Utilized the XMM-Newton data archives to build a large, clean( with least confusion and contamination) X-Ray galaxy catalog. Obtained multiwavelength data for these X-ray galaxies using the following sky survey catalogs: SDSS, Legacy, GALEX, 2MASS, PS, and WISE. Nway technique was used to do the crossmatching of data and the catalog was built using Astropy.

Whitman’s Office of Admission handles various assignments such as hosting prospective students and managing data of all prospective students. As an admissions assistant, I helped out with these various tasks. I communicated with prospective students about my experience at Whitman and answered the many questions they had. I entered the data collected by admission officers who visited different high schools across the country. I was glad to offer prospective students my opinions as a Whitman student and help the admissions office keep records of data.

During the pandemic, Whitman’s astronomy department was challenged with conducting labs virtually and making online learning more accessible. As a lab assistant, my responsibilities included assisting the instructor in preparing online assignments and ensuring students were getting the help they needed. I conducted individual and group tutoring sessions to help students with lab assessments and provided motivational and emotional support to students by sharing my own experiences with these courses, encouraging feelings of belonging and competence.

In order to further explore the nature of bound states of dark matter, Dr. Moira Gresham has been working with student researchers over the summer. Her research has been exploring the few-body systems of identical fermions interacting via attractive Yukawa Potential. While the previous student researchers had already determined the bound state energies of the few-body systems using the Stochastic Variational method (SVM), my research included implementing the relativistic effects on the interacting particles of that system, and analyzing the effect of relativistic parameter on the bound state energies. To achieve the relativistic effects, we considered that the particle is moving very fast, and hence we used relativistic kinetic energy in the SVM. To analyze how the relativistic parameter is affecting the system’s energy, we collected data for varying parameters and graphically visualized it in Wolfram Language.

Within Whitman’s physics department, some faculty members teach multiple classes per semester and are overwhelmed with the work needed to manage those courses. As a physics course assistant, my responsibilities included assisting the course instructor in assessing student work and managing the course website. I assessed students’ assignments by using my prior knowledge of that course and reviewing the course materials when necessary. And I managed the course website by using an online course management system. To further save time for the instructor, I provided feedback on students' performances in their assignments to determine their progress in the classroom.

During the pandemic, a choir rehearsal resulted in the massive spread of the virus among participants even though they were following proper CDC guidelines. Knowing that the guidelines were not sufficient to control the spread of the virus, Dr. Kurt Hoffman wanted to explore the mechanism of aerosol movement through the air in some cases of musical performances. As a research assistant, my role for this project was to figure out the computational methods of analyzing the aerosol movement in brass instruments. We utilized the open-source software OpenFOAM to generate a simulation of fluid flow in a cylindrical tube to possibly model aerosol flow in brass instruments. To further support our computational data, we looked at some possible experimental methods. One of the experimental methods, the Schlieren Optical technique, was the summer research project for another group of students at Whitman in the summer of 2021.

Crafton Hills STEM Tutoring Center was in need of a physics tutor who could assist with the physics courses taught at Crafton Hills College. My responsibilities were clear to me; I assisted students that had physics questions. I picked a schedule that worked best for the majority of students and conducted individual and group tutoring sessions. Using my prior experience with their courses, I provided references to resources outside the classroom such as video lectures on YouTube and online notes. Furthermore, I encouraged students to utilize on-campus resources aimed at improving student learning such as the STEM Tutoring Center, by visiting classrooms and sending out informative emails.