For a long time before I came to Indium Corporation, I knew I was interested in materials science research. I have always had an overwhelming desire to take things apart and figure out how they work at the most fundamental level.
I started with machines: the dishwasher, the vacuum, the speakers. The goal was to fix up all the machines in the house, because there was no reason to throw things out if they could be fixed. Then came the IKEA® furniture, my favorite household activity to date. I could explore how things worked by building them from the inside out. I took to LEGOs, crocheting, sewing, and crafting: activities that allowed me to be creative and design something new.
But the thought of “what’s really happening?” still lingered. I was constantly discovering new mechanical and electrical techniques to figure out how things worked, but why was that not enough? I eventually realized I wanted to understand the chemistry and physics of materials. Why are some materials hard or brittle? Clear or opaque? That’s the heart of materials science. In order to continue discovering how the world worked, I realized that I need to pursue research.
After I got to university and began studying the science I had wondered my whole life about, it became clear that there were two general paths someone could take: academia or industry. Professors and advisors suggest that if you like rigid constraints or deadlines, industry is for you. They imply a lack of creative freedom and lifelong learning. Industry began to feel like a path towards monotony and rigidity.
Academia, on the other hand, is depicted as a large field full of discovery and enlightenment. You can study anything (as long as you can get funding for it) and the opportunity is endless. What I did not consider was that this was the very biased opinion of people who chose lifelong academia because that’s what they love.
Once I began to get to know more graduate students and undergraduates with lab positions, I realized that maybe academia was not all that it seemed. When I asked, “what do you do in a day for your research?” I heard lots about coding, simulation, and modeling. While all of this is very interesting, it was not something I am very interested in doing. As I continued to hear about the challenges that graduate students face, I began to question my true interest in research. People seemed unhappy in academia and the opportunity to do research seemed non-existent in industry.
I was lost, without direction, and did not know what to do. I wanted to make the most of my summers before I have to make the decision: academia or industry. My compromise was to try a little bit of both, spend one summer doing research with a professor and Ph.D. student, spend one summer doing an internship in industry, and spend one summer doing whichever one I like more.
Once I became an intern at Indium Corporation, my view on industry shifted. They are a true materials science company manufacturing, researching, and developing metal and solder alloys. Research is a critical part of their business. Maybe I would experience and try out both career paths at the same time? I could get the thrill of discovering something new and my first nine-to-five job experience all at once.
I spent my first day of work learning about the lab and the project I would be working on for the summer. The quantity of information I was learning was both overwhelming and exciting. I immediately knew that I would enjoy my work. The first few weeks I learned about how to design and implement a proper experiment.
Sure, I had learned the theory in school and designed and carried out experiments in lab class, but real life is different. There is not an explicit list of steps to follow, no one right choice, and no limits to the creativity that can be used. Once I got past the initial overwhelming stage of getting to know everything I was working with, I began to design my own experiment.
While it was not a failure, there were definitely things to improve upon. The variable I initially set out to test could not be controlled as well as I had planned. In the end, the experiment did not turn out at all as I had planned, but I learned to stop and think about the theory just a little bit before jumping into an experiment.
The next weeks consisted of learning how to interpret data. My project involves collecting thousands of data points per experiment. Figuring out how to arrange the data was critical to finding meaning in the results of my research. This is when my perspective on research began to shift.
Turns out the reading and coding that made me weary of research in the first place wasn’t too bad at all. I was excited to do it because it meant being able to understand my data. I was also grateful that the programs I used allowed me to accelerate the arrangement process so I could jump into the analysis. I was having so much fun doing my research, regardless of whether I was in the lab or working on my computer.
Both types of work brought me closer to discovery and learning about the world. With the guidance of my supervisor, we were able to develop theories about what was really happening in our experiments and develop more questions to test.
My research was evolving and growing like a tree, where each new experiment created five new questions to answer. It became difficult to figure out which tests should be prioritized. I just wanted to explore everything and learn as much as I possibly could. In this moment, I remembered my mantra of learning: you can learn anything, but not everything. This is when the fact that I was doing research in industry became clear.
The priority became, “how can we integrate this into our products now?” rather than, “how do we completely understand this process?” Then, I knew what to focus on. I asked myself, “what is the bare minimum that needs to be done before this can be used? And what is the most efficient way to do that?” This is what professors meant when they were talking about the downsides of research in industry.
But I did not view it as a pitfall. To me it was a way to motivate and focus my research. It is an immediate way to know that what I am working on will benefit the company, customers, and electronics our products will go into. I know I am making a real change.
I am so grateful for the opportunity that Indium Corporation has provided me. They let me see that I can do work I love, even in industry. I do not have to choose between industry and research; I can do both and still be equally, if not more fulfilled by the outcomes. There is not a black and white path like I was led to believe. I still want to pursue a Ph.D. and do research in school, but I can be comforted by the fact that there are jobs that I will love doing in industry when I am done.
