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Researchers in the house?

K

kevinthenerd

Platinum Member
Anybody in here conducting scientific or engineering research? Do you like your job? What are you studying?

I'm studying pool boiling heat transfer myself for the UCF Mechanical Engineering department.
 
Used to...worked for USDA in an entomology lab studying Formosan Subterranean Termites while in college. I loved that job, but since it wasn't in my field of study there wasn't much hope of advancement.
 
My wife works in a lab studying NASH (Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis) at UAB. I have no idea what that means but that's what she says. 🙂
 
I've worked in industry doing research (can't be more specific other than it was on polymers) and I'm doing my Masters research right now. Or rather I should be doing it right now, but I'm posting here instead 😉
 
WTF is the difference between professional research and university research? Did you mean Private? I don't see anything unprofessional about doing research at a university 😛

Right now I'm doing university research. It's very rewarding. I'm working on the calorimeter experiment that the U of Arizona is putting in with ATLAS at CERN. I'm making a simulation program to determine the long-term effects of the high-radiation environment on the liquid argon calorimeter we designed. We're hoping the detector can last for 10+ years, and my research will help determine that.
 
Originally posted by: Eeezee
WTF is the difference between professional research and university research? Did you mean Private? I don't see anything unprofessional about doing research at a university 😛
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I really miss private research. It's really nice to be able to order supplies and whatnot and not have to worry about the budget. Plus the equipment is usually newer. For my research, it looked like we were going to have to buy a $10,000 instrument, at my old job (at a private company), we could have put that on our credit card with my managers approval. It was too much to spend here, so I had to track down another way to do the measurement.

Don't get me wrong, university research has it's advantages too. The schedule is really flexible and I pretty much come and go as I please.

 
My job title is "Research Assistant", if that counts. We design software prototypes - some work with etiquette models, planning, and human factors. Being an assistant, most of my tasks are infrastructure and coding. I really like it, there's a lot of variety in what they have me do.
 
Originally posted by: kevinthenerd
Anybody in here conducting scientific or engineering research? Do you like your job? What are you studying?

I'm studying pool boiling heat transfer myself for the UCF Mechanical Engineering department.
Click to expand...

I work as a research psychologist for the government. In general, I like my job. My main area of research is in auditory perception, although I am doing a brief stint in applied research in the detection of deception.
 
Yeah i do research...but its secret..and if i told you..i would have to kill you..and since there are a lot of people on this board..thats WAY too much effort
 
i'm working on 2 projects this summer, both on a voluntary basis. first one is looking at aspirin-resistance in cardiac patients (as in, "that baby aspirin you're taking isn't doing jack for you") and the second one is investigating the correlation between homelessness and emergency department usage. both are conducted at a university-based, level I trauma center and needless to say, are so far very stimulating. i'm also back at my old job testing chemotherapies against mycobacterium (did that full-time last year). and this is supposed to be my "last summer ever" as a medical student. previously in undergrad, i worked on genetic models of Stargardt's disease (a genetic, juvenile macular degeneration). research is definitely very rewarding if you have the patience. i also hear from a pharmaceutical sciences grad student that industry is where the big money is at. then again, if you can swing it both ways, get an academic position and make some good contacts in the private sector.
 
Originally posted by: Eeezee
WTF is the difference between professional research and university research? Did you mean Private? I don't see anything unprofessional about doing research at a university 😛
Click to expand...

Well, I should have made the distinction more clear. Some people do university research knowing that they'll be doing that sort of thing for life, so it's professional in the sense that they're preparing for a future career in research.

Some do university research for purely academic purposes: learning, growth, networking, and experience. Like me, they just want to get their foot in the door of the industry to move on to other things.

I'm not so sure that I LOVE my job like I used to. I'd rather be designing things. I thought what I'm doing right now was called science, not engineering.
 
Originally posted by: KarmaPolice
Yeah i do research...but its secret..and if i told you..i would have to kill you..and since there are a lot of people on this board..thats WAY too much effort
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My coworker is working on a project for Lockheed Martin that we're really not supposed to discuss with others. It's fun when stuff is secretive. I'm just glad that I don't know any weapons secrets... it's safer this way.
 
Grad student at ISU - EE research - couple of sub-projects in high-speed systems (optical networking, high-speed measurements, etc.)
 
UBC doing research in condensed matter physics... electronic transport on single molecule wires.

Also a volunteer thing building a scaled down space elevator prototype.
 
Wireless sensor networking research @ CU. It's nice that it's flexible, but the people in this field are so blindly devoted to it as it is now that it's spinning its wheels.
 
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