In the spring semester of 2020, I decided to start working on learning something that I had always wanted to learn but never had the time to do so : solving a Rubik’s cube. The completion of this project had a few hurdles but overall my experience with the project was very relaxed. One of the major setbacks I faced during the completion of this project was the pandemic crisis that changed the structure of classes for the rest of the semester. Due to the pandemic and catching up with all the assignments, I mis-managed my time during the semester and wasn’t able to complete the project when I wanted to. One thing I would do differently if I were to do this project again would be to start earlier and distribute my time throughout the semester instead of pushing all the major stuff till the end of the deadline.

Here is the link to the video of me solving a Rubik’s cube:

Demonstration Video

This is my resume:

For my Capstone project, I am going to learn how to solve a Rubik’s cube. I have played with Rubik’s cubes plenty of times in my life, but every time I came up short of actually finishing it. In these 10 hours that I will dedicate to my Capstone project, I will use youtube videos, mainly WIRED’s 24 minute complete video titled, “How to Solve a Rubik’s Cube | WIRED” which shows all the procedures one will take to solve a rubik’s cube.  Apart from that I am going to ask help from my father, Ankur Satija, if I need any further assistance with the project. After learning to solve the cube, I plan to display my knowledge using an infographic that will be both easy to use and reflective of my experience

Works cited:

“How to Solve a Rubik’s Cube | WIRED” by WIRED on youtube: “https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-R0KrXvWbc“

Here at OSU, we see a lot of diverse cultures and ideas coming together. There are probably thousands of different identities here that all thrive together as ones under the Buckeye tag. With so many diverse cultures,however, it can also get tough to express yourself openly without feeling like you are too different from others, therefore it is important that we talk about diversity and inclusion more, and allow  people that feel left out to be a part of the conversation and have their voices heard.

The Ohio State University has, for me, definitely done a great job in acknowledging the diverse cultures we all come from and allowing every Buckeye to share their experiences. I myself identify as an Indian and have been very welcomed in all conversations and events here at Ohio State to express my beliefs and my opinions to others.

One such event that I went to was in the journalism building where members of the STEM scholar group came together and were introduced to various topics of identity and diversity that we see in today’s world. The event was presented by a presenter from the student life multicultural center that talked to us about topics such as identity, being minoritized, having privileges that others don’t have, and several other topics that we as students of the Ohio State University face everyday on campus.

As we were being taught these definitions and perspectives, we were asked to reflect on our own experiences as STEM majors at a big public University in Ohio and how those experiences have shaped our own perspectives and our livelihoods. One of the questions that really got me interested was the idea of having privilege over other minorities that have to face numerous challenges that we cannot even fathom. One of the examples given to us to consider privilege that really stuck out to me was how a band-aid is a different color than my own skin tone; this is such a small thing but it really made me think and realise that there was some inherent decision that was made to make the band-aids the color that they are.

Being in STEM majors, it is important we make sure that we are acknowledging our peers and our own differences and celebrating them as well as we can because many of us will get to a place of power where we will be the ones making the decisions and it is very important that we remain non-discriminating to allow the most qualified and merited people to get to the top.

Diversity in our university and in our everyday life is not something we should deal with, it is something we should celebrate; everyone of us here at the Ohio State University is capable of learning something different and important from everyone else in the campus, and it is essential that we keep respecting each others values and differences so we can make the best of the lessons that such a diverse group of people share among each other.

The Ohio State University Campus offers a great academic experience to every student, giving each student access to a wide range of resources needed to succeed in reaching their academic goals every semester.But academics isn’t everything for a lot of students, and there are other concerns that those students have, including their social life, and their mental and physical health. Fortunately, Ohio State has plenty of resources for students to succeed in these important goals as well.

One of the many places that offer such help is the John W. Wilce Student Health Center, located right next to the R-PAC gym, which offers students the help they need to succeed in evolving their mental and physical health by providing assistance in almost every health scenario. They offer appointments and walk ins to most injuries and medications, with a staff of experts to provide each student with the best help possible.

Recently, I also had the opportunity to go to John W. Wilce Student Health Center to get a flu shot and be protected against the many dangerous diseases out there, and my experience there was great! When I first walked in to the center, I was worried I wouldn’t know where to go, but I was escorted to the right room and was attended to in less than 20 minutes. The person taking my flu shot was also really nice and let me go quickly after giving me the shot. I was in and out of the place in less than 30 minutes and was back out studying in the Thompson library, which is also right next to the Student health center. I would recommend every student that has the chance to get a flu shot at the health center, to get one as soon as they can to protect themselves from the many things that can give them the flu here at the enormous Ohio State campus.

Getting a flu shot is a great idea, but that isn’t the only thing that the Ohio State Campus offers. There are tons of other resources that can help students get better and more relaxed in their lives. The North Recreational center, or North Rec offers some meditation classes that are free to join for most OSU students, and can allow students to destress when they need to. There is also mental health consultation, provided by the Student wellness center, that can help students dealing with stress to set reasonable goals and be more satisfied; and plenty more resources that can help students lead a better and more fulfilling life.

For a lot of students, college is hard, and students can find themselves stressing out or in need of some health, whether it be physical or mental, which is why the campus offers so many services to help students in their time here at the campus. As a Ohio State Student myself, I intend to use many of these services provided to us to enrich my life and be able to go through my time, studying at the university without worrying about other crisis that may arise.

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 lot 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.

I knew when I decided to major in Mechanical engineering that I would have some tough classes, but by no means did I expect to have 6-7 hours of workload everyday that I would have to deal with. I always expected Maths and Chemistry to take a decent amount of time, but never expected something like fundamentals of engineering to make me work for hours on end to finish a lab report; without the help that I am getting at the Open lab tutoring, I would not pass that class.

I personally never went to any tutoring in high school, infact, I used to volunteer as a peer tutor in maths, helping other kids learn. In high school, I was always confident in what was being taught in class and could generally stay on top of things that were explained in lectures. But not in college. The sheer amount of information that we are required to go through in some classes every week, and the amount of work that is required of me makes it very hard to grasp everything that is being taught in class, and is why I decide to go to tutoring.

Tutoring not only helps me with the content that is hard to grasp, but also lets me focus in on a class that I am struggling in. In the open lab for fundamentals of engineering 1181, I can ask questions on assignments as soon as they come up and get help from TAs that do the actual grading on the assignment later; this also makes sure that I am doing exactly what is being expected of me and that I am following the rubric properly. By doing my work in the open lab, I am also working with other students who are taking the same class as me, and are struggling, just as much as me to make the deadlines.

It is true that sometimes it is a little weird to ask for help in something that you are expected to know the first time you are taught about it, but with the amount of work that is required in some classes , it becomes imperative and perhaps even more smart to seek help as soon as possible. My experience with tutoring has definitely been really good in this manner. From the MSLC center to the fundamentals of engineering Open Lab, I have received great help and feedback from TAs and professors that are always very supportive and want you to do well in the class. The help that I have received thus far has made me a lot more comfortable and confident in the work that I produce, and my grades have been up too! it is definitely worth it to receive some help when one needs it.

If I am able to at some point in the future, I would love to tutor or become a TA in one of the classes that I am currently enrolled in and help others, who like me, will struggle to finish their assignments and reach deadlines on time.

I love Physics. Ever since I took Physical Science in freshman year of high school, I knew I wanted to major in something that would keep me close to the Newtonian mechanics and the Physical laws that define the universe, one of the many reasons why I chose Mechanical engineering as my major.

When I first came to The Ohio State University, however, I wasn’t completely sure how I would find something that would let me explore my love of Physics the way I wanted to, to learn about all the different things that were being discovered and to hopefully take part in the future of Science. But then I went to the involvement fair; and amidst hundreds of student organizations and clubs, I found the one that looked perfect for me: The Physics Honor society.

The Physics Honor Society at OSU is a student organization that strives to give students with an interest in Physics the chance to interact with professors and research from the Ohio State University and outside, to form connections, and to learn more about the exciting world around us.

As soon as I saw their booth at the fair, I signed up to be a part of their organization and decided to attend their first meeting the next Tuesday; I wanted to know about everything that this club had to offer me.

Even though I went to the first meeting alone, as most of my friends were busy, I still had a great experience. The guest speaker for the day, Dr. Heidi Wu from the department of Physics at OSU, talked about her research and explained, as simply as she could, how galaxy clusters in our universe were moving away from each other at increasingly higher speeds, evidence for both our universe expanding and dark matter and energy that resides within it.

For me, sitting in the audience, this was very exciting; to hear someone say that they could now make calculations on the movement of the entire universe by looking at just a few pictures was amazing for me to think about. Her speech, combined with the atmosphere for learning something new in the room made me believe firmly that I was in the right place: here at OSU.

Physics Honor Society Meeting: Roddy Cochran explaining his work on Quantum Key Distributions

When I went there next week, I was even more surprised to see a graduate student, Roddy Cochran, explaining his research with the Quantum Key Distributions to a group of people that were too dumb to understand him, but shared his interest in appreciating the laws of Physics.

Both of these events were super fun for me to be a part of and only makes me excited for all the other stuff that this club has planned for the year.

And this is  my experience with just one of the hundreds of student organisations and clubs I saw at the involvement fair, and there are plenty more out there at The Ohio State University for everyone to be a part of.  With the amount of people and tastes we have at OSU, I’m really excited to see what more I can get out of this place.

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