I attended a seminar meeting on Monday, the 7th of October, titled the “Nonradioactive Processes in Semiconductor Nano crystals.” I went there alone and was one of the few undergraduate students in attendance.
At first, the seminar room looked a little daunting as people were talking about things that I had never heard of. Even the title of the presentation sounded like some sci-fi topic that could save the world, but I sat through it, eager to learn something about STEM that I hadn’t heard before. Although I felt a little out of place in the seminar, my experience there was still very valuable as I learned a lot about the promise in biochemical engineering and the different technologies that were being developed; my experience was further enriched because of the presenter,who was very informative and explained everything he talked about, even though most of the audience had a good understanding of the topics being discussed in the seminar. Overall, I learned a l
ot by going to the seminar and I only hope to attend more of these in the future.
I further think seminars like this are a good way for undergraduate students like me to explore how the STEM community is doing beyond what is on the news; there is a whole lot of people solving lots of problems, many of which have the capacity of one day changing the entire world as we know it. For instance, the semiconductor nano crystals that were being talked about in my seminar have the capacity to replace phone screens that we use today, and possibly reduce battery life significantly in the future. These seminars are also a good way for STEM enthusiasts like me to know the field we could be going into and the many research opportunities that we have on our hands as STEM majors.