For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a fascination with science. My specific interests have bounced around extensively and, at one time or another, included geology, archaeology, chemistry, astronomy, materials science, and even marine biology. In every case, I was in awe of researchers using remarkable machines, thinking how amazing it would be to be in their position. Now, I find myself using some of that very same equipment on an average afternoon.
First Day Experiences
On my first day at Indium Corporation’s Business Park Drive site in Utica, NY, my supervisor tasked me with cutting up a thick gold-plated sheet to make test samples. While I don’t know the exact price of that plate, I do know the price of gold, and I was shocked to be trusted with such a task on day one. I quickly realized I wasn’t just here to fill out documents or crunch numbers from someone else’s experiments. I was going to get hands-on experience and be directly involved in important work.
Learning the Solder Reflow Oven
By day two, I was training on a solder reflow oven. By the end of the day, I was trusted to initialize, set up, and run the oven myself. This machine has a built-in vacuum chamber and acid vapor cleaning capabilities. My main thought was how awesome it was to use a machine like this. In my head, this was the kind of thing only professionals and expert scientists got to use. Actually, my first thought was, “Oh my god, what if I mess up and break this thing?”
Two weeks into my internship, operating this oven completely solo has become a core part of my role. My focus is on investigating solder preforms, so I run many tests where samples are reflowed in this oven. At this point, running down to the lab, popping a few samples into the oven, and then analyzing the parts has become just another part of my day. While I still find it cool, it’s interesting how quickly something can go from intimidating to routine with just a little experience.
I had never even heard of a solder reflow oven before this internship, and I thought it was incredible to be trusted to run equipment of that caliber myself. I had figured that would be the only focus of my internship and the only equipment I’d work with. To my surprise, at the start of my second week, I was trained on two types of equipment I had heard of—and had even been specifically interested in—in the past.
Sample Preparation and Analysis
Once samples are made in the oven, we need to look inside and see how everything performed. I hadn’t realized this before, but my internship involves that whole process. At the start of week two, I was trained in precision sample cutting, grinding, and polishing for later examination under a microscope. This was something I was already familiar with, as it’s the same process geologists use to cut and examine meteorites. Getting to prepare and examine my own samples truly made me feel like a real researcher.
During that same time, I was trained in a second method of looking inside samples: scanning acoustic microscopy. During this training, the instructor casually mentioned I should be a little careful because the machine was expensive. In the same conversation, she encouraged me to experiment and play around with the machine and its settings. Interactions like this and the experience of running all this equipment have made me feel more like a fellow researcher than “just an intern.”
Expanding My Horizons
As a culmination of this trend, on the Friday of my second week, I had the opportunity to travel to another site and learn from an employee doing research similar to mine. This location has a solder reflow oven several times larger than the one I normally work with, as well as a large X-ray inspection machine—both of which I observed in action. To my surprise, within about an hour, I was trained on X-ray inspection and trusted to run the machine essentially solo to help with the other researcher’s data collection. Despite this machine being far more imposing—and likely at least an order of magnitude more expensive than the oven that once intimidated me—I honestly wasn’t nearly as nervous.
Fascinating Equipment and Researchers
At my site and others I’ve visited, there are pieces of equipment I’ve always found fascinating, perhaps none more so than a scanning electron microscope. While I may not get the chance to operate all this equipment directly, I have spent time working with the researchers who do. After seeing their work and gaining my own experience, the whole concept no longer seems larger than life or unattainable. While certainly highly skilled, these people were also personable, friendly researchers doing their jobs.
Reflections on My Journey
When I first started my Summer Internship at Indium Corporation, all this expensive and complicated equipment seemed larger than life—the kind of thing only extremely qualified professional scientists got to work with. I imagined such machines must be impossibly complicated, requiring years of training before you’re even allowed near the controls. Now, I’ve realized that while using equipment like this is a great privilege, with a little training and experience, it quickly becomes a regular part of the job. The people working with these machines aren’t all imposing experts. They’re fellow professionals who were probably also terrified of breaking the first big piece of equipment they were trained on.
