Mentor Interviews
Get to know the heads and helpers of COSMOS!
Photo by Celina Chen
[This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.]
Macrocosm: To start, could you briefly introduce yourself? What’s your background and area of study?
Professor Peter Weiss: My name is Peter Weiss, and my background is in chemistry. I got my bachelor's degree from UC Santa Cruz in chemistry. Then I went on to get a PhD, also in chemistry, from the University of Washington, and that was specializing in analytical and environmental chemistry. So that's when I really solidified what it is I wanted to study and what I wanted to research going forward. And now I teach classes here at UC Santa Cruz in a variety of subjects like chemistry, environmental science, and earth science. And I also do research where primarily we take measurements of mercury in the environment. |
PW: Well, I'm always concerned about the unintended consequences of our modern way of living, which is burning fossil fuels to produce energy. And when I discovered the complexity of mercury chemistry in the environment, that really got my interest. So I wanted to provide more detailed information to prevent the contamination and toxicological problems that can arise from too much mercury in the environment.
PW: Well, we're trying to track this toxin in the environment. And in order to do that, we have to understand how it transforms into different forms of mercury and how it moves from one organism to another, or from one body of water to another, or from that water to the air. So we have to understand how it moves and how it transforms. We would collect a sample from the environment, whether it's a plant and animal, air, water, soil, and we would process it in specific ways to try to extract the mercury and then run it through our instruments in order to quantify it.
PW: Okay, good.
PW: Understanding what you're going to do ahead of time and envisioning the whole process before you actually do it is really important, like I've been having you guys do in the lab. Write out all the steps before you actually start, and then have a place to put the data when you gather it. Making those tables and understanding what are the important bits of data that you're going to need—Is it time, is it temperature?—are all the different important factors that you want to consider. You have to make sure to collect those data along with the sample; it helps in your analysis. So when you find out that one sample, let's say, had a lot of mercury but another sample didn't. Then you need to look at the reasons in order to explain why. You have to understand what was different about those two samples.
PW: It's really important because you can get a lot of information, so it might confuse you. And that all goes back to having a really clear scientific question: What exactly are you trying to determine?
PW: So it's important to the field that the research results get reported in the media. Because it just raises awareness for that particular field of study, and gets a lot of people talking about it and asking questions. It's really important to have clear explanations for the science so that the layperson can understand, and also when I'm giving an interview, even to you. Over the years, I've tried out a number of different ways of explaining it, and… I'm always making improvements in how I'm explaining it to people who aren't deep in the middle of it, like I am. You have to kind of come out of that bubble. It's a two way street, because I'll get questions from reporters or even just from the general public about the research. And it'll be naive questions, but sometimes they're very illuminating. You know, someone like a child can ask a really simple question, but it can be a very thoughtful, meaningful question. And I just think that's important to have people asking questions on all levels.
PW: I think I started in 2017. So it's been a number of years. And it's just really fun because the stakes are low. There's no grades, and it's all about discovery and enrichment. And of course, the students are really outstanding. It seems like you like challenges, and you're really good at figuring things out for yourself, like, fast. I like being in that environment where even though everyone's asking a lot of questions and people are confused, the gears are turning up there. And then by the end of the lab just about everybody figured it out. So it's sort of fun for me to go through that with you guys. And then I get to think of interesting experiments and activities and field trips.
PW: Well, the toughest part is the final project. When you make your poster, give your talk, do something that you're going to feel proud of. Because that's pretty much what you're doing it for, your own sense of satisfaction. I think the more people that look at your poster or watch your presentation–and if they seem interested or they ask questions – I think that will make you feel good about what you did. So try to do as much as you can to get as much information out there to people, because your ideas are great.
PW: Oh, my God, that's putting me on the spot.
PW: I have lots of thoughts. They go by pretty fast. I've been pretty much a hardcore scientist for a long time. I got a PhD and I did a postdoc. I’ve published like 45 papers, contributed to books, given talks at conferences, [been] in the newspaper. So as a scientist, I mean, obviously I’m not Einstein, but I've done a lot. But at the same time, I am always thinking about how we can live more in a more balanced way on this planet. That's not the area that I chose. But it's still what I am passionate about, like the fog water [recollection and irrigation]. So I just have thoughts about how chemistry and science fits into our place on the planet and the cosmos. So I guess I would think about a TED talk in that way, kind of bring it all together.
PW: You're welcome.
This week, Ava Seto (Cluster 6), representing UCSC’s Macrocosm, interviewed Professor Yu Zhang, who discussed his academic journey, research, and advice for COSMOS students.
Macrocosm: Could you briefly introduce yourself?
Professor Yu Zhang: My name is Yu Zhang. I am an assistant professor with the Baskin School of Engineering at UCSC, where I joined in the summer of 2017. I am currently mentoring 5 PhD students. I got my Bachelor and Masters degrees in China and my PhD in the US. All my degrees are in electrical engineering. For my PhD and research, I focus on electric power systems. |
YZ: My favorite hobbies are freestyle swimming, and watching and playing tennis.
YZ: My research is about advancing the power network by improving its efficiency, sustainability, and reliability. The tools I use are signal processing, optimization, learning and control. An example of the research projects I have been working on is energy disaggregation (a.k.a. Non-intrusive load monitoring). The task aims to estimate the power consumption of each appliance by decomposing the aggregate signal of the total power consumption of a house. By employing this method, end users can curtail electricity usage to lower their bills, while utilities can alleviate the strain on the grid caused by high energy demand. Currently, my research focuses on energy data analytics using state-of-the-art machine learning and AI techniques.
YZ: I teach two undergrad classes and two graduate glasses. One of the undergraduate classes is advanced renewable energy, storage, and smart grids while the other is about modeling and analysis of signals and systems. For my two graduate classes, one is information theory and the other is optimization and control for electric power systems, which is closely related to my research.
YZ: I hope that my research will not only be published on paper but can also be applied to the real world and have a great impact on our community. The most challenging part is coming up with new ideas to advance the research in my field. The key is to fully understand the existing methods and assess their limitations in order to develop novel approaches.
YZ: I dreamed of being a scientist or a mathematician when I was a kid. In high school, I knew that EECS (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science) was one of the hardest majors, but came with lots of job opportunities. I was also fascinated by assembling small devices (e.g., AM/FM radio receiver) at that time. After two years of study in college, I realized I liked modeling and theoretical analysis of electrical systems rather than the hardware hands-on projects.
YZ: Initially, I pursued wireless communications for my Master's degree. During my PhD, my advisor recommended that I delve into the realm of smart power systems and power grids, as it was an emerging field at that time, offering fresh prospects to apply the skills I had already acquired.
YZ: I generally liked doing research because you get to solve problems that haven’t been solved yet. I also knew I enjoyed working with undergraduate and graduate students. So, after my PhD, I chose to stay in academia for research and teaching.
YZ: I strongly believe that individuals should prioritize strengthening their foundations and acquiring a robust background in mathematics. This solid grounding becomes particularly crucial when they face advanced topics like linear algebra and multivariable calculus. Without a strong mathematical foundation, conducting high-quality research can become challenging. Moreover, individuals should also strive to expand their knowledge across various disciplines. Exploring other majors can be highly beneficial, as ideas and insights from different fields can serve as inspiration in their own domain. Cross-disciplinary learning can spark creativity and foster innovative thinking, leading to fresh perspectives and solutions in their chosen field of expertise.
YZ: Besides keeping your eyes open to different areas and different fields, have fun and stay hungry in studying your interests. Finally, although it’s good to keep your parents’ career advice in mind, you should choose what you want to pursue based on your own dreams.
This week, Kai Herbst & Harshul Basava (Cluster 5), representing UCSC’s Macrocosm, interviewed Cluster Fellow Phoebe Royer, who discussed the games industry, game development, and advice for COSMOS students.
Macrocosm: Briefly introduce yourself. What do you do? What's your background? How long have you been at COSMOS?
Phoebe Royer: I'm Phoebe. I'm a CS game design undergraduate. This is my first year at COSMOS as a cluster fellow. |
PR: So I originally got into games from my dad. He basically built my first PC, and he was always gaming when I was a kid. I was originally supposed to be a chemistry major, but I had like a pre-college breakdown of, yes, chemistry will make me a lot of money, but video games is what I'm truly going to be happy in making. Plus, I had some previous coding experience, like I used to code my own blogs, things like that. So there was still some coding aspect of my life that I realized I should probably be doing that. Also, it's going to make me a ton of money, so that's what I'm hoping for. The specific part of game design that I really like is character creation. I think it's really interesting to see what people are like—at least given the wealth of their imagination, they can figure out whatever character they want to make. I also love horror games, so that is another aspect of the gaming industry that I would love to work in. My personal favorite horror game is P.T., even though it's unreleased, but it is definitely one of my favorites.
PR: What I'm really most excited about is definitely getting to showcase my ideas and what I want to create. I think it's also really important for a lot of women to be involved or to at least be in the game design industry as a whole. There isn't a lot of women, I would say—it has gotten better, but I don't think there's a lot of women still. And I think everybody's shared experience of being in games, I think it's really important as well. Especially if you're trying to reach a larger audience of people to play. But yeah, I really just think that's kind of what I've been a part of, yeah.
PR: I have not done a lot of actual games yet, but in one of the classes that UCSC offers, we made a little Construct 3 game, where it was like a pixelated cowgirl game. So that was kind of my favorite.
PR: I think students, or at least I hope that students take away the importance of diversity in the game industry, especially for different voices and who they are to be heard. I think it gets really boring playing the same AAA game over and over, even though they slap a new name on it. I think it's really important to have people contribute different aspects of their lives and other experiences and ideas so that everybody's seen, and there's more than one type of game to be made other than just guns.
PR: Be open to learning new stuff, especially like, if you have years and years of coding experience, be prepared to learn more. That's what this camp is about, especially the Game Design one, or at least the cluster. You are going to learn so much, not just in code, but also like the player experience and what you're trying to create.
PR: Keep creating. Don't stop.
PR: The Last of Us.
PR: Zero. I have never done any game jams.
PR: I would actually finish P.T. I would want to see that game.
Ariel Hunter: It was 2008, and I was in College 8 & 9. They didn’t have names yet, and they were brand new. I’m pretty sure that it was that year, or the year before, that the buildings were built. So we had this free reign over this brand new building, which was really cool.
AH: We had the same summer, pretty much: kayaking, visiting friends on the boardwalk. And because I was in the marine biology cluster, we did a lot of whale-watching and tide-pooling trips. We also did talent shows and group activities. I think some of my more vivid activities were the ones outside the ones I had lived in. For example, that year, UCSC was getting ready to break ground on a new medical building that didn’t exist yet. And they were going to have to cut down a certain number of redwood trees to do it. So there were a couple of college students protesting by sleeping in the redwood trees. It was very weird as a sixteen-year-old to walk into this place where these giant trees had people sleeping up there. It was just a very vivid memory. I think that’s changed now; there’s a building there. Which is very good, the building does a lot of good work.
AH: COSMOS was one of those things that really transformed the trajectory of my life. It really got me deeper into marine science and biology. It opened up my awareness of this campus here at UC Santa Cruz. I’m still here, fifteen years later, working in the same area. And, what I think was really pivotal, personally, was that I was a really shy person—which I’m not, anymore! COSMOS was one of those things that pushed me out of my comfort zone. Talking to strangers I’ve never met before, and interacting with strangers from all over, not just my area of Los Angeles. And that experience at a younger age has helped with personal skills, networking skills, and just made life more fun as a human being. COSMOS has probably ranked in my top three life experiences.
AH: You don’t know where life is going to take you. I was working as a research intern for my PhD in marine biology when I got a part-time job teaching middle-school kids at a science camp. I thought it’d be the easiest thing in the world, but it turns out, sixth-graders are brutal. If an adult is bored, they’ll just zone out, but a sixth-grader will tell you to your face that this is the most boring thing they’ve ever done. I loved the challenge of it, and I realized that this is what I want to do. It was scary, putting my PhD on hold after all the work and money and effort I had put into it. But it was the right thing to do. I wasn’t unhappy doing my research, it just didn’t feel right. It’s better to step into the scary unknown, doing something you love, than be dissatisfied and stuck hesitating and unsure. And you’ll change as you go through life. You can love a job when you start off, love everything about it, but in eight years, things might be different. You might feel ready for something new. You might want to switch. There’s plenty of different jobs that you can find in the field that you choose.