March Meeting — guest blog from Avi Vajpeyi

I was honoured to attend the APS meeting in Baltimore between 14-19 March. The meeting was amazing—though I found myself oscillating between: “I get this” to “Umm… I think I understand some of what they are talking about” to “Really? What are they talking about?”. Overall, a five star rating, if you ask me!

A researcher from LIGO spoke to us about Gravitational Waves and explained how the advanced LIGO works.

A researcher from LIGO spoke to us about Gravitational Waves and explained how the advanced LIGO works.

This massive book contained all the titles of the various talks/posters being presented.

This massive book contained all the titles of the various talks/posters being presented.

There were over 9000 physicists+students at the conference and the topics ranged from the predictability of lightning, details behind the advanced LIGO project, progress in bio inspired robotics, to the bead-pile theory (Dr Lehman’s group!)! And these were from the sessions I attended—there were dozens of simultaneous sessions and much as we wanted to attend many, our physicality permitted only one session at a time. Given an opportunity, I would love to be back for more—hopefully, in a year, some of the esoteric subjects may seem a little more comprehensible.

This slide shows the diagram of a graduate student's model of a mosquito's proboscis (the mosquitos mouth part), which he implemented in a robot.

This slide shows the diagram of a graduate student’s model of a mosquito’s proboscis (the mosquitos mouth part), which he implemented in a robot.

This slide shows how gold nanoparticles inside water can help generate steam with light! Amazing!

This slide shows how gold nanoparticles inside water can help generate steam with light! Amazing!

I would strongly recommend this conference to any aspiring physicist, engineer, or, well, any curious student interested in all kinds of fun stuff!

 

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