<p>Name (optional, the internet is a dangerous place): True, true. I once got my name stolen on the web when I wasn't looking.</p>
<p>State: New Jersey</p>
<p>Fields of interest: Engineering, Computational Mechanics</p>
<p>Research experience: Once upon a time, my Chewy granola bars were confiscated from me because they were found to contain partially hydrogenated oils (carriers of these awful things called trans fats). Slightly dismayed, I then called up a food scientist at Rutgers to see if she can help me. Soon enough, I was working under her guidance for the next few months studying alternatives to formulating and packaging granola bars that would maintain a long shelf-life without the incorporation of trans fats.</p>
<p>Test scores: Abysmal.</p>
<p>Awards: Not too many widely known ones. A few awards at regional science fairs, music competitions, web design competitions. I didn't actually list them all on the application though.</p>
<p>ECs: Oh the usual activities an adolescent Asian male would pursue - orchestra (oboe), art, science bowls, etc. (no racket sports, unfortunately...or track.) I did talk about forming a barbershop quartet whose repertoire included original songs about quantum physics</p>
<p>Why you think you got in: Not sure exactly, but I thoroughly discussed this one research idea I had. Okay, so oven is to microwave oven as refrigerator is to what? I know most of you are envisioning this really fast cooling refrigerator - and that's exactly what I wrote about. Basically I've already mathematically modeled a prototype thermoacoustic refrigerator design that was optimized for fast-cooling performance. (The neat thing about thermoacoustics devices is that they're inexpensively built and environmentally friendly - no ozone-depleting gases involved here; just helium and maybe xenon.) However the optimization technique I had used neglected certain second-order factors along the way (e.g. turbulence) and didn't take into account every value of every variable. So I want to research the application of this one technique called Multidisciplinary Design Optimization (which is largely used in the aerospace engineering industry) to maximizing my refrigerator's cooling power while minimizing cost, based on defined design variables and constraints.</p>
<p>Academic and non-academic interests: I like research. I like science. I like institutes. (It's nice. ha...ha...)</p>
<p>Other info (funny joke/political affiliation/goals in life, etc.): I think that my ultimate goal in life is to one day retire to a macro-sized replica of a Y-chromosome.</p>