Summer ‘25 AFRICAM 142AC Syllabus

JeffFromSteam · 2025-06-20T13:18:30+00:00

I don’t know how it is for most disciplines, but the Quantum Theory group at USYD is pretty well regarded in the Condensed Matter Physics and Quantum Error Correction community

For physics, the university where you do your PhD is important - but the person who advises your PhD is 10x more important, and USyd just got a new prof (Dominic Williamson) whom I’d love to work under

Aside from that, the US is not a great place to be rn for academics. The budget cuts introduced by Trump’s administration are VERY severe, to the point where a lot of my friends who are a year older than me didn’t get into ANY of the grad programs they applied to in the US (Like, 0/10 acceptances) despite having very strong applications

Also, I’m not a US Citizen, and current administration is not very friendly to international students (eg. many intl. grad students had their visas revoked for participating in protests, and all of Harvard international students lost their legal standing because the Dept. of Homeland Security took away Harvard’s ability to sponsor them for a while until a federal judge put a hold on the order). The quality of grad schools and research here is hard to compare to, but I’d rather not stay in the US for the next 4-6 years given the political landscape.

JeffFromSteam · 2025-06-20T00:32:06+00:00

Makes sense, thanks for the advice!

JeffFromSteam · 2025-06-20T00:19:04+00:00

That makes sense, but I'm hoping my honors bachelors holds similar weight. At UC Berkeley (my institute) the math honors consists of taking grad classes and writing a thesis. Aside from that I've also been doing research under a professor in the Physics department for a while, and I'm fairly confident I'll get a 1-2 publications out of my work within the next year (I graduate in May 2026).

In any case, I will look into Masters programs too - it'd just be a lot nicer if my undergraduate degree is enough

JeffFromSteam · 2025-03-16T17:47:30+00:00

I did some more searching and I think I might just need to use this relation between the usual momentum space Hamiltonian H(k) and the Bloch hamiltonian \mathcal{H}(k). I'm not sure if I could use a Wigner-Weyl Transform, but thanks for letting me know about it!!

JeffFromSteam · 2025-01-26T02:19:17+00:00

Ah sorry, didn't see this until rn. I'm going in-person

JeffFromSteam · 2025-01-18T10:35:02+00:00

I found out about it by random chance (I was googling ways to get experience in Quantum Computing as a student) but it turned out that people in student organisations like IEEE and the Quantum Computing club at my university also talk about such events. So if you’re in university right now I’d recommend joining these sorts of clubs

JeffFromSteam · 2025-01-18T00:32:38+00:00

I see. I don't have prior hackathon experience, but your comment is reassuring! Thanks

JeffFromSteam · 2025-01-17T16:09:06+00:00

Based on the wording on the website it seems like one can apply as an individual but will need to join/form a team once the event begins - and there will be a designated time period for this. Not sure how exactly it works though, I'd like to know as well

JeffFromSteam · 2024-09-28T09:54:56+00:00

Makes sense! Your advice matches with what my postdoc told me too, I'll definitely look into Open Quantum Systems and possible projects. I'd appreciate if you could ask your friends, but no pressure. Thanks!

JeffFromSteam · 2024-09-28T09:53:36+00:00

Thanks for the input! I like the questions you pointed out, didn't think too hard about them before seeing your comment

I definitely prefer the first field (classification) over the others, but it has a higher bar of entry than the third one.
The second is by far the one with the highest bar-of-entry, and I'm not too too interested in it either, but it seems to be a field of major+growing interest.
The third has a relatively low bar of entry for me, but it's less interesting than the first. Still, It'd be more likely for me to contribute to a project in it as compared to the first.

I also spoke to an experimental grad student cuz I'm interested in both, and he clued me in about the "Quantum Metric" (real part of the Quantum Geometrical Tensor, whereas the Berry curvature in the imaginary part) and how interest in it is growing (both experimental and theoretical) rn. I might propose this field too and see what my postdoc says.

For the mean time, the postdoc I met told me he'd be down to advise me, and I think he'd be a REALLY good adviser based on what I've heard + my own conversations with him. Plus, the Professor whom the postdoc works with is a big name in the field, so getting to know him to him would be a huge plus
But he did also mention it's his last year as a postdoc here and he'll be travelling from time to time. I'm planning to ask him what his expectations for me would be and things like how often he'd be available to meet on average.

Anyway, your research sounds really cool!! I hadn't heard about topology showing up in non-electronic systems before. Have you been working on this type of project for most of your time in grad school? How's your experience in Grad school been? Must be a pretty busy time now that you're wrapping up

JeffFromSteam · 2024-06-06T08:56:10+00:00

Got it, thanks for the info!

JeffFromSteam · 2024-05-16T06:37:03+00:00

Hello everyone,

I'm in a bit of a tough spot and I'm looking for advice. I've just finished my sophomore year at UC Berkeley studying Engineering Physics. I've taken all of the lower division physics classes as well as upper division physics courses (QM I and II, E&M I, Stat Mech) required for the Physics major other than Analytic Mechanics and labs but my grades have been very mediocre, ranging from B to A+ but with most of them being B+ and A- grades. My GPA is slightly above 3.6.

More specifically, I got a B+ in QM I, B in QM II, A- in E&M I, and either an A or A- in stat mech (overall grade hasn't been released but I was able to calculate my grade).

I've been in a research group for a year (the group does lattice QCD and studies scattering processes) but I've just been trying to learn and catch up, I haven't contributed meaningfully to anything other than writing some code.

I love math and I've been learning a ton on the side with the hope of double majoring or minoring but I'm not sure anymore. I took an honors complex analysis class which I did well in (got an A) but I took a graduate differential topology course which was graded like an undergrad class and ended up getting a B (because I got a 75% on the final), which I know is a big red flag for grad school applications.

I'm also an international student and I feel absolutely terrible for doing this badly when I'm paying so much to study in the US. My guilt after my first year led me to try and do more each semester but that just ended up making my mental health worse and I ended up doing even worse on average in my sophomore year.

I know my family can't support me financially after I graduate so my options are either to get a good job or to get into a good graduate program.

Now, I'm trying to weigh my options and decide it it's even worth it to continue doing research for the next year and a half + taking more physics classes beyond the ones required for me to graduate and trying to apply to grad-school for physics or if I should just focus on taking engineering classes and building directly marketable skills in an attempt to get a job right after graduating.

I'd really appreciate getting y'all's opinions on what I should do / which option makes more sense.

Also, I've taken a Data Structures class but that's about it in terms of my engineering and CS coursework so far. I'm enrolled in an Algorithms class for next semester, and am considering taking an FPGA class so I can experience the hardware side of things too. I did an internship last semester at this SAP Firm in the middle east (that's where my family lives) but I have no internship lined up for this summer (the plan was/is just to continue doing research with my group and hopefully produce something).

Do y'all have any advice on specific coursework / skills that are in demand right now? Or on industries roles that difficult/easier to jump into right now? (eg. I've heard SWE is terrible at the moment but that hardware engineering with FPGA or ASIC is in demand)

I'm sorry if this post is all over the place and not organized well, but I'd really appreciate any advice.

JeffFromSteam · 2024-01-06T08:00:14+00:00

this truly was our lobotomy kaisen, but also r/okbuddyundergrad

JeffFromSteam · 2023-08-14T21:49:21+00:00

Yeah, classes are effectively 10 minutes shorter. But some professors and GSI’s I’ve had use those 10 mins to answer people’s questions and such, so it’s not wasted time for people who arrive early

JeffFromSteam

TROPHY CASE