According to my life plan, I would be on my journey to Ph.D. by fall 2016. I had been accepted into the gradute schools of a few very highly ranked schools including Duke, Brown and UCLA. It was while I was at LBL during spring 2016 that I had to make a decision. I had a hard time deciding, and I realized that I have developed a new passion in the field of energy technologies; also at the time there were some difficulties in the family. I chose to take a gap year to sort things out and I got myself an engineer position in the Bay Area.
At Glint Photonics, I was the project lead of an ARPA-E Micro-scale Optimized Solar-cell Arrays with Integrated Concentration (MOSAIC) project: Stationary Wide-Angle Concentrator PV System. There, my main objective was to develop an actuation system for solar panels. This experience had been different from academic research, and I learned new things everyday. I built laboratory setups, designed and ran experiments to investigate in novel thermocapillarily driven actuators, piezoelectrically driven actuators, and magnetically driven actuators. I cannot talk much about the science behind these designs due to NDA, but I can say I was doing a much wider range of independent research compared to when I was in academia, and I think it is a good preparation for my PhD. The team are looking to patent some of these designs in the near future.
The Logical Offering 