Learning How to Solve Problems - Week 1

Hello, my name is Alyssa and I'm currently working on "application of electrostatic probe on fluidized bed" at Columbia University. It's been one week since I started my laboratory work, and my initial "out of place" feeling has been replaced by excitement about my research.

Fluidized Bed

On the first day, I met with my PI Dr. Park, PHD student Helios and the rest of the Park Group. I was introduced to fluidized bed - a machine that turns solid particles into fluid like states. Although I had read about it on paper, I had never seen it in reality and looked at the system that controls gas flow, so it was an eye-opening experience.The rest of the day, I read the introduction of a book called Fluidization Engineering to learn more about terms such as  "slugging"(when fine particles slide down the wall of a fluidized bed) and the factors affecting fluidization quality. The rest of the week, I underwent a safety training, continued reading Fluidization Engineering, started browsing the manuals of the pico ammeter the lab has, and took notes on Electrostatics Principles, Problems & Application.

Pico ammeter and
system control

Besides gaining insights on the principles of fluidized bed, studying equations that calculate voltage, and going through the safety precautions, I had a better understanding of what engineers do. In my opinion, the most important lesson I learned this week was that being an environmental engineer not only requires knowledge in the field but also utilization of other skills ranging from soldering to computer programming. The essence of science is problem solving. Over the week, my lab had 2 major problems:The first one was with the detector. After measuring the pressure drop and acquiring about 30 sets of statistics, we realized that the pressure drop always has an unusual variation each time we measure it. Undergoing "trial and error", we found out that the detector had a malfunction and it took us one day to fix it. Then, just when the pico ammeter and the system control arrived, we needed to figure out a way to import specific sets of data into the computer. It took my mentors 2 days to come up with a MATLAB program so that both machines would listen to the computer's commands. I realized that to be successful in his/her research, one needs both professional knowledge and merits such as persistence and patience.

Overall, it's been a fruitful week. The people in my lab are very kind and welcoming. I look forward to conducting actual, large-scale experiments next week and getting the most out of my EXP experience.