Posts - Caltech Magazine

BY ANDREW MOSEMAN A powerful way to sharpen one’s communication skills is to explain something complicated—quantum computing and its potential to accelerate the field of robotics, for example—to a child. John Preskill, Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics and the Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair for Caltech’s Institute for Quantum Science and Technology, recen…

"I grew up as a hard-of-hearing athlete. I played lacrosse and ran track and field, but my hearing aid would get damaged by sweat or rain. It also fell out a lot when I ran into people. I didn't end up wearing it a lot, which meant I was missing things on the field—a teammate calling for a pass or someone coming up behind me. So, I started sketching what a hearing device for athletes could actual…

Credit: Caltech/GLASS Project BY ANDREW MOSEMAN ‍ ‍ One of Caltech’s most far-flung examples of field work is beginning to give us a better picture of how Antarctica’s ice sheets are changing, a phenomenon having an enormous impact on sea level rise. The video above takes you to the frozen continent to meet the researchers and see their methods. The GLASS project (Grounding zone L…

“My interest in ballet started with the show Gilmore Girls . The main character, Rory, lives in a town with a ballet studio named Miss Patty’s School of Ballet. My parents had asked me if I was interested in learning ballet when I was younger, but I was not. Seeing Miss Patty’s School on Gilmore Girls seven years later, I asked them to let me try it out. I was 14, which is seen as very late for b…

“When I learned that our group was a finalist in the Zipcar competition , I messaged the Plant-Based Caltech group chat to ask for ideas. We had to show off Zipcar in some way in our video . The whole idea of using a car to explore LA’s plant-based food options and connect that community with the Caltech community came up pretty early on. A few generous volunteers—aka my lab mates—agreed to a who…

“I grew up in Canada, outside Niagara Falls, in a town called Welland. Curling is part of the culture there—my dad curled, and I curled in high school. When I went to Caltech, I thought I would never curl again, but after grad school, I ended up in a small town in New Jersey. By coincidence, a childhood friend of mine was in the same area and was curling. We reconnected, and I took it up again. I…

“My interest in autonomous vehicles began with my undergraduate robotics research at the University of Virginia. It also comes from my personal experience during that time. My first semester, I was struck by a car in a hit-and-run. During my recovery, I had this realization that vehicles capable of detecting hazards and responding autonomously could prevent incidents like that. Fully healed and m…

“It all started in kindergarten. I was the kid who would come home with rocks in his pockets. One of my classmates had a simple field guide to rocks and minerals, with pictures of gems and fossils. I was amazed that the earth could produce materials like that, and I wanted to understand where they came from. From that point on, I knew I wanted to pursue some form of science. Mineral hunting, or r…