August 6 - August 7

And just like that, it's the final week! I spent Monday trying to figure out the histogram code to try and make a histogram of spectral index vs. number of events for high and low sheared events. I was having a lot of trouble with it, so I ended up making a quicklooks version of the histogram in excel just in case I didn't finish the IDL graph in time. I also spent the day working on my final presentation. I sent a preliminary version to Dr. Qiu, but she explained that I need to make it a full presentation--not just a weekly updates kind of presentation, so I have a lot more work that needs to go into it!

August 8 - August 9

I spent Wednesday morning showing Dr. Qiu a final draft of my final presentation, and we made some changes to it so it would flow better. In the afternoon I had my final presentation, which went really well! I was surprised with how well it went, considering how technical the presentation was. For Thursday I'm working on documentation of the programs and leaving a readme.txt file inmy directory. Hopefully it'll be useful in the future. It's a bit bittersweet tostart finishing up my summer project. I remember when I was just starting and the thought of getting RHESSI FITs files intimidated me. I've gotten a lot done this summer and it has been really exciting to be able to do hands-on research--even getting some novel results! I'm so glad I came to Bozeman and was able to participate in this program.

Acknowledgments

I just wanted leave a thank you to a few people who really helped me this summer. First, to my fellow REU students who loved to adventure just as much as I do and said "yes" to basically every silly activity I proposed. From one night werewolf to asking about spice levels at every resturaunt, I'm so glad to have met and become friends with everyone. Secondly, Dr. Priest was so helpful. He provided so much guidance about the future (grad school!) and I really appreciated his views on the intersection of science and faith. Third, Dr. Chunming Zhu helped me with a lot of code when Dr. Qiu was away--thank you so much! And lastly, Dr. Qiu for being a fantastic mentor as well as answering so many of my IDL questions. Dr. Qiu was a great female scientist role model. I appreciated her guidance and the time she spent explaining the project to me, making sure I understood every aspect of the project and the overall reason why it was important.

If any new REU students have any questions about my project or my summer feel free to email me at heather.mei@tufts.edu and I am happy to answer any questions!