In my experience (auditing my 5th subject this sem!), subject coordinators are usually more than happy to let you audit their class. It can be a bit more difficult for subjects with prereqs but generally if you can demonstrate that you'll be able to keep up in the course you'll easily get approved.

I was also in a similar situation as you where I wanted to take CS subjects but my study plan didn't allow, so I audited media comp, FoA, EODP, machine learning, and am currently auditing TSA. It's really great because you don't have to pay for audited subjects and they are also not recorded on your transcript, meaning you don't have to worry about doing well in them lol.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the midsem break and looking forward to your future updates!
You are my absolute lifesaver and hero in disguise!🥺
I am definitely going to do this in the future and this solves pretty much all the problems I'm having.
Hope things are going well on your end and enjoy your Christmas break!
ThunderDragon, blueycan, Chocolatemilkshake, The Cat In The Hat
Thank you so much for all the nice comments 🥺🥰. I'm glad you all like the photos and hopefully, in the future, there is some more interesting stuff I can show you all!
I hope you all are enjoying your holidays and the long-deserved break after all that studying.🏖️
✰Update: 13/12✰

Hello everyone!

After a long time after the previous update, I have returned 😂. First, before I get started, congratulations to all the year 12s for finishing the school year and good luck with results! It has been a long year of work and hopefully you are happy with your performance and enjoying a long-deserved break.

Well anyway, lets get started with the song of today's update and then we can go straight into the good stuff.

Song of today's update

It’s been a while so I thought it would be good to give you guys an update. (Shoutout to @Thunderdragon for reminding me haha)
My exams finished a while ago and oh boy I have a lot to say. I need to have a word with who thought having two physics exams (Cosmos + Physics 2) back-to-back on the same day that goes from 11 am to 7 pm was a good idea. This happened a few weeks ago and let me tell you that was no fun. Ignoring physics, Calculus 2 was alright, however, I would have preferred last semester’s exam that the one we got this semester.

Reflection Time
There are a few things that I would like to reflect on what did work and what didn’t this year:
What didn’t work well
•   Watching pre-recorded lectures for any physics subjects. I would like to attend as many in person lectures as possible for physics subjects as it was hard to see demos online and was one of those subjects that just doesn’t ‘work’ online.
•   Labs in the afternoon made me more likely to skip out work for other subjects that day and more likely to dread the day.
•   Any subject with large exam weightings. *Cough* MAST subjects *cough*
•   Doing 3 subjects in a semester didn’t really help me out academically this semester. I found myself being less productive with study (possibly because of lockdown?). I don’t think much changed but that could also be because I went on 3 subjects halfway through the semester. If I started with only 3 subjects, I would say there would have been a more noticeable difference.
What did work well
•   On the same subject, doing 3 subjects allowed me to work more, especially in private tutoring as the VCE Exams came closer. I found more of a demand for tutoring once August/September hit which allowed me to make more $$$ then I did last semester.
•   Physics exams with standard online examination mode (This is because there is no restriction on type of calculator to use. Thank you CAS)
•   Any subject with exam weightings of 60% or less.
•   Watching pre-recorded lectures for maths subjects. Math lectures tend to be better for me online as it gives me time to write/digest information.
•   Investing in an iPad was a good idea.
•   Joining clubs and using it to network.
•   Putting labs in the morning to get it over and done with (especially for on campus labs)
•   Cramming all the practical classes and labs together if possible.

Physics Research Areas and Plans
In terms of subjects, my goal is to get to a point where I’m only taking 3 science subjects (Or 3 science electives + 1 breadth) in my final year each semester. This is because the Master of Science (Physics) only considers your 4 best 3rd-year physics subjects scores, and I would like to maximise my chances for a CSP spot.
Since being part of the PSS committee this year, I have been able to see a LOT of different research projects and meet a lot of potential supervisors where I was able to think about what I would like to specialise in. Here is sort of a list of things I was able to eliminate so far:
•   Cosmology, Astro-particle, Extragalactic and High Energy Astrophysics.
•   Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
•   Biophysics
•   Experimental/Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics
•   Experimental/Theoretical Particle Physics
•   Quantum Computing/Quantum Information
•   Nanoscience
There is still a lot I don’t know so hopefully by the end of next year I can eliminate some more off this list! The one that I am the most curious about is quantum computing, especially since I didn’t know it was an actual research area in the physics department at the start of the year. If I had to give a wild guess of what I would probably end up doing, it would be quantum computing or experimental particle physics.

Potential Subjects for 2022
2022 Summer Term:
•   MAST10007 Linear Algebra [Core]

2022 Semester 1:
•   PHYC20012 Quantum + Thermal Physics [Core]
•   MAST20009 Vector Calc [Core]
•   PHYC20013 Lab and Comp 2 [Core]
•   COMP20005 Numerical Computation in C [Elective]

2022 Winter Term:
•   FINA20026 Painting Techniques [Breadth]

2022 Semester 2:
•   PHYC20015 Special Relativity + Electromagnetism [Core]
•   Must pick 2 out of the 3 below:
o   MAST20030 Differential Equations [Core Alternative to TP2]
o   PHYC20014 Theoretical Physics 2 [Core Alternative to DE]
o   MULT20015 Elements of Quantum Computing [Elective]
•   EDUC20080 School Experience [Breadth + Placement]/ FNCE10002 Principles of Finance [Breadth]

I do have some problems which I’m going to describe below
1.   I’m stuck between what subjects I’m going to do in semester 2. Taking DE and TP2 together looks like a death sentence based on what I have heard. Good news though is for a physics major, both act as an alternative prerequisite, so I only need to take one. I have heard it might be best to take both though (especially since TP2 relies on some DE), however I am super tempted to take the quantum computing subject as that is the only quantum comp subject offered in undergrad. Right now, I am leaning more towards TP2 and Elements of Quantum Computing.
2.   I am also having trouble picking a possible breadth subject during Semester 2. School Experience and PoF both look like great subjects. There is one thing stopping me with the School Experience subject and that is the essay components (not the best at essays and scared of them…) however, I do feel like it would be very enjoyable. PoF on the other hand would probably be the ‘safer’ option (no essays) and looks interesting. I’ll probably give School Experience a go and if I do struggle, I know PoF would be a good backup choice.
3.   One thing that I haven’t decided yet is if I want to do a diploma of computing. If this ends up happening, pretty much everything from semester 2 will be changed in terms of subjects. It would be very beneficial (especially for internships/specific research areas) but I’m not too sure if I want to extend my degree just yet. Still deciding at this point. Most likely will audit some subjects just like @hums_student has mentioned.
Also, I’ll be doing peer mentoring next year! Not too sure what it is going to be like but hopefully it’s fun. (Excited about the hoodies😎)

Long Term Goals
Finally, long term goals for the next academic year:
•   Organise an internship/research project during the summer term of 2023. (Looking at you DST).
•   Become experienced with Python, C/C++, MATLAB and Linux environments.
•   Network more, especially with people of possible research areas.
•   Maintain a H1 WAM, especially high H1s in physics subjects.
•   Keep this journal updated more. Maybe once every 2/3 weeks.

On a side note, I need to meet up with some people that I should have met up with this year but couldn't cause of✨lockdown✨.
@colline if you see this we need to organise a meetup when we are back on campus🐍.
@thunderdragon I know you are going to see this and fam we need to prepare for our next hotpot/bubble tea/shopping outing please.🐉 (Even tho I saw you two days ago HAHAHAHAHA)

I’ll stop here for today or else I will keep going forever. See you at the next update! 💖

ashmi

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal
« Reply #21 on: January 17, 2022, 12:10:12 am »
+10
✰Update: 17/01✰

Hello AN!

Once again I have returned to give you guys an update about what’s going on in my life. I hope you all are doing well and had a nice start to the new year. Yes, I am writing a journal update at midnight but anyway, I'll jump straight to the subjects as always!

Song of today's update

Linear Algebra
So I started this subject last week and so far it has been really good. We had one in-person lecture before it was completely shifted online😭. Tomorrow will be my 4th day out of the 12-day course and we have covered quite a bit which I’m going to list below:

1. Your nice linear equations/reduced row echelon
2. Matrices and Determinants
3. Euclidean Vector Spaces
4. And halfway through General Vector Spaces

Our first assignment was given BEFORE Lecture 1 even started and was due last Thursday. Still don’t know the result from it but I do have a second assignment due this upcoming Thursday which I am nearly done with.

I’m finding the content a LOT more interesting than Calculus 2 and the questions so far to be much easier (I hope that’s a good thing haha). I do want to come out of this subject with a strong foundation because after seeing some 3rd year physics students panicking because they forgot everything in this subject which they need for the cores is not the position I want to be in...

In terms of grades, the goal for this subject would be to get a mid H1 and the reason for that is because someone has volunteered to pay for all my pan-fried and steamed dumplings desires for a week if I do achieve a certain grade. As you can probably tell by now, I am easily motivated by food. 🥟

Goals for this week for Linear Algebra:

- Get started on some of the past exams qs.
- Review theory + understanding of content, especially focusing on weaker areas.
- After trying some past exam qs, see what should be added to a potential cheat sheet for the exam.

~Trying to figure out life component~
Alright so now I have a change of heart to some subjects that I was originally going to do in semester 2 this year. After reading “The day in a life of a postgrad physics student” stored in the Physics Students’ Society Google Drive, I am now more than ever motivated to take more computer science subjects. Long story short, every review I read in that document all said that coding/programming skills are a MUST so now I have changed things up a little for semester 2 this year. A friend has also given me all the material for the quantum computing subject I wanted to do so I think I'll attempt to self study that every once in a while and pick up a level 2 comp subject useful for postgrad.

Also, I have heard from previous TP2 students about their opinions on the subjects (yes and the 50% fail rate). Usually, the crowd favourite is TP2, however considering my weaker maths skills and their recommendations, I might be better off doing DE. Many have said TP2 relies on some DE knowledge which might become a problem if I were to pick it. The only thing is that TP2 looks so nice in terms of content but I know I would struggle. I’ll just write a pros and cons list below so I can somehow figure what I’m doing later:
Spoiler
Pros of TP2:

- Aligns with interests.
- Can help me figure out if theoretical is something I want to pursue.
- Has really good notes
- Very theory based
- Allows me to do TP3

Cons of TP2:

- The only type of questions available to do are tutorial sheets
- The content halfway through becomes quite challenging (especially in the maths department) and requires some DE knowledge to do well.
- Proofs everywhere

Pros of DE:

- There is a problem book and tutorial questions
- Not as many proofs as TP2
- Subject is more accessible and practical compared to TP2

Cons of DE:

- Subject might align with interests as much
- I cannot do TP3 in third year

Honestly after writing this I probably should steals the notes for TP2 and just take DE HAHAHA.
The subjects I’m thinking of doing now are:

- Special Relativity and Magnetism (Core)
- Differential Equations/Theoretical Physics 2 (Core) [TBC]
- Algorithms and Data Structures (Elective)
- An undecided breadth

One more thing I should add is that I might be going to an Ivy League next year. I’ll keep this for another update cause the whole backstory behind this would be equal to another journal update.

See y’all next time!💖

ashmi

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal
« Reply #22 on: February 06, 2022, 01:26:31 am »
+11
✰Update: 6/02✰

Hey everyone! It is time for another midnight update from yours truly. I will get my sleep schedule back on track after exams I promise.

I've split today's update into spoilers so it's not bombarding the page haha. A lot has happened since the last update so lets get started!
Song of today's update

Linear Algebra
Oh my lord this subject goes fast. We finished general vector spaces, linear transformations and currently halfway through eigenvalues and eigenvectors. The last topic that will be covered is Inner Product Spaces and the last lecture scheduled for it is literally 3 days before the final exam. Note to self: Summer Term has no SWOTVAC.

I’m struggling with the last bit of linear transformations at the moment (Looking at you change of basis/invertible linear transformations) and I need to seriously study like there is no tomorrow as the exam is very close. I have a MATLAB test (10% of final mark) next week Monday (Feb 14th) and the final exam on Feb 18th (70% of final mark). I’m planning to watch the last 9 prerecorded lectures between tomorrow and this Wednesday so I can wrap up all this content a bit early.

The final exam is usually out of 12 questions, and so far I’ve done nearly all the exams up to Q6 (which is every topic before linear transformations). Tomorrow I plan to continue those past exams up to ~Q9 then watch those remaining lectures and study the living daylights out for the MATLAB test. Also, I got my assignment marks back! So far so good. Out of the 4 I have back, two of them I have gotten full scores for but the other two I have lost half a mark for each assignment.

Despite this subject being intensive for a short period of time, the lecturer is AMAZING. I don’t know how he is singlehandedly carrying the Linear Algebra cohort in the summer but he is doing it with style. #bestlecturersofar

~Figuring out life component~
Spoiler
If you are a science student who is interested in going into research, you might know the struggles of trying to get yourself involved in a research project. Well it doesn’t help if you are a physics major. At Unimelb, trying to get yourself into a physics research project is like impossible until you are in third year (which makes sense cause you need more physics knowledge). There was no projects available that we could join, so me and my friends found another way.

A group of us (~5) decided to make our own research project about a special type of telescope mount for a remote astrophysics laboratory. This was purely out of self interest at first, however after a few team meetings, we decided to write a proposal out and sent it to potential supervisors. I honestly don’t know how it happened, but we did get a supervisor!

So y’all, Improvise, Adapt and Overcome.

Right now, we currently need to figure out the type of system we want to construct the telescope with (harmonic drive maybe?) and how we are going to program it.

On another note, I have sort of become lost in this journey. Lost in a way where I’m constantly asking myself if I am capable of doing research. It is a constant cycle of “What happens if I’m not good enough? Can I handle it? “Am I going to get anywhere?”. There is self doubt, but at this point I’m learning to acknowledge it and leave it in the background for now. I think I’m having one of those short term mini crisis where I have withdrawn myself for a short period of time. A friend of mine noticed this and we have started doing a mini physics book club where we talk about what we are reading. I’m so grateful to have friends who look out for me and I don’t know what I would do without them. I have started reading “Quantum Physics of atoms, molecules, solids, nuclei and particles” and “The Quantum Age” and its been pretty good.
~Differential Equations vs Theoretical Physics 2 Debate~
Spoiler
If you read my last update, you would have probably interpreted that DE was the subject I was leaning towards. I DID enrol into it however, there has been some drama with the coordinator.

There are a few people that I know taking engineering maths this summer (DE coordinator also does Eng maths Summer), and oh man I’m hearing everything so many mixed reviews. They had an MST question which was quite unclear and ambiguous which caused a whole controversy.  Although the issue was ‘resolved’, hearing the whole story of what unfolded was not the most pleasant way ever. (I won’t go into it here but it was really bad, trust me). Since me and my friends are physics majors, we were debating if doing DE would really be worth it at this point with how matters were handled. Honestly I rather violently suffer through Theoretical Physics 2 with really good lecturers than go through DE with what I have seen.

TL;DR: Indecisive Ashmi enrolled back into TP2 and is blacklisting DE for this year unless needed for last resort.
~Overseas Uni and Exchange~
Spoiler
Continuing on from my previous update, there is a chance I might be going to the University of Pennsylvania next year for a research exchange. This opportunity has just popped out of nowhere from my academic adviser. However, if you have read the very first post of this journal, I REALLY want to go to ETH Zurich. Ideally I would want to be going with my bf to save a bit financially here and there, which is why I’m leaning towards going to ETH (and plus they practically have higher physics rankings so yolo).

We have encountered a big problem though, and it is that we need at least 4 graded level 3 physics subjects to be considered for postgrad studies. If we go on exchange, we can get credit for the subjects we do but we won’t get numerical scores. We are currently in the process of contacting the postgrad entry staff for physics to see if there is a way around it. If this doesn’t work and if we stay at Unimelb for postgrad (and don’t run away to ANU for honours lol) then ETH will most likely be an exchange opportunity for somewhere in our first year of masters (Sorry Penn ☹️ ). Honestly with the current COVID situation everything is up in the air.
On a side note, someone from uni found my journal literally an hour ago and I’m 💀. Someone please yeet me off this planet ☠️ 👽. To the guy stalking my journal, welcome to my emotional outlet 🤣😭.

Well anyway that is it for today! The next update will most likely be after my summer term exam and during O-Week ish. See you all next time! 🥰

ashmi

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal
« Reply #23 on: March 06, 2022, 12:40:36 am »
+6
✰Update: 6/03✰

Hey, AN!

As you can probably see from the time stamp of this post, I didn’t really get my sleep schedule together...It will get there eventually. The first semester of uni started last Monday so Week 1 is officially done and Week 2 is right around the corner. Unimelb had the first peer mentoring session 2 weeks ago which went really well (mentors got a lot of free food!) and the clubs and societies expo was running all of last week (so plenty of work to do).

Anyway, here is the song of today’s update and then we shall get into the good old update:
Spoiler

~Summer Term Linear Algebra - Reflection~
Since my last update, I completed both the MATLAB test and the exam. The MATLAB test results were released about 24hrs after we completed the test. I got 100% on it which was super nice and had the exam 3 days later. The exam was much harder than usual but not impossible. Everybody else that sat that exam also said they found it quite hard. Results came out yesterday and it did confirm my suspicions that there was quite a significant scaling for this exam (which is weird from the maths department). I did end up getting that H1 so that means a dumplings feast is around the corner 🥟🥟🥟.

Looking back now, learning 500 slides of Linear Algebra in 12 teaching days was insane, however, after experiencing the fast-paced nature of summer term, I now feel like the 4 subjects I’m doing in one normal semester is way too slow. I feel the urge to constantly study which is a big no and I don’t think my mind has had enough time to relax after the intensive summer term. I’ve tried to relax as much as possible during Week 1 and I will slowly get myself back into a proper semester study routine.

Do I regret not doing this in a normal semester?

No, but yes.

If there was one thing I wished I had in the summer term, it was time. The main problem that occurred was not having enough time to digest the information. As a result of this, I’m sort of burnt out from the summer term exams. On the other hand, waiting till the summer to do it was one of the best decisions I have made. I was able to experience an intensive subject and learn how to approach it when it was going so quickly, which now is going to be useful to use in the normal semester. The lecturer was a miracle worker in the summer (imo the best lecturer I have had so far across all my other subjects) and I do think the reason I enjoyed it in the summer was because of the enthusiasm he had for the subject. Overall, the subject is great in the summer but did have some major challenges.

(On a side note, I am really tempted to do Group Theory and Linear Algebra as a science elective. Someone, please stop me). Now onto the subjects of this semester!

~Semester 1: Subjects~

~Vector Calculus~

This subject is going alright, but I’m not really enjoying it at this point. After coming out of Summer Term Linear Algebra , this subject tastes flavourless. It’s practically going over some Calc 2 stuff and it’s all long, annoying computation. I’m sure later down the track things will start to get good. I am worried about the exam component (80% exam ouch) and I honestly don’t know how I’m going to handle it.

Take me back to LA where maths was interesting and fun.

~Quantum and Thermal Physics~

We FINALLY had our first in-person physics lecture! We are starting off with thermal content which is fine and so far so good. The first assignment is already out and we have about a month to finish it (10% of our final score). I hope to finish off the textbook questions today and might have a go at what I can do for the new assignment.

~Introduction to Numerical Computation in C~

All the lectures for this subject are prerecorded and workshops go for only 2 hours which is pretty good! There hasn’t been much workload for this subject so far, but there is an upcoming quiz worth 10% of our final score. I’m going to spend tomorrow going over concepts I’m finding a bit difficult and do some more practice questions.

~Laboratory and Computational Physics 2~

I am in love with this subject.

No, seriously this is the best subject for my needs and interests. There is no exams and this subject is made up your score based on your lab reports, experiments in the lab and computational assignments.

During Week 1, I had a 6-hour lab on Radiation, with a focus on rediscovering the neutrino (and its antiparticle). I was absolutely terrified for this first lab cause there was so much to cover in a short period of time (and also because friends who have done this subject said this was the hardest lab to start with). The first 3 hours were all about Beta Spectroscopy and the last 3 hours was on Gamma Spectroscopy. I enjoyed everything about the lab itself and I’m looking forward to next week’s lab!

That’s it for now! When things get more interesting I’ll write another update. See y’all next time!

ashmi

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal
« Reply #24 on: June 09, 2022, 08:37:45 pm »
+9
✰Update: 9/06✰

Hello, AN!!

It's been so long since my last update so today is finally the day I update this journal. A lot has happened this semester so let's get straight into it.
Song of Today's Update
I did peer mentoring this semester and it was such a great experience. All the orientation events with the free food, laser tag, and just relating with my mentees was good. I also landed one of those peer mentor excellence awards in the process which came with a gift card so me being me, I used it on a particle physics textbook (100% worth it)

Oh yes, I need to talk about physics. This semester I have gone to a bunch of lecturers and professors in the physics building asking them about their research. I got quite a lot of underground physics lab tours and got to see what they were focusing on. This helped a lot with narrowing down a research area for the future and I think particle physics (not too sure whether experimental or theoretical) is winning the battle. It's funny when I started this journal I thought I was going to do engineering and oh how that changed so quickly after the first semester.

Right now is exam period and I had my Quantum and Thermal Physics exam on Tuesday. It went very well despite it being a longer exam than usual so I’m interested to see how much scaling will be put onto this exam. There were so many lecture slides to go through for this subject unlike any other subject I have done before (Part of me thinks there was like 1000 in total or something) and I feel really relieved it's now done. I also already have my final score for my Lab and Comp Physics 2 class which is a high H1 so I’m happy with that. What I have learnt from my physics lab class is how much I prefer experimental things over theoretical, however until I take my first proper theoretical physics subject next semester, things can change.

Right now, my priority is the good old 80% vector calculus exam. Maths has always been a weak point so from now to next week is just going to be non-stop past exams and reviewing all lecture notes over to the point I can memorise them. This winter term, I’m taking Painting Techniques as one of my breadths which I am super excited about! (Ready to unleash my inner folio!!) I’ll let you guys know how it goes after the subject.

In semester 2, I have decided to overload and take 5 subjects, mainly to reduce the number of subjects per semester next year. I’ll be taking 3 science subjects and 2 breadths. My science electives are:
- Special Relativity and Electromagnetism (I’m so looking forward to this)
- Differential Equations (I’m ready to cry every week from this)
- Theoretical Physics 2 (This is going to butcher me alive)

I was very sceptical to take DE after what happened the previous summer term, but after thinking about it, I need DE knowledge for TP2 and some third-year physics subjects so regardless, I need to study it at some point. I also would like to audit Real Analysis during Sem 2 if possible. Semester 2 is going to be extremely difficult, especially with the overloading, however, I am determined to do an internship, research project and the physics research program all next year, so I need to make space.

My goals for this winter term and next semester are:
-   Self-study subatomic physics and revise my current knowledge of DE
-   Continue to develop my coding abilities
-   Obtain H1s in all my subjects this winter and the following semester (Idk about DE lol)
-   Confirm an internship/research project for next summer
-   Continue to volunteer
-   Decide on a physics research area for postgrad study

That’s it for today’s update so see you guys another time!

ashmi

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal
« Reply #25 on: June 17, 2022, 10:26:02 pm »
+8
✰Mini Update: 17/06✰

Hi AN!

I survived the Vector Calculus exam! I have never felt so liberated after an exam before and I can officially say I got out of the exam period alive. There is quite a bit to talk about so I’ll jump straight into it.

Song of today's update
Although my exams have finished, next week is super busy for me. Unimelb is having Year 10 Work experience occurring for the whole week and students are divided into different streams depending on their chosen area e.g. maths, physics, bioscience, IT etc. Surprisingly, out of all the streams, physics is the only one to have subcategories such as astrophysics, nanophysics, and particle physics. Now for this volunteer position, you are usually meant to have a role with the faculty or a role with one specific stream. Let’s just say I may have found a loophole that makes me work for the faculty, maths, and particle physics stream all at the same time…

The goal is to not get caught.

So yeah next week is going to be super exciting! I’m nervous about the Physics stream as I noticed with those volunteering are either all professors or those who just finished their Masters/start of PhD and here I am being the only undergrad student. I’m going to keep doing some particle physics study leading up to the work experience next week and also throughout the winter term (I can’t wait till 3rd year to do particle physics lmao). I also went to the maths training session today and was given a booklet with 8 research questions for the maths stream. There are no answers to them so after this update, I’ll need to go through each one and get some answers.

Now that Semester 1 is officially over, that means Winter Term is just around the corner! I’m going to buy the painting supplies I need for my breadth subject tomorrow while also getting a snack with good old @thunderdragon. My only concern with the breadth is that I might be a bit burned out before the start of Semester 2, but I think I’ll manage (can’t be as bad as summer term Linear Algebra lol). Hopefully, this sem’s results are good and the breadth subject also turns out well. I'm going to do some more revision of differential equations, the year 10 maths research questions and some physics while also taking a much needed relaxing break.

I also have a new goal for the next few years at uni and that is to collect as many free products as I can. One of them is to get a whole collection of new hoodies and items from the uni to make back those SSAFs.

That’s it for today’s mini update so see you when I’ve made some progress in life!

ashmi

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Re: A Particle in an Electric Field | Ashmi's Uni Journal
« Reply #26 on: July 07, 2022, 01:32:50 pm »
+7
✰Mini Update: 7/07✰

Hello AN!

I hope you guys are enjoying the short holiday break and getting some much-needed rest. I’m currently in Phillip Island taking a short vacay till this Friday and have been doing quite a few things. I also got my results back from the previous sem and they are pretty good so I'm vibing. I have quite a bit of updating you guys on so I’m going to jump into the good stuff.

Song of today's update
As per my previous update, we had Year 10 Work experience at uni, which was hella good. I was helping both the maths and particle physics streams and I got so much out of this experience. Not only was I able to make some great friends in the streams, especially physics, I feel like I have gotten so much out of the program (maybe more than the year 10s themselves lol).

The maths faculty had some amazing questions such as number theory, complex numbers, optimisation and more whereas physics we were able to visit the planetarium and do some fun labs. The whole week was basically a bonding session with me and other students/members of the faculty and not to mention the delicious free pizza. Oh yeah, I should add, that I am now dead certain I want to specialise in Experimental Particle Physics! So that’s going to be the goal that I carry through right until the end of next year.

While on this topic, I was a volunteer for the physics faculty whereas in maths I got payments in return. Since I was on a volunteer basis for physics, the people that I ended up becoming good friends with within the particle physics stream recommended me to their current supervisors within EPP. Now because of this, I may have spontaneously landed an internship and will be doing research on Dark Matter this upcoming summer holidays! I was given two options, one on the SABRE experiment in Stawell mines in Victoria or Belle II in Japan, however for my current abilities, I decided to go with the SABRE experiment and if training comes in time, I might be able to visit the underground mines which the experiment will take place. I might consider trying some research on Belle II for another research project later down the track (when I can visit Japan lol). Oh and you know what the best thing about this is? I get my own desk in the Dark Matter Centre and if it’s the one at uni (which it is), I get to keep that desk for as long as I want. I’m so excited and hyped for this!

Next semester, in conjunction with my overload plan of 3 science electives and 2 breadths, I’m also auditing 2 subjects, Foundations of Computing and Sub-Atomic Physics (I ain’t waiting till 3rd year lol). The subject I’m most looking forward to is sub-atomic by far (cause my supervisor is teaching it) as this is where I’ll learn my particle physics knowledge for the internship this summer term. The subjects I am most nervous about are Theoretical Physics 2 and Differential Equations, in particular DE cause of its difficulty.

That’s all for today and I’ll write another update soon, most likely just before uni starts!
« Last Edit: July 07, 2022, 01:35:20 pm by ashmi »