Nuclear Nonsense

When you hear "nuclear energy" what comes to mind? Is it The Simpsons with bald-headed Homer sleeping in a control room and hitting a reactor meltdown button? Is it the damage caused in Japan at Fukushima? Like most things, the only things portrayed in the media are the worst outcomes and never the benefits.

Let's start by telling you what nuclear power actually is. By utilizing radioactive materials, nuclear fission can be used to create heat.

Courtesy of Google: Picture of Nuclear Fission

This heat is used to boil water in a Water Boiler (catchy name right?). As the water evaporates the steam, is is lifted and turns a set of Turbines, which power generators, which produce electricity!

Nuclear power plants provide 6% of the world's energy, 14% of the world's electricity, and one single power plant, Diablo Canyon, provides 10% of all electrical power in the state of California. Nuclear energy reduces carbon emissions and provides virtually no air pollution, such as the smog and greenhouse gases caused by fossil fuels.

Also, did you know that in working at a nuclear plant, there is less exposure than there is in other everyday situations?

1. If you fly for business, you get more of a radiological dose from flying than you would from being at a nuclear plant.
2. You get a higher radiation dose having your teeth x-rayed than by being at a nuclear plant.
3. If you use a microwave constantly, you get more of a radiation dose than you would at a nuclear plant.

France gets 75% of it's power from Nuclear plants. 75%! That means less emissions, cleaner air, and a reliable source of power! Nuclear is a low cost means of creating electricity, and by creating so much of it, is able to sell much of it to neighboring countries while maintaining the lowest electricity costs to it's citizens in all of Europe.

Is nuclear power actually scary? It can be if not properly maintained, monitored, and made sure to handle the most extreme situations. To me, it just feels like a small bit of nuclear nonsense.

Everytime I drive my truck...Vroom!

You know what makes me feel like a total girl? Cars...

Do I know how to change the oil? Kinda.


But last April, I got a wonderful gift from my Grandpa...his Chevy Truck...

Image Courtesy of VWVortex

Personally, I call it "Sally" or "The Green Giant" (I think his name for it was "The Green Hornet"...my names are close enough)

To the point! This truck is manual.  No automatic transmission for my baby. :-)

The fact that my truck is manual has given me such a sense of accomplishment and freedom (in terms of cars)...and I finally feel like a Mechanical Engineer (I know having a stick says nothing about my accomplishments in the field of engineering, but hey! I can drive a stick :-P).


Sometimes I put on my bug glasses (see below), and see what kind of expressions I can get from people. It's a game of stereotypes that I LOVE to play :-)

Image Courtesy of UncleBoise

When is your favorite scenario to beat the stereotype? 

-Serena

PS My truck doesn't look like/doesn't do tricks like the one above.  That picture just made me laugh that I HAD to post it.

"We want you to make a movie"

Image Courtesy of arialm.blogspot.com

Last summer, I got my first internship. Woohoo!

I got placed in Air Liquide's Electronic's Headquarters in Dallas, Texas.  This plant "refines" all of the oxygen, argon, nitrogen, and hydrogen for Texas Instrument's Headquarters...basically.  There's a lot of gas flowing through these pipes...no pun intended.

So I was the intern. Basically, I was expecting  to copy papers, write up a few reports, crunch a few numbers, identify pipes/valves, etc, etc.

One day, I get a call from two different people.  First one is from the director of training.  Basically, he trains everyone within Electronics.  Really nice guy.  Then, I get a call from the head of operations.  They ask for a meeting (remember, I am the intern, not a lot is expected from me...so why would I be getting a call from the Head of Operations...hmmmm). They sit me down and say,

"We want you to make a movie about *insert safety jargon here*; we want it to be about an hour long, and *enter topics here* need to be discussed."

Oh, did I mention that they were willing to pay someone $15,000 to make this video? Yeah....

I was very confused on many different levels...

1. My major is Mechanical Engineering. Do I know anything about movie making? No really.
2. They want this movie to be an hour. I know there's a lot of work that goes into a 30-second commercial...let alone a 1-hour safety video.
3. Basically, I had no budget. Priceless.

So Rule Number 1 for your future internship: Never say "I can't/I'm not willing to do _____."

They knew my major was in engineering. They really didn't expect much out of the video (*psss* they were expecting the intern to make the video). They gave me some tools, threw out some ideas (while I talked about some of my own), and we went from there.  (Oh, and another side note: since I was from LA, they thought that I had more movie-making skills than the average person...hahaha)

So I did some research, compiled my Powerpoint slides with Windows Movie Maker, and did my best.  And guess what? I showed my video to the President of Electronics, and guess what? He liked it.

Never say you can't/won't.  You might just learn something, and earn brownie points :-P

-Serena

PS. I never mentioned that I, personally, narrated this movie...It's really strange to edit your own voice recording...It's just weird.

"Pursuit of Happyness"

As I've said before, I've been reading "The Happiness Project". And throughout Spring break, I've had a a sense of "soul searching."

• What do I want to do with my life? 
• What jobs will make me happy? 
• What are my interests (outside of school)? 
• How do I want to make an impact on society? 

I've used a few sources...some of which my mentor suggested to me...many years ago :-) 

1. Research Journal Abstracts. "It's the advantage of going to a big school (like UC Davis)" It's likely that the university subscribes to most journals out there...and you can peruse for a lifetime. (If you need help with the UC Davis's library's VPN, let me know.)
2. TED. TED stands for "Technology, Education, Design" and some of the most influential people in the world try to advocate you through short videos.  They talk about all sorts of topics (Technology especially), and could be source of inspiration for you to jumpstart your career.
3. Professor Richard Feynman. He was a Nobel Laureate for his work in quantum physics.  He even worked at Los Alamos and was one of the only people to see the White Sands nuclear test in the 1940s. A few weeks back, I read "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!" and I was hooked on finding what makes me happy (like he did). In this book, he mentions that his Nobel Prize was a derivative of throwing plates in the cafeteria. Don't believe me? Read it.
4. ScienceNOW. Don't forget that you can read full articles using your UC Davis Connection from Off-campus.  However, ScienceNOW give news that is easier to read (similar to a blog style).  I spent a couple hours on it reading about the brain and neuron disorders...

This is definitely NOT an exhaustive list.  What sources do you search for fun?

-Serena

Shigley Hauler Part III

So remember team Draco's lovely Shigley Hauler Parts I and II? Well, here are the results:

• 1 book at 20 degrees: 7.5 seconds
• 2 books at 30 degrees: 22.3 seconds
• 4 books at 40 degrees: 52.5 seconds
• 5 books at 60 degrees: 155.5 seconds

Can you believe that we hauled 5 books (22.5 pounds) up a 60 degree ramp with a motor (see below) that runs on two AA's?! Yeah...me neither...but we did!

Good Job, Team Draco! 

-Serena

The Happiness Project

I feel like engineering is one of the best "philosophy" majors.  You constantly think about who we are as a society, where we are going as a society (think Soviet Nuclear crisis or the current energy situation), and where I am in the midst of it.  You can't deny your relevance to the current politico-economic situation...I've especially learned this from being in Washington DC.

Sure, it's fun to reflect on the meaning of life.  I'm in the process of reading "The Happiness Project". And nothing in this book is profounding (to be honest).  Basically, it's one person journey to happiness and fulfilling life's goal. From what I've gotten, the meaning of life is the journey to happiness.

This past week, I've been really struggling with where I want to go/what I want to do. What I've learned is the following: Don't deny what makes you happy. 


On the same note, watch the following video.

-Serena

Dealing with Test Anxiety

Hello. I haven't blogged in quite some time but I'm back now! I'm on spring break and enjoying every extra minute I'm in bed and not outside in the rain :)

Did you know that around 20% of students suffer from Test Anxiety? Crazy, right?

If you're one of this twenty percent you know how difficult it is to deal with. I thought I'd put together my list of tips for getting past the anxiety in order to be help you focus on your exams.

Note: These are in no particular order.

-Visualize: I know this sounds cheesy but it helps, imagine going into the exam and visualize every possibility. Imagine the best possible outcome, you come in, flip to the first page, look over all the problems, and mentally high five yourself because you know all the topics covered. Now what if you don't know the first question, go on and realize you know the next, etc. Do this every night until the exam. By the time the test comes around it's not as terrifying anymore because you've mentally taken it a good fifteen times already.

-BREATHE: One of the problems I deal with during tests is I freak myself out more than necessary and my heart beat goes way up. Focus on your breathing, youtube breathing exercises, and practice. Panicking is not going to help, focus on calming yourself and dealing with the task at hand.

-Sleep: Get enough sleep, eight hours is usually just wishful thinking the night before an exam but try to shoot for at least six. You need to focus on the completing the exam to the best of your abilities, not on trying not to drool on your exam. While an all-nighter may seem like a good idea at the time, it'll be no help the next morning when you can't recall the information from lack of sleep or fall asleep during an exam.

-Study thoroughly: Studying for college is not like studying for high school. It's not just rereading your notes and acing an exam. It's even harder with test anxiety in the way. Prepare for your exam WELL and in every way. If you feel you have done everything you possibly can to prepare for an exam then there won't be much doubt in your mind. Being prepared--> confidence.

-Music: I have two playlists for this. 1: My chill mix: music I can close my eyes and relax to. For me this is Ronald Jenkees, RJD2, The Album Leaf, Glorie, etc. All lyric-less instrumentals. This is for pre-test or when you just need to tune the world out. 2: a Happy Mix: This is your mood boosting mix for study breaks to convince yourself to keep going; upbeat music you can dance around to or songs that just make you smile.

-Good Memories: One of the things I like to do before an exam is get to class a little early and just wander campus. I usually end up visiting the building where I had my best exam experiences and best scores. It helps me feel like regardless of how freaked I am I can do well. I have felt this way before and still survived the exam and did well. Give it a shot, it’s surprisingly helpful.

-Avoid negative people: You know who I’m talking about; the worriers. Talking to someone panicking about an exam will just increase your anxiety and make you doubt how much you know. Just plug in headphones and try to tune everything out.

-After the exam: It’s over, there’s nothing else to be done at this time, don’t stress yourself out worrying about it. Go home, sleep, or go out to lunch or something. Treat this as a kind of reward for making it through the exam.

I hope these tips help. If you have any questions feel free to comment below. I’ll do a post later about great study music.

Cheers,

N. Riazi

Photo from Microsoft Office Online: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/results.aspx?qu=test&ctt=1#ai:MP900439390|mt:2|