VM: Hello everyone, my name is Viridis Miranda. I’m a Science Communication Intern at EarthScope Consortium and I’m interviewing Rebecca Merber. How are you, Rebecca?

RM: Good, thanks!

VM: Awesome. I’m doing good as well. So awesome to interview and talk with you. So, Rebecca, could you tell us a little bit about your internship position at EarthScope Consortium?

RM: Yeah, sure. So I’m in the RESESS program, which is like an introduction to research for undergraduate students, basically in geophysics. I’m at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan and I’m studying, well, basically my project is we’re using machine learning to see if we can locate the magma chamber of the Akutan volcano. So that’s what I’ve been working on this summer.

VM: THat is amazing. Do you have any previous experience in programming or machine learning before receiving this internship?

RM: So I did not have any machine learning experience at all. I’ve done a little bit of Python programming and like some other languages, but I’m pretty much a beginner so this has all been very new to me.

VM: And how’s your experience been so far, being a beginner in machine learning, and learning how you can detect the magma chamber?

RM: I would say that I have very supportive mentors here who have helped explain everything pretty well. And also they’ve given me a lot of papers to read about the project they’re working on to help me understand better and like, you know, be able to do the project within the time frame that we have to do it. So I would say that, you know, even though, you know, I was a beginner, and I didn’t have much experience, overall, it’s been, you know, not too difficult to keep up and do the project. We haven’t quite located the magma chamber yet or we don’t even know if it’s one chamber. A lot of the challenges of working on research is that when you run into tech issues, or you know, you get one thing and then maybe it’s not the most accurate or what you were looking for. So the machine learning basically helps us get phase picks. So earthquakes have P and S wave arrivals like on a graph, if you’ve ever seen a seismology graph, so we use the machine learning to pick out the P and S waves, but then we use another program to actually locate the earthquakes. And that one’s called Gamma. And Gamma is pretty good, but we have to do relocation in another program to get more accurate results. So that’s been a little bit challenging lately. So I wouldn’t say I necessarily have the best idea yet of how the system works in the volcano. But you know, we’ll see. Hopefully by the end of the program we’ll have a pretty good idea of how it works, or at least a better idea than we do now.

VM: That’s super interesting. I’m actually a full time employee at the Puerto Rico Seismic Network, so I locate and monitor earthquakes within our error responsibility and I’m also a grad student. I do deal with signals, but from the moon, but I do understand like the P and S arrival times when you’re dealing with volcanic seismology. I did take a course on volcanic hazards, so I was a little bit into that, but that’s super interesting that you’re using machine learning in order to detect a map of the chamber.

RM: Yeah, no, I, I didn’t even know before I came here that that was like a machine learning application. Like I didn’t really know anything about machine learning. I just kind of got placed here, like, you know, we got a list of projects and I didn’t really know which one I wanted to do. Like I had like a list and you know, I got this one. And it sounded interesting to me. So now I’m here and I like it. So yeah, I definitely wouldn’t have expected to be working with it, but I’m glad that I am.

VM: That’s awesome. And just like science, we’re all beginners when we start out, we never know how much we can go into depth. When I started my grad project, I didn’t know too much about anything. So I was a beginner. I’m still a beginner in Python And Google CoLab, which is an open source notebook that you work in a cloud. And I’m really happy that I started this journey. Another question that I have, are you an undergraduate or graduate student, and, depending which program you are in, do you do other research projects?

RM: Oh yeah. So I’m an undergraduate, I’m a rising senior. I do some research at my school, like during the school year, though this year it’s like a little bit up in the air about what I want to do. I’m hoping to continue actually doing this research a bit, just in a different way. I just need the approval from my school, so I am waiting on that. So I mean, in the past I’ve done some acoustics research. I’m a physics major, so I don’t have that much geoscience experience, I would say. I wasn’t sure, you know, if I would be qualified to get into this program because I had like 1 geoscience class. But, I mean, it worked out. So yeah, mostly at school I focus on, I would say like more pure physics than applied physics like this program is.

VM: Never feel afraid to apply to a program even though you feel like you haven’t taken enough coursework because when I took the project that I did, I come from a chemistry background and your physics is a whole different ball game. But I was not afraid to apply for it. So kudos to you that you applied for the program and you’re thriving. So in the near future, would you like to do something related to geoscience, like an interdisciplinary research project for grad school?

RM: Yeah. So probably I will apply to graduate programs in geophysics after doing this program. That’s how I’m feeling.I mean, I’m not fully decided yet, but I mean, that’s most likely what I’m willing to do, or at least something similar. 

VM: Very cool. And what do you like most about the internship that you’re doing at EarthScope?

RM: I mean, I would say I really like the work that I’m doing. It’s been pretty interesting and also like, I feel like it’s really like my first time in undergrad doing research full time. So that’s definitely been a different experience for me. The other thing I like about it is, I mean, I like the other interns as well. We’re all in different places, but we had orientation together and like everyone, I mean, even the faculty too, like all this stuff at EarthScope, like everyone’s been really nice. And we even got to do fieldwork at the very beginning. My research now doesn’t have any field work, unfortunately. But we did do some fieldwork during orientation and that was really fun. I had never really done it before, so I really enjoyed that.

VM: It’s awesome doing fieldwork. As much as I like learning geophysics, like the computational side, I like going on the field, just installing some seismometers. I don’t know if you’ve seen geophones before–they’re these sensors that you put into the ground and then you take this hammer and just hammer a metal plate. And then you mimic these waves while the the person is on the other side just looking at the waves, how they reflect and they refract, which is amazing.

RM: Yeah, we did active source seismology during orientation. We set up the geophones and we, you know, felt to hit the hammer and everything.

VM: It’s pretty fun. Like anyone who has not tried it before, I always tell undergrads, please try it. You won’t miss a thing. So other than the cool work that you do, what other hobbies and extracurricular activities that you have?

RM: During the school year, I also play violin. I’ve been playing violin for, I think, almost 18 years at this point. It’s been most of my life. So that’s something I’m like very involved in normally, though, this summer I’ve kind of taken a bit of a break to focus more on this program. The other thing I like to do is, I mean, I go to the gym. I try to go pretty much like every day after work if I can. Like it just kind of helps me like reset at the end of the day. So I like doing that. Sometimes I play online games. I don’t know, I mean, I find that I am sometimes pretty tired by the time the weekend hits. So maybe I don’t know if I’m up to too many things, but I do like to kind of like, you know, stay involved with like my music stuff, when I can, and then just also hang out with friends or like take care of myself, like that kind of thing.

VM: Self-care is very important and also as students we really need to take care of ourselves emotionally, physically and mentally. So I’m really happy that you do exercise and that you’re also involved in music. 

RM: Well, yeah, I’ve kind of missed playing music a little bit this summer. My original plan was that I would like get a violin to like rent here, but that’s been like a little bit more challenging to find than I thought it would be because I didn’t bring my violin just because of like the complications of traveling with it between like different cities, because like we were in Albuquerque for orientation and then I had to fly here and I didn’t want anything to happen to my violin since I’ve been traveling a lot this year, and it’s been through a lot on like, you know, more than one plane ride and all that. And I didn’t want to put it through even more plane rides. So I was a little concerned about bringing it. So that has been a little bit challenging just because I wish that I had brought it in some ways. But also, like, I still listen to music and of course, like I keep up with my friends who are playing and then when I go back home, I’ll definitely pick it back up more.

VM: Oh for sure. I really recommend this Japanese musician–I’m not sure of his name but he is a full education expert in the Suzuki method, which is that anyone can learn something if divided into very small steps.

RM: Yeah, I was a Suzuki kid. Yeah, it’s very much about like breaking things up into steps and kind of learning things and like a sequence. It’s a very different way of learning. I feel like we do that in school sometimes.

VM: And for a word of advice for students aspiring to apply to internships, what would you say to them?

RM: Like undergrads, right?

VM: Or undergrads, or high school students aspiring to a STEM related field. 

RM: Well, I mean, I would say for high school students, I would definitely say to focus more on just what you’re interested in. I actually did a similar program to this one in high school, though it was during COVID. So it was definitely more challenging than doing this program just because everything was online. So, you know, I could not reach my mentors as easily as now or I just turn around from my desk and maybe ask them a question. But I would say like for high schoolers, like definitely just apply. And even for college students, just like apply to whatever you think. I mean, obviously in college it’s different because we choose our majors eventually and we do like to specialize our interests a little bit. But I would definitely think more in terms of like the skills you have and the interests that you have rather than only apply to something because you think that’s like what you’re qualified for. I guess I would say, like I kind of said at the beginning, I didn’t really have not much geoscience experience coming into this program, but I applied because I was really interested in this topic. Like the one class that I did take, I really enjoyed it and it was something that I thought that maybe I would want to pursue, but I wasn’t sure. So I would definitely say, if something sounds really interesting to you and you feel like you’re really passionate about it or like you really enjoy doing it or would enjoy doing it, it’s worth it to apply because I think that that interest will show like in your application. I think that if you just apply to things just to like apply to them, then you might feel like, you know, kind of stuck with the application because you won’t know what to say. Especially with REUs, when you’re writing your personal statement, you know, you have to be pretty convincing about why you want to do a program. And I’m sure that applying to college and grad school is the same way. And s, if you’re not authentic about what you’re interested in studying, you know, maybe it’s not actually that interesting to you and you’re just applying to apply, then, you know, it’s kind of a waste of your time in my opinion, because you know, like it’s just, you’re not going to feel good about what you’re writing. But that’s not to say you should limit yourself because you’re not sure. Like if something sounds like it might be interesting to you and it’s still worth it to try because you might end up liking it more than you think if you do get in. So I feel like that would be my main advice about applying to internships in general.

VM: That’s pretty wholesome. I also want to add not to get filled with imposter syndrome because sometimes we think that we’re not cut up for something, maybe because we haven’t taken enough classes or we don’t have the experience for it. But at the end of the day, when you have interest for something, that is your motivation to get into a career and you apply for everything, you just need one in order for that door to open and endless possibilities to begin. I always say that to the undergrads as well.

RM: Yeah, at least this year, this was pretty much like the only program I got into. I mean, it was one of my top choices, so I was happy about it, but you know, all that it takes is just one. And that usually opens up a lot of doors for students. It doesn’t really matter where it is. Like I think that students nowadays really like to focus so much on prestige and like, you know, getting the best internship or like doing something. But like, I feel like every summer, even when I didn’t like get into a program like this one, you know, like I found a way to kind of like make the like experience meaningful anyway, or like get something out of it that I would be able to apply to like the rest of my education. Like regardless of whether it was like, you know, like a fancy internship or if it was like a summer job, I feel like that’s kind of important to put into perspective because, and especially in high school, because in high school, like, you know, you’re still young. And, I mean, we’re young in college too, but I feel like in high school you’re really like figuring everything out. And it’s like, if you’re really interested in something, be involved, but also don’t put too much pressure on yourself to like, you know, do everything in high school because you have plenty of time to get it done in college and after. So that would be my opinion on it.

VM: Oh for sure, there is no set time to do X, Y, & Z and I’m a firm believer that if you put too much pressure on yourself, you’re going to feel like you’re have to compare yourself to others. And everyone has their own individual journey, whether it’s academics, whether it’s professional life, but just you know, flow as the opportunities come across and you make your best, wisest decision as possible in order to get your goals done.

RM: Definitely. 

VM: So that’s awesome of you. Thank you so much for the interview.

RM: Of course!