Ever since I was young, I've been doing stuff with computers, just playing games and browsing the web. Then I started seeing videos of people building computers and keyboards and stuff online, and that sparked my interest. About five years ago, I built a computer, and I was pretty fascinated by all the hardware. I also like the coding side. I think programming is neat, even though I'm not the best at it, but I would like to improve and learn all about it. 

I received my Associate of Science degree from Joliet Junior College. Joliet Junior College doesn't offer major specific courses for my major that would transfer to UIC. But on my own time, I have dabbled with Raspberry Pi and NodeMcus. I have a 3D printer that I like to tinker with, and recently, I've seen that quantum computing has been on the rise. I'm hoping to be able to carry my electrical engineering degree into quantum computing.

I took a lot of STEM classes in high school and I joined a club called SkillsUSA when I was a junior.  The SkillsUSA program focuses on the development of trades skills. The program had an electrical technology-focused competition, which I took part in. Also, I had a couple of teachers in high school who taught engineering classes, and they inspired me to pursue a career in electrical engineering. I especially like math.  I've heard that electrical engineering is the most math heavy out of all the different types of engineering. My ideal job would be to work in the radio frequency sciences. I am also open to any type of STEM internships or STEM jobs, because I want to see how each field is. Electrical engineering is a very broad topic, and there's so many different types of jobs and I want to test them all out.  For example, becoming a satellite engineer working for NASA or SpaceX. 

Engineering is also something that I enjoy in my free time. A lot of the programming that I do on my own is little things in games. I've tried to make some mods, change how the games work that I play. I also like tools that assist me, such as calculators that are game specific.  I'm hoping to make my own keyboard at some point. While I didn't have too much experience with soldering, I gained some experience learning how to solder during this internship, and gained a basic understanding. Now that I have the hang of soldering, I kind of want to do more of it on my own time.

My interest in electrical engineering started when I was young. When I was in middle school, we got a new computer, because we needed a more updated computer that could print. When we were going to throw the old computer out, I got curious. I always wondered what the inside of a computer looked like, so I talked to my dad about opening the old computer up and seeing what was inside. We opened the computer up, and I just remember seeing the motherboard. I remember seeing SATA cables,  older cables that computers used back then. That experience was what sparked my interest in going into electrical engineering. Originally, I wanted to study software engineering and computer engineering, but over time, after I dabbled more in electronics on my own time I was able to lean more towards electrical engineering. I liked how the design of motherboards and computers brings us to where we are today, in this current day and age with the advancement of technology.

I've been working with UChicago graduate student Hrushi and Dr Benson in designing a new type of strut for the new cryostat. These struts will use screws instead of epoxy, which should be a lot easier to manufacture. I've been prototyping and testing these struts for most of the internship. Now we are ordering parts to test out the new strut design. We're going to test the tensile strength of the struts on a device called the intron, which can measure the tensile strength of the struts. Hopefully, it tests better than the previous strut model so it can be used in the cryostat.  I believe the strut separates the 300k shell from the next lower temperature shell. These shells are made using G 10 [adhesive], a composite that is not very thermally conductive to prevent heat transfer from shell to shell. The primary use of the struts is to hold the different shells of the cryostat.

When I complete my undergrad and work for a few years, then I want to return to schooling after I've gotten a bit of money, so I can support myself. Eventually, I want to come back to academia. I think that being a professor could be a neat thing to do in the future, way down the line. All the teachers that I've had throughout my college experience have been amazing, and they kind of inspired me to want to do something in academia. I think that being a professor could be a neat thing to do in the future because all the teachers that I've had throughout my college experience have been amazing, and they inspired me to want to teach. 

The field trip to EeroQ was exciting! I felt the internship opportunity at the University of Chicago helped my understanding of quantum computers a little bit more than I did before I started the internship. The South Pole Telescope scientists use cryostats to keep the South Pole Telescope computer equipment cool.  For our research projects we worked with cryostats to test the optics tubes, different SPT equipment. Some things I got to do were cool down the cryostat, take it apart, put it back together, and take out parts to try and cool down the cryostat to the temperature we wanted. At EeroQ I was able to see what I want to do with my degree. I didn't even know we had quantum companies in Chicago. We saw central processing chips (CPUs) in the development phase. We also got to see two of the cryostats that they use to test the components, which looked similar to the SPT cryostat. 

One motivation that's generally got me interested in the field of engineering is my brother. He's in his final semester of mechanical engineering, so part of me wants to follow in his footsteps. We both have very similar minds. Secondly, I had specific teachers, like my physics teacher in high school who motivated me to question everything. He sparked my interest in trying to figure out all this technology that may seem like magic to most people. For example, figuring out how your Bluetooth works or how radio waves work. I want to master something that's very hard and apply it to make things better in the world. 

My physics professor, Andrew Morrison the one who got us into this South Pole Telescope Research Experience for Undergraduate (REU) students.  He inspired me because he just seemed to care about the students. There was another professor, Patrick Mills, who is a chemistry professor at Joliet Junior College (JJC). Professor Mills ran a research program at the community college, and that was one of the only opportunities to do research there. And being able to have that initial research experience opened the door for me, and it made me want to do more research. 

This summer, Dr Benson assigned me to work on a snout extension for the cryostat. I basically had to extend the snout and add scrolls of slightly smaller diameter. Snout extensions will sit on top of the 300k (kelvin) cryostat shell. Apart from extending the 20-inch snout, and then the diameter is also shrunken down a little bit. The South Pole Telescope team is planning on using that extension to be able to test optics tubes and new technology before they send the equipment down to the South Pole. It's been cool because I've gotten to work with new software that I never knew was out there. I got to use SolidWorks, a CAD software, which I primarily used to design the snout extension. 

During the internship I was mentored by UChicago graduate students Hirushi and Varun, who took time out of their busy schedules to teach us. We were able to turn on the cryostat and take it apart in the lab. This was a great experience because we had never done anything like this before.  Our graduate student mentors tried to make this research experience memorable and supported us with the projects we were assigned. Graduate student Varun was very knowledgeable and had experience working on  Simons Observatory research when he was an undergraduate student. Varun shared with us details about the cosmology and astronomy research he had done for the Simons Observatory. It was nice to have him as a mentor.

During the internship I was mentored by UChicago graduate students Hirushi and Varun, who took time out of their busy schedules to teach us. We were able to turn on the cryostat and take it apart in the lab. This was a great experience because we had never done anything like this before.  Our graduate student mentors tried to make this research experience memorable and supported us with the projects we were assigned. Graduate student Varun was very knowledgeable and had experience working on  Simons Observatory research when he was an undergraduate student. Varun shared with us details about the cosmology and astronomy research he had done for the Simons Observatory. It was nice to have him as a mentor.

Coming into this research experience, I was nervous, because it was going to be a school I didn't attend. I didn't know how I was going to be received by the scientists who have been working on the South Pole Telescope (SPT) project for an extended period of time. Being able to work with Dr. Natoli and Dr Benson has been good, they are cool people.  To be in a professional environment where everybody's like a friend, there's a family type feel to the group. As for the other interns I got to work with, it was a cool dynamic. I took physics and engineering physics classes with fellow interns Anthony and Ryan, and I go to work alongside them this summer. I already kind of knew them, so commuting to the UChicago campus and working with them every day was awesome. It's been fun to work in a professional environment where everybody's just friendly and collaborative. I will say Ryan had a little bit more experience with SolidWorks, so having him as a reference right next to me helped with my project. 

I've done Brazilian Jujitsu, which is like a form of wrestling, consistently for the last six and a half years. I competed in this sport quite a bit when I was younger, but not so much now because I've been busier with school. I like to mountain bike when I have the time. I also play video games almost every weekend. One of the video games I have been playing is called Satisfactory, which involves you running a big factory across a piece of land. As the player, you have to manage a bunch of different supply lines. It's basically just like a spreadsheet game, but I find it very fun.

The cryostat cools down the instruments that are being used on the South Pole Telescope. Since the telescope uses a lot of power, it's going to get a lot of heat. Right now, on the Lakeshore, we have a cord that plugs into the cryostat, and then we have to cut the other side of that cord, take out the wires in it, and then plug them into the Lakeshore 240 device. The added printed circuit board (PCB) would make it so we could just have two ends of the cord, one in the cryostat, and then one plugging into the circuit board, and finally the circuit board would connect to the Lakeshore. This procedure is done so we don't have to hardwire things, and it would be a bit more secure. Also, there would be more options to change it around that didn't involve having to undo and redo every single step

This was the first time I got to walk into a lab and have this type of research opportunity. This internship was an eye-opening experience. From being able to learn things from all sorts of perspectives, whether it be from using software or collaborating with scientists. The Astro Talk Tuesdays were interesting because I got to learn a little bit about the range of cosmology and astrophysics research happening at UChicago. I got a little insight into what being a grad student is like from graduate student Varun. He was very helpful with any type of questions we had, whether it was related to the South Pole Telescope, his experiences as an international student or hearing about the research he had done with Simon's Observatory. 

The cryostat cools down the instruments that are being used on the South Pole Telescope. Since the telescope uses a lot of power, it's going to get a lot of heat. Right now, on the Lakeshore, we have a cord that plugs into the cryostat, and then we have to cut the other side of that cord, take out the wires in it, and then plug them into the Lakeshore 240 device. The added printed circuit board (PCB) would make it so we could just have two ends of the cord, one in the cryostat, and then one plugging into the circuit board, and finally the circuit board would connect to the Lakeshore. This procedure is done so we don't have to hardwire things, and it would be a bit more secure. Also, there would be more options to change it around that didn't involve having to undo and redo every single step

My main hobby for the past few years has been personal fitness, staying in shape. I started going to the gym before the Covid-19 shutdown in 2020, and then when the shutdown happened I started going on runs. I would go every day, I didn't have anything else to do. I looked forward to the gym opening again, even if it was with the restrictions. Apart from personal fitness, I like to work on my car and get my hands dirty. Since I was a little kid, I've always liked to be very hands-on with projects. I also love to dabble with electronics, which started when I was in high school. I remember taking a computer programming class, and I talked to my teacher, and he was able to tell me about what a Raspberry Pi is and more about electronics. That's where I started to develop my interest in electrical engineering. After that class I bought a 3D printer. I’m very hands-on; I like to do things with my hands, which right now is primarily working on my car and doing electronic projects on the side. 

My name is Wolfgang Struven. I am 23 years old. I am a student at Joliet Junior College. Technically I would be going into my junior year. I tried starting college post-pandemic, but I wasn’t ready and had to take a gap year. 

I’m currently on track to transfer to UIUC soon, hopefully to graduate in late 2026 or early 2027. I also just got engaged, and plan to be married in either April of 2026 or 2027.

My name is Allison. I'm 20 years old, and I'm going to be a junior and starting at North Central College in Naperville.

I plan on becoming a mechanical engineer. I have about two and a half years left of school. Two years at Joliet Junior College, and then two more at North Central.

I hope to do my four years, get my bachelor's, and go into mechanical engineering with that. Just get a job from there and then see, maybe research, but just that's where I'd wanna go. 

I’m Casey Garrett. I am 22 years old and a sophomore at Joliet Junior College.

I'm working on finishing my associate's right now, and once I do that, I'm going to move on to working for a bachelor's in nuclear engineering at Urbana Champaign. 

Early on, I went to Western Illinois University, year 2020, and failed that, and then later went back to school at Joliet Junior College. At the time I was looking into pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. But as I went through and took more and more chemistry classes, I found out exactly how much I enjoyed doing chemistry and different types of chemistry. I was like, hey, actually, I think I could do this for a living, and change my aim toward nuclear engineering, And that’s where I'm at now, working toward that.

I plan on trying to work towards being a nuclear operator. But also, I think if given the opportunity, working at some place like Argonne or Fermi, doing nuclear engineering stuff would be really, really cool. 

I've actually been doing some research of my own. I was originally under the guide of a professor at U of I but not any longer. It was originally my idea to do the research, which is to look for a nebula in the New General Catalog, or the NGC that was lost over 100 years ago. No one knows what happened to it. It could have been an erroneous observation, or a duplicate observation, which is what many have theorized it to be. But what really drew me to it was that the name of it is Struve’s Lost Nebula and was discovered by Otto Wilhelm von Struve. He has the same last name as me, and as I would later find out, I am distantly related to him.

That's originally how I discovered this nebula, or discovered it in the catalog. Why is there a nebula with my last name on here? That's partly what inspired me to do that research. But it has now kind of turned into this whole fascination with the interstellar medium (ISM), because this research is essentially an ISM project. The nebula was seen near the original T Tauri, which its name was then applied to a whole class of stars. It’s basically like the teenage years of a star. And this nebula, if it exists, is basically in the ISM around the star, no less than half a light year from the star.

The ISM really fascinates me, especially since the Voyager One and Two spacecraft that we launched in 1978 finally started to enter the ISM. They've taken some very fascinating readings. Another distant relative of mine who was an astronomer, actually was director of the Yerkes Observatory, Otto Struve, grandson of Otto Wilhelm von Struve. He was a pioneering researcher in discovering that there, in fact, are clouds of gas in interstellar space by isolating their spectral lines from background objects. The ISM fascinates me, because it could be either the next generation or the one after that could be going into interstellar space, going to distant stars. I would love to understand that because if we end up colonizing distant planets, we should at least have a good understanding of the vast sea of space to get there! To me, studying the ISM like trying to build a map of unknown lands, sort of like cartographers of old.  Ferdinand Magellan, for example.

That’s actually part of what drew me to the South Pole Telescope program. I really like the South Pole Telescope because Antarctica itself is very fascinating. It's essentially the final frontier of the earth. When you're there it feels like you're on another planet. It's so inhospitable to life. You might think, “Well, why is that cool? Just sounds awful.” To me, it’s because it's like you're on another planet. It's like you're on the cusp of human knowledge.

My mom took me to a Girls in Engineering Day at Olivet Nazarene University when I was 10. She took me there and they had games where you could build stuff. So I thought that was really interesting. And then from there, she gently guided me in that direction. And then I've just liked it ever since.

I’m minoring in environmental studies, so I'm hoping to build machines that'll help the environment. So machines along that line, building, problem solving, to help the world we live in. 

I’m thinking places like Exxon Mobil because they're environmentally friendly, and they're working towards that sort of thing.

I'm a first-generation college student, but growing up, I remember that my dad was always a bit of a technophile. He was really into science and astronomy and cosmology and all that. I remember watching a bunch of those space shows in the background when I was a little. I would say that's probably most of the inspiration I got in order to go, “Oh my god, this is so awesome. I'm so happy I get to do this.”

It's made me appreciate just how diverse the perspectives on science can be. It has also made me kind of feel more at home. This isn't just a regular nine-to-five, it is really just you and a bunch of smart people getting together to solve this really cool problem or complete a really cool project. In the end, it's like, hey, we did something really, really cool. We just measured something from, literally, on the other side of the universe. I'd say working with other people has made academia far less intimidating. 

With the programming, it's definitely an adjustment. We use SolidWorks here. In the past, I've used AutoCAD inventor. It's been an adjustment all around to learn the programming, which slows you down on your project, but they're similar enough to where it didn't take a huge amount of time. And Alec was very helpful because he knows the program really well, so he gave me tutorials and stuff like that. It's been very helpful.

I think they're very open to be there whenever you need help. Obviously, everyone has their own jobs to do. So finding time to meet can be a problem. But I find everyone's like, “I have this this amount of time, let's meet then and go over everything”. So they're very good at keeping up with you and making sure you're doing good, making sure everything's going the way it should, so you don't feel like you're alone at all.

The chairs in here are uncomfortable for long ends of time. But other than that, it's been It feels self-led, which is interesting. I enjoy all the people here. It's nice talking with people who are very smart and generally knowledgeable in their fields. And the work itself is, I'd say it's decently fulfilling. I've been enjoying it here.

I’ve mostly been working with Dr. Benson and Alec, and they've both been very busy throughout the entire part. Brad seems to have more than a full plate, but they've given me and Alison enough guidance in order to try and actually undertake the task. It's mostly been like a guidance thing, and trying to catch us up on all the classes we haven't taken. We're the JJC students here, so we are slightly less prepared for this, but, at no point have I felt that they have inadequately prepared me.