Mitacs Globalink Research Project in Canada

One of our final year students took part in a Mitacs Globalink Research Internship last summer. This is a competitive initiative for international undergraduates, which we advertise every year. Here is their story:

I originally applied to the program following an advertising email from the university in the summer of 2020, thinking I will never get it because I am not the best physicist. Later during the application process I was interviewed, where they discussed what they wanted me to do during the project.

Originally the project involved me travelling to Canada, to do organic semiconductor fabrication and research. However, due to covid, the project was turned virtual. During the internship, I was investigating a proposed mechanism for doping of organic semiconductor, because the proposed mechanism is not energetically feasible. So I had to generate a model of various different doping molecules and organic semiconductors to go through the mechanism to see if any of the steps could be energetically feasible. In addition to investigating the role of side-chain in the mechanism. To do this a program called Gaussian was used to carry out DFT (density functional theory) calculations and the calculations were computed on a research cluster, which taught me how to submit 'jobs' (calculations) and to use the Linux environment. 

I had weekly meetings with my supervisor along with other interns on the program to present the progress of the previous weeks, along with giving feedback on each others' presentation, such as suggestions to make figures easier to understand and discuss any strange findings. This is alongside a one on one meeting with the supervisor, to discuss what to do for the following week. Finally, a monthly meeting with the research group where they discuss their findings either in literature or experimental work. This has greatly improved my presentational skill in terms of speaking and producing slides that have too much text or information and it made me consider what my audience cares about, since experimental physicists don't really care about the exact computational procedures required for the results.

At the end of the internship, I had to produce a report summarizing the findings along with a presentation to the whole research group. Overall this research project has taught me the skills needed to be proficient at computational chemistry, along with the associated data analysis skills. In addition, the time management skill, due to time zone difference, alongside planning skill due the waiting time for the computation to be completed/started.

This is a fantastic opportunity - in real life next year - to develop research and employability skills. The next round of applications will be open in the summer for a 2023 start. In the meantime, you can read more here. 

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