Along with school comes classes. And even though three might seem like a light load (compared to the 5-7 I took at UI), it will be more than enough. Here's what I'm taking:
Applied Quantum Mechanics (Electrical Engineering/Applied Physics)
Thermodynamics (Materials Science and Engineering)
Structure of Materials (also MSE)
Which are all classes I've taken before at UI, but these are obviously much harder. Quantum is looking to be exceptionally difficult, but the prof seems pretty good, and there's a TA. The Thermo prof seems good too, although the Structure prof is not a good lecturer at all. But like they said on Mars Attacks, "2 out of 3 ain't bad."
I've also chosen an advisor, Dr. Stephen Forrest. He's a professor in EE, MSE, and Applied Physics, along with being the Vice President of Research for the whole University. His research group, the Optoelectronic Components and Materials group, has been optical devices such as LEDs and solar cells for about 20 years. He mainly focuses on organic materials (in the same broad category as plastics), which will (hopefully) be cheaper than current silicon-based solar cells. It looks like I'll be taking over a new solar cell project from a PhD student who will be leaving soon--I'd describe it, but it's yet to be published so it's still confidential.
At the moment, however, I'm just training on how to use the equipment. I've learned (or relearned) how to use the ellipsometer, atomic force microscope, UV-Vis spectrometer, and other toys that are used to get information about our devices (in this case, solar cells that are about 1mm square). And today I helped clean out the evaporation deposition chamber (woohoo). But soon I'll start training on how to actually make devices and do actual work.
Oh, and here's a random picture from the MSE grad student picnic a few weeks ago.
