Max D. Blog Post

As I enter the final week of the programme, I find myself increasingly reflective of my time here. Thinking back, I realise that the so-called “SSP time warp” mentioned on the first day is indeed very real. It is hard to believe that the lectures spanned from fundamental concepts like dot products and derivatives to complex topics like spherical trigonometry, the Method of Gauss for orbit determination, and Monte Carlo Simulations for uncertainties. It is even harder to fathom that our field trip to the (not so) “dripping” springs was a mere week and a half ago, and the baseball game we attended was almost a whole month ago when it feels like it all happened yesterday.

But I won’t waste my blog post by dwelling on the past and reiterating what previous posts have likely covered.


Today, I awoke at the usual hour of 7:30. After the arduous task of dragging myself out of bed, I found myself departing the dormitories around 8:40. As I meandered between the shade provided by various trees on campus, I endeavoured to avoid the lethal laser that is known as the sun, which has been responsible for the relentless 40°C+ weather. Being Canadian, I have yet to acclimatise to the oppressive heat of New Mexico. Each time I step into the sweltering temperatures of Las Cruces, I find myself yearning for the 10 cm of snow and the -40°C cold that are commonplace in my city.

P.S. metric is the better measurement system

But enough about the weather; back to my walk to the lecture halls.

As I walked, I pulled out my phone to undertake my daily ritual of checking the news, social media, and my schedule. After replying to messages from friends back home, I opened the ever-convenient Google Calendar and discovered that, instead of the usual lectures on Maths, Physics, and Astrometry from Dr. R, Dr. Anderson, and Dr. Le, we would be having “TA talks.” Perplexed yet intrigued, I continued my walk to the lecture halls.

Upon arrival, instead of the customary intro slide on the board it was Dr. R waiting to make a short talk.

Once Dr. R explained, I found out that today there would be four “lectures” from the TA’s about any topic they would like. It would be structured that Stas and Kathryn would present in the morning session and Lucien and Michelle in the afternoon session.

Starting the lectures off would be Stas, who apparently felt the need to do his talk in an ostentatiously shiny gold dress and heels.

Being true to form, Stas had selected an academic topic for his talk: tensors and his research on using ray-tracing to create images of black holes at Georgia Tech.

Although the lecture was quite challenging to grasp, Stas ensured it was highly interactive, which significantly aided my comprehension.

After an hour and a half, we were granted a brief ten-minute respite before Kathryn’s talk about her experiences in game development and the intersection between STEM and the arts.

It was fascinating to see how Kathryn and her sister leveraged their expertise in game development, as well as art and music, to create “Save the Princess Gayme.”

After her insightful lecture and the usual lunch at the Corbett Student Union, the afternoon proceeded in a similar fashion.

Lucien delivered a talk about his life and his experiences at SSP in Biochem (worse than Astro) 2019. His tales of late-night lab sessions and the camaraderie formed during those intense weeks painted a vivid picture of his journey.

Lucien today (getting assaulted by Shreyas)

Michelle rounded off the day with an engaging talk about the topics in computer science she is passionate about, including natural language processing (NLP) and other intriguing subjects. Despite my lack of personal bias towards CS, I found her presentation quite captivating.

Following these TA lectures, our team, as always, got down to work, adding the final touches to our MPC report to prepare it for provisional review. Ian and I completed the photometry for the last couple of observations, ensuring everything was in perfect order.

Today was a pleasant departure from the usual six hours of lectures. While those lectures are generally enjoyable, they can become rather repetitive. Activities like today’s TA talks, although not as flashy as the field trips, embody the essence of SSP. It’s not just about the academics; it’s about the relationships you build with friends and TAs. The numerous inside jokes woven into the TA presentations highlighted just how close we’ve become in just four and a half weeks.

I look forward to strengthening these connections in the final week of the programme. As Lucien wisely said in his presentation, it’s all about “making the most out of the experience.”


Hi, my name is Max. I am a rising Senior from Calgary, AB, Canada. I love participating in science and engineering fairs, working on robotics projects, and I’m also a sports shooter (10M Air Pistol) and an avid fan of all motorsports. In my free time, I enjoy photography, building robots, and watching Formula One!