{"id":367,"date":"2016-09-06T15:37:20","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T19:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/sharifzadeh\/?page_id=367"},"modified":"2016-09-06T22:25:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T02:25:00","slug":"summer-research-experience-deja-rogers-2016","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/sharifzadeh\/blog-posts\/summer-research-experience-deja-rogers-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Research Experience, De’Ja Rogers 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello, my name is De\u2019Ja Rogers. I am currently a rising sophomore Electrical and Electronics major at Norfolk State University. This is my research experience as a participant in the NSF REU Program at Boston University, under Dr. Helen Fawcett. I worked with Nifemi Mabayoje, a teacher at East Boston High School, a participant in the NSF RET Program.<\/p>\n

From what I heard about summer internships, they are supposed to be strictly professional and highly intense. At Boston University, that, thankfully, is not necessarily the case. I was given the opportunity to work with Dr. Sahar Sharifzadeh and Nathan Frey in Professor Sharifzadeh\u2019s lab, simulating and understanding organic radicals. Though my experience was not perfect, I did enjoy it. It not only broadened my knowledge, I learned valuable life lessons, and was able to experience one of America\u2019s most popular cities.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Fawcett, De’Ja, and Dr. Sharifzadeh (left to right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The beginning of the internship was quite rough. I was so interested and eager to begin my part of the project, that I never realized that I did not have enough knowledge to complete even the simplest task. The group project required knowledge of quantum mechanics, quantum physics, and quantum chemistry. As a rising sophomore, I was behind on two years of knowledge and did not have much time to catch up. I felt severely overwhelmed and wondered if I had made the right choice in participating. Surprising almost everyone, including myself, I was able to grasp enough of the quantum mechanics after just two weeks, using courses on NanoHub.org.<\/p>\n

The specific radical I, with the help of my mentor Nathan Frey and my partner Nifemi Mabayoje, focused on was\u00a02,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy\u00a0(TEMPO). My job was to compute and simulate TEMPO structures, on PTMA backbones, in a way that would allow for sufficient electron charge transfer. I had six different cases to examine. I created the structures using a program called Avogadro, and calculated\/simulated molecular orbitals, total energy, and spin density, on the programs Gaussian09 and Gaussview.<\/p>\n

Over the course of this summer, I learned more than just the science required for my project. I was able to learn new coding languages and environments, like Linux and Bash. Also, I learned more about myself and some valuable lessons just by enduring the internship. I learned that I need to be more patient and accepting, when dealing with situations I am not able to control. I also learned about perseverance and the quality of teamwork. Lastly, I found that I am not a city girl. As beautiful as the architecture is, as many activities there are to participate in, and as tasty as the food is, I prefer peace and quiet.<\/p>\n

\"De'Ja<\/a>
De’Ja explains her research to another participant and to graduate student mentor, Nathan Frey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I thank Professor Helen Fawcett for the opportunity to gain research experience, and Professor Sharifzadeh, Nathan, and Nifemi for working with me this summer. I have grown intellectually and personally from this experience. I am glad that it was my first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello, my name is De\u2019Ja Rogers. I am currently a rising sophomore Electrical and Electronics major at Norfolk State University. This is my research experience as a participant in the NSF REU Program at Boston University, under Dr. Helen Fawcett. I worked with Nifemi Mabayoje, a teacher at East Boston High School, a participant in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12031,"featured_media":0,"parent":347,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/sharifzadeh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/367"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/sharifzadeh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/sharifzadeh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/sharifzadeh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/sharifzadeh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/sharifzadeh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/sharifzadeh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/367\/revisions\/377"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/sharifzadeh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/sharifzadeh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}