Today marks the first day of the Summer where I have summoned the strength to google how to use git again so I could update this blog. All things considered, the summer is going very well!

Exam results

Pretty chuffed with all of my results [ bar integration. >:( ]. From what I’m aware, I won all of the academic awards I could’ve won. This includes, but is not limited to, the monsignor spelman prize. This is of note because, much to my surprise, my father was friends with his daughter. Unfortunately he (spelman) passed away a few years ago.

AIPO

I took a week’s holidays off of work to tutor the AIPO training camp. It was a great experience and I’ve since gotten back into some CF rounds. I wont’ comment too much because I’ve been working on the creation of a Maynooth-Based enrichment centre, so I’ll update in a post there if all goes well.

Tyndall

Obviously the reason I’m in Cork at all this summer is because I’m doing the Tyndall fellowship. I’m now more than halfway through it so I’m somewhat in the know as to what I’m doing. In summary my work revolves calculating absorption spectra for quantum well structures. I have a 1000 line OOS c++ script that does all the work. It takes some well potentials (usually MQWs perturbed by a uniform electric field), and solves the time-independant Schrödinger eq as an eigenvector program using the implicitly restarted arnoldi method.

Given all the solutions, I’ve been using a few different models to simulate the absorption spectrum around the band edge of the substrate, with the goal of creating optical modulators (EAMs) operating on the Quantum-confined-stark-effect. I’ve been learning quite a bit of opto-electronics and particle zoology on the job. It’s all very interesting but it likely won’t come up again in my degree.