Not actually Thinh btw

After the presentations and the amazing lecture from our SWRI guest speakers, we headed to
Chick-fil-a for lunch, where Sahil the goat bought me a Spicy Deluxe Meal as my birthday
present. THANKS BUDDY! It tasted like chicken.
Then we got the pleasure of having Dr. Carbon explain his fascinating research topic to us.
Basically (if I understood it correctly), there are noise signals in every data point that an
astronomer takes, and the large data set would be limited to the picture with the highest noise
signal, making only one data point possible. What Dr. C did was that he ranked the pictures in
order of the strength of their noise signals and took the one data point. Then, he deleted the
picture with the highest noise signal and plotted the new data set, which gave another data point
that was different from the original one, and repeated this process until the end. HE WAS THE
FIRST EVER PERSON TO DO THIS!!!!! When he explained this to us, the whole class started
clapping out of amazement. I truly feel blessed for having had the opportunity to learn from
these amazing professors for the past 5.5 weeks. This was also the last academic lecture we
would have at SSP, so it was bittersweet. It was nice in that it meant we would have no more
work, but all of us felt like the program went by extremely quickly and we would all miss each
other.
After the lecture, we wrote thank-you letters to SSP sponsors and cleaned up the classrooms.
It’s cool to think about how SSP impacted these people so much that even decades after this
shirt 5.5-week summer program, they still deeply care about the program and actively support it.
I want to be in a position in which I can help out the program in the future as well, just like these
generous donors.
Then we ate dinner, where my table made fun of me for not knowing my travel plan by heart and
not knowing when my school starts. And then we went to the hive and chilled for a bit. Here are
some things we did:

Kal using Sour as his gym equipment

Human pyramid with Aditya, Gwanpil, Sahil, Andrew, Kal, and Eduardo

Spelling Bee (Darnell won!)

SSP shirts and hoodies!

Jonathan waving at the camera (he never does this)

And then we played tag from 10pm to midnight, when it was Lauren’s birthday and the day
ended. Of course, we sang happy birthday to her as soon as the clock struck 12.

Happy birthday Lauren!

-Gwanpil

The post Astro GCSU: Presentation Day first appeared on SSP International.

The past 5 weeks, all I’ve been able to think about is putting one step ahead of the other and working as consistently as possible for as long as I can. Days are long — quite literally, I’m usually up until 1:30 a.m. — but hindsight makes memories short. I don’t know where the time has gone. I could’ve sworn that my first lecture was a week ago; that PSet 4 was due yesterday; that we were at the movies just an hour ago; and everything in between was just a long dream that dissipated the instant I woke up.

Oddly enough, this is the slowest week I have had at SSP. I thought the week of report-writing would be when I crunch in the maximum amount of work, but these have instead been the days where I’ve enjoyed field trips the most (who knew I would enjoy hours being battered by salty waves?), spent the most time playing piano, loved the people around me to the fullest.

I have a lot of people to thank and so many of you that I will always wish I spent a bit more time with (but the reality is that all the time in the world will possibly never be enough). So I’ll say this for now:

• Thank you to my wonderful roommates: Divya, Sai, and Taja (my rock, stone, and pebble — because it’s ridiculous for all of you to be my rock — respectively). Our 87.5% brown suite is the best I could have asked for. I’m glad you’ve gone along with my (mildly aggressive) attempt to indoctrinate you into my purebred Tamil life, and I’m equally glad you liked the Indian snacks and thokku (you’ve made my mother very happy). Our weekly debriefs are still among the best nights I’ve had here, and you just make me feel like my silliest, most open self.
• Thank you Lindy for being the girlboss I wish I could be. You are my biggest inspiration at this camp and every day I fall in even more awe of you (you prove that there are cases where the limit does not exist and just shoots into infinity). I could not have asked for a better teammate, and I don’t know that I’ll ever understand how a person can be so cracked and humble all at the same time. I hope you’ve found me to be at least half as good a teammate to you as you have been to me — and hopefully a good friend, too. Finishing our report gave me so much pride and joy, especially knowing that I did it with you.

• Thank you Olivia for making me feel sane despite my teacup obsession, and for keeping an eye out for fountain pens at that antique store. I may not have walked out with any, but the very thought that someone indulges me and my weird hobbies is a high I can ride for a long time.
• Thank you Andria for showing me Idea 22. I’ve never felt so loved as a pianist, and now I finally understand why the audience is always so important to a performer. I hope I’m able to do a good job of playing the piece at tomorrow’s talent show, but more importantly — I hope it brings you joy.
• Thank you Jasmine, for that awesome day at the aquarium and for being one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. You make me (and everyone else who enters your presence) feel warm and fuzzy with your kindness.
• Thank you to my silly little D&D group. You make me want to keep my eyes open on the bus and stay up late, even if I’m getting my hit points decimated most of the time. I’m holding you to this: we’re going to call and play D&D sometime after SSP is over, okay?
• Thank you to my professors. I’ve been pushed quite far out of my comfort zone while here, but somehow each new lecture feels more exciting than daunting. You’ve made me realize that I really can do anything I put my mind to.
• Thank you to my awesome TAs for grading my assignments late at night and offering truly helpful feedback. And, of course, for creating those little havens of pure fun to make our minds off those spells of stress. And thank you Dr. Ice, for watching out for us, keeping our fridge stocked, organizing every field trip, and for creating here all the little conveniences I’ve taken for granted at home.
• Thank you to everyone else too! My memory is a bit too much like a goldfish’s to remember every moment, but you can believe me when I say this: every conversation with every person here gave me joy.

I’ll miss all of you tons. I can’t wait for your final presentations on Sunday and we are all going to do amazing. I hope you all have safe trips home, and that I am able to talk my parents into letting me go to that reunion in October so we can meet again. You’ve been great. Love you loads. Promise me you’ll kick back and relax now that we’ve submitted reports, okay?

-Sanjana

The post Astro GCSU: Final Report Day first appeared on SSP International.