Wednesday July 29

Today was a pretty busy day. In the morning, I helped Duygu with her experiment until we were called down into the lab to check on the progress with the whole PVA situation. The homemade PVA still works as a polarizer but the giant sheet does not. Then, I went with Peter and Chris to learn the software to make the mask (design) to etch out in order to make the vortex lens. We finished most of it but got stuck at end because we needed a certain angle and it would only let us do 45 or 90 degree angles. At lunch, we had a "meeting" where we had pizza and cake for Duygus birthday where the pizza ran out quick. After lunch, I got swipe card access to the computer lab because I didn't really have a computer to use before. Later on, Chris and I were still trying to find out how to finish the vortex lens mask on the computer, when he got frustrated and fell asleep. I looked around on the program for a bit and found out how to make angles that we want. The rest of the time we tried to finish it but other problems delayed us and I think he finished it up after I left. Hopefully we can make more progress tomorrow and maye even test out the process on the MicdroE tools before us interns leave for a field trip on Friday because Peter will not be there all next week.