Travel to Postech early in the morning by bus and see presentations about the school from a professor and the computer science dept. in the general presentation we learned about the school and why we are joining, and they were very kind. In the comp sci/engr dept we learned about their research and a newer faculty discussed their research on using AI for healthcare and socially isolated individuals, they were clearly very passionate. We got cool compact pencil cases as souvenirs during our presentations and learned about pytorchsim, which I was excited about because I may actually use it in my upcoming research.
We got lunch at the esports colosseum in a school cafeteria and I got some amazing eggs and rice as we ate with postech students to build relationships with the school. They were nice and the colosseum seemed really cool too, I wish I could have had the opportunity to use the computers.
We then visited PAL and other facilities and labs and I was In awe the entire time. We saw quantum computer research where they not only had several, they networked them using what I could only internalize as quantum entanglement. We saw opacity controlled glass, piezoelectric pads to turn glass into speakers, color changing synthetic skin, and RF antennae embedded in glass for windshields to increase transmission quality.
We then left to see some of the larger facilities and I was like a kid in a candy store. I had seen videos about the photolithography machines and been impressed, not assuming I would ever see one in person considering how expensive and rare they are. Lo and behold, at their National Institute for Nanomaterials Technology we saw clean rooms completely full of cutting edge technology including photolithography machines that they collaborated with local companies and researchers to use. I was in awe at this point at their resources and beaming that I was lucky enough to see them in person, and then we saw PAL. The Pohang Accelerator Laboratory blew me away and my only regret is not spending several days learning more about it. They had a gen 3 and gen 4 synchrotron radiation accelerator and the buildings were kilometers long in total, long enough that we needed to take the bus to get from one end to the other. They needed to be this length so that they could have the space necessary to accelerate an electron beam through a vacuum tube using powerful electromagnets to APPROACH THE SPEED OF LIGHT! I frankly have no words to communicate how cool this is to me. On top of this, the first-generation accelerator then sent the electron beam into a circular building with segments of the vacuum tube that curved and bent the trajectory of the beam, producing synchrotron radiation that could then be experimented with in over 30 different beam stations. I did not even previously know what synchrotron radiation was and I still do not entirely understand it, but I love electromagnetism and I cannot wait to learn more about it when I return. Beyond the shock to learn such a wonderful property of the bending path of electrons at high speeds, the amount of good they do with these beams is astounding. Each of the beam stations is used by some company research team or college to provide groundbreaking discoveries to humanity, including contributing to the creation of a COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer. It was humbling and exhilarating to be shown around the facility and see all of these stations and the wonderful looking machinery pushing the bounds of physics to make miracles happen. It got better somehow, because we then visited the gen 4 accelerator constructed more recently and got to see more of the inner workings and even enter the room with the beam collision chamber. Everything we saw was incredible, and this facility over a kilometer of electromagnets and what I am referring to as “wigglers”. Rows of alternating polarity magnets provide an alternating magnetic field that move the electron beam from side to side, also producing synchrotron radiation in a more concentrated form to be used in experiments in the collision chamber (which we got to see [which was amazing {I bet you wish you were there}]).
This trip was an indescribable experience that showed me several lines of work that I am interested in, be it electromagnetic physics, nanotechnology, chip design, computer science, machine learning, and each one was just as fascinating to learn more about in person as I would expect, if not more. This made my trip to postech very impactful for my own professional development as I got to see a closer look at what my potential career paths would look like as I get into more advanced topics. Thank you for reading this development in the blog, and I cannot wait to update you about postech visit #2!!