This blog post is going to be a bit shorter than all the other ones, but I wanted to talk about my experience presenting at the conference!

I presented at the RADECS Conference, which took place from September 16th through September 20th in Gran Canaria, Spain. My specific presentation was on Wednesday, September 18th, and it was on the previous paper that I have detailed in my other RADECS blog posts. I’ve also linked the video here for reference! 

In terms of presenting, I have to admit, I was quite nervous and not sure what to expect going up on stage. There were approximately 1500 esteemed guests in the audience, and I was nervous I wasn’t going to be able to present to their standards, especially since this was my first conference ever. However, once I stepped on stage, I realized that there are so many people who are presenting that the chance that someone notices me stumbling over my words or misspeaking is basically nothing. 

I had practiced my speech with the professor and graduate student I had the honor of working with close to a dozen times, but this was the first time I was presenting to such a large audience. I had given the talk to my parents a couple of times and my physics teacher once, who gave really good pointers, but still, nothing like the real audience. 

I’m sure there were multiple points during the talk which I stumbled, and I may not have answered the questions 100% correctly, but the experience I gained with talking in front of such an esteemed group of guests and having the honor to share our work will always remain with me. 

Additionally during the conference, I attended a career fair, where I met more amazing individuals, such as a professor from Stoneybrook who also works at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a lady from CERN who gave me great insight, and a couple of salespeople from Texas Instruments, where I got to hear a lot about the work they’re doing. I also met IEEE representatives, and I’m planning on applying for a membership to IEEE, specifically their nuclear and plasma science society (NPSS). 

Overall, such a fantastic experience and I’m honored to have been able to have the opportunity to travel to Gran Canaria and share my work with such a welcoming and kind community of scientists!