Career Aspirations

Things at the lab in Valencia have gotten busy since I got here. They have been in contact with these people that want to build a mollusk farm in the north of Spain, and they want the raft that holds this farm to be made of reinforced concrete, so it can last more than a season without having to change the entire raft. Apparently up until now they have been made of some type of wood that would last a season before it got harmed too much from being in the ocean. Right now, you probably have a few questions like:
How does a concrete raft even begin to make sense?
What does this have to do with researchers at a university?
Why do I even bring this up when talking about career aspirations?

 This is a model of a section of the raft that will be created with reinforced concrete. This section is about 4 meters wide by 2.8 meters, and the entirety of the project will be 28 m x 20 m, or at least that's what I heard. This part is filled from the bottom, so the picture shown is what will go connected to another steel frame that in turn will be connected to huge floaters. I haven't had a chance to see the floaters, but I know they are at least the size of a bus! Everything in the middle not seen filled with concrete will be hollow and used to connect to another part of the raft or simply to decrease the burden on the floaters. So, with the huge floaters and some hollow parts, the concrete raft begins to make sense no?

My mentor focuses his research on the the effects of corrosion on steel and how to mitigate the effects of harmful elements to the reinforced concrete structures (Harmful elements like chloride, which causes oxidation of the steel bar, and leads to a weaker structure).
The ocean itself has chlorides that affect the prestressed concrete that these rafts will be made of, so the researchers here got in on the project to study the effects of an environment in a real situation to obtain results that are going to be great to look at. Given, it will take a long time to get results back, because they are using really good cement and the effects won't be seen until the chlorides get through the concrete coating to the steel.

Corrosion isn't cool, but this picture is

I think we can all agree working in a lab is cool.

Being here in Valencia has also been a lot about learning what people do in graduate studies, and exposing me to what research is like. They are in essence, discovering things. This is amazing to me. All this time since I got into Civil Engineering, I thought of getting my degree, and then after that going in to get a Master's degree to get a good job, and applying that in a good engineering firm. After that, somewhere down the road, make my own company where I would be the master of my own time, and not work on another person's schedule.

After spending time here though, I think I am starting to look at research as more than an obstacle that I have to overcome in order to get to work. I am enjoying being in this environment, where people are excited to be involved in their work and learning about their respective fields. I think I could even consider doing something like this in the future, and maybe look at Master's programs in the US and abroad. I can see myself working in a lab, doing research and maybe even teaching? Probably no teaching for me.

When I go back home though, I will keep this experience in mind all the time. I expect to brag about it too, but that's not what I'm talking about. I want people who don't know to realize that it's not just the US doing big things, that the knowledge is universal and everywhere around the world there's things being discovered and people you can consult so you don't mess up a project. Maybe there's a Master's degree in Spain in my future. Going forward, my career will definitely take bigger picture things into consideration, and I believe everything I do (hopefully) will be available to people across the world, if they're interested. Oh well, enough about big picture things. I'm wrapping this blog up with some down to Earth desires I want in my near future.

I want some horchata.