As an undergraduate research assistant this summer, I got the chance to work on the physics of fast radio bursts (FRBs) with Ken Ragan. Research into FRBs has garnered international attention recently – they are a big deal for scientists who are excited to have discovered a powerful new astrophysical tool, but they have also captured the public imagination with their mystique and exotic properties. And ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ is at the centre of it all; with its Space Institute, superstar researchers, and large-scale collaborations, my undergraduate research experience was nothing short of a total immersion into the FRB world.
Getting into research as an undergraduate can seem intimidating and overwhelming – where should I start? Fortunately, ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ’s Department of Physics lists all of its . Since I knew that I wanted to try my hand at research in physics but had no specific field in mind, there were quite a few projects that I found interesting. One in particular was with Prof. Ragan, whom I knew well, so I asked to meet with Ken in person.
While I did want to develop new skills in computer programming and physical science, I mostly wanted to learn about the process of research in physics. I wanted to know how research is approached, formatted, shared, what kind of obstacles are encountered and, crucially, how we deal with them.
Coming in with this perspective allowed me to welcome obstacles as learning experiences, which helped with the ever-present frustration and occasional feelings of helplessness of research. Additionally, direct contact with my supervisor made things go more smoothly when it came to actually getting the project done and making sure it was doable.
Though my project was open-ended, weekly meetings helped to keep things on track and the aim well-defined. In a nutshell, we still don’t know what causes FRBs, and the mystery has only gotten deeper in recent years with the discovery of bursts that appear to occur more than once from the same source. It could very well be that repeating bursts have completely different progenitors than single-burst FRBs. My task was to take a closer look at the correlation of FRBs in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum; in particular, the gamma-ray spectrum. To do this, I worked with a range of data, including some collected by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. The idea was that if we were able to find some association between gamma and radio bursts, we could eliminate some progenitor theories from the growing catalogue by finding contrary evidence to their predictions – if a theory predicts an emission all across the electromagnetic spectrum, we will have the tools to see if it agrees with observation. We ended up with some pretty interesting results, and I was able to present them at the physics department’s undergraduate research poster presentation.
Looking back, I can say that my experience of working in physics at ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ gave me everything I had hoped for – opportunities to apply my knowledge, exposure to new physical tools, experience with computer programming, and a better understanding of the process of scientific research. It may or may not be the path I continue in my career, but I’m glad I gave it an honest shot, and I hope it won’t be my last time participating in research here.
If I could say one thing to a student thinking of doing a summer of undergraduate research, it would be just do it, and go in without setting any expectations. Research isn’t for everyone, but it’s important to try it out before dismissing it and, conversely, before accepting it as the only option for a career in science. ¿´Æ¬ÊÓƵ has a ton of ways to get into it, so try it out – it may just be for you.
Image:Â Launched in June 2008, the Fermi satellite captures data in the high-energy (30-300000 MeV) spectrum, allowing us to explore the most extreme environments in the universe. (Credit: NASA)