SURFing (but not like the Beach Boys)

SURF proposals were due last week, and I'm happy to say I sent mine in on time! I'll be working with a JPL researcher on an astronomy SURF in preparation for when the New Horizons mission encounters Pluto in 2015. There are some unanswered questions about Pluto's surface, and I'm going to help gather and analyze data by using a 24 inch telescope at the Table Mountain Observatory. I'm so excited!

 

 

Not everyone SURFs at Caltech and there's no right way to get a SURF. That being said, here's my trial and error process.

• First term: Start poking around. Talk to upperclassmen at lunch, ask if they've done SURFs before, and, if so, how it worked for them. Realize that there's a really great page called Announcements of Opportunity that is designed to help you with this process.
• Winter break: Update your resume. Circle all the announcements of opportunity that sound interesting and you have some of the qualifications for. For a lot of SURFs, the qualifications are flexible and it's okay to tell potential mentors that you aren't familiar with a certain software, but are willing to learn. Send emails to a lot of potential mentors for interesting projects. Some mentors will say they're not interested. Others will respond. Set up interviews with these ones.
• First week of second term: Attempt to ride your bike to JPL for your interview, only to realize your phone GPS isn't working. Ditch your bike somewhere, find the Caltech-JPL shuttle just in time to catch the last ride, and make it to you interview on time with no plans for how you will get back on campus. Receive phone calls from security asking about your bike. Explain to them what happened sheepishly. Fortunately, they understand. Interview with an awesome JPL researcher and decide the project is, as you'd hoped, completely awesome. Get a ride back to campus from your dorm vice president, who is kind and willing to help you out.
• Second week of second term: Your first interviewer accepts you, and you love the project!

Hurrah! It's a deterministic choose-your-own adventure story because that's what happened to me in the past few months! I went to a SURF proposal writing workshop, read my mentor's papers, and drafted my proposal. After some edits, I sent it off. Wish me luck on my first research proposal!