Practicum Reflection Essay ○
For my practicum, I chose to begin work on campus in the Combustion Lab run by Dr. Ashwani Gupta. Being introduced to the nature of the Science and Global Change Program and the final showcase, I wasn’t too sure of what I wanted to do for my practicum in my freshman year. I could do an internship, or a service project, or simply take a course. However, after hearing the experiences of Dr. Holtz and other Scholars alumni, I chose to take a route that I didn’t think was even possible for me—research. I cold emailed Dr. Ashwani Gupta, told him that I was a freshman, and asked if he was accepting any new assistants in his Combustion Lab. He gave me, a very inexperienced student, a chance to work in his lab, and I came out a year later ready to tell people about my work for my practicum. And for anyone looking for a practicum project and having trouble finding it, the best thing you can do is shoot your shot and cold call or cold email. Especially as someone inexperienced in how college works and lacking a solid network of connections, being upfront can work miracles for you. Plus it’s a good skill to have when you’re trying to apply for work, pitch your ideas, or just seek new opportunities. Being to the point and insistent is something that many employers may seek.
At my site I performed a multitude of tasks related to combustion science and the optimization of these processes for the improvement of biofuels in order to create sustainable fuel sources. One of my tasks was to improve air quality in the lab in order to improve the quality of biofuel products and the combustion products as well. I also got to build a microreactor for hydrothermal liquefaction processes, allowing us to quickly test different factors in a high pressure high temperature environment that let us extract bio-oil fast. And I also got to work on an auger pyrolysis reactor that would be used as a scaled down model for industrial processes. All these tasks helped our lab advance towards higher quality value-added products that could be used in sustainable fuel production and combustion.
Being a part of not only this lab but also research in general forced me to learn a new subject I hadn’t even touched in my career yet. I had to learn from scratch a lot of subjects like thermodynamics and fluid mechanics in order to do a lot of the work I had to do in the lab. I picked up a lot of knowledge from the papers I was constantly reading where I began to understand what factors went into different biofuel production processes like pyrolysis, hydrothermal liquefaction, and CO2 extraction. Some of these factors included the types of solvents used, the types of catalysts used, the biomass to solvent ratios, the heating times, the lignin content, and more. I also got to apply some of the skills I was already learning, such as CAD modeling and creating comprehensive spreadsheets to analyze experimental data and understand what was being created. Working at the UMD Combustion Laboratory has done a lot in shaping my current path through college into the professional workforce. Before going into the lab, I wasn’t too sure that I wanted to work in the energy sector, seeing it as an option but not something that I had too much connection to. However, my research work solidified this career path and helped me decide not only what classes I wished to take but also what kind of jobs I would want to pursue. Having this experience allowed me to see the importance and severity of the world's energy dependence on fossil fuels and how alternatives are needed in order to meet everyday needs in a sustainable fashion. And this experience has also secured me a position in the Department of Energy for this summer, using it as an experience I could write about in my application and talk about in my interviews.
In the end, I’m really glad I took the chance and reached out for something I wasn’t sure I could even get. Getting involved in research so early gave me direction, skills, and confidence I wouldn’t have had otherwise. It showed me how important energy work is and how much of an impact you can make even as a student. I learned a lot about engineering, the research process, and even about myself. If there's one thing this practicum taught me, it’s that putting yourself out there can seriously change the game.