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“I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

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Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#91

Post by JorgeGT »

nickff wrote: post #22
vinceguidry wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you can look at it this way, he would have never been well-served by the traditional society-determined path anyway. A project like this has the tendency to just blow away all other considerations. If you were hiring for a physics position, would you take the guy who got straight A's on his physics coursework, or the guy who built an effing nuclear reactor in his bedroom?

The sad thing is that if you were faculty, looking for a graduate student to supervise, you'd probably pick the one with straight A's and no hobbies, because you could get them to do whatever you wanted, without risk of them getting their own ideas or leaving.

Adding to what others have say, in my department the choice would have been a no-brainer for the guy that has proved he can self-teach and do independent research. There's nothing faculty loves more than motivated people that can do a lot by themselves with just little directions from them!

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#93

Post by CalRobert »

sthatipamala wrote: post #11

This kid is awesome but this particular comment really made me sad: "Spending 3+ hours a day on a project during junior and senior year did not help my grades. My counselor told me that I wouldn't get into the top colleges because of this reason. I believed her and didn't apply to my dream colleges."

They probably saved themslves years of ridiculous BS, poor instruction, and a mountain of debt. Good for them.

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#94

Post by MagnumOpus »

taneq wrote: post #88
50CNT wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a strict no "high-anything" rule for my basement bedroom. No high temperatures, no high voltages, no high amperages, no high velocity, no high pressure, no high vacuum, no high anything :(. At least I made my desktop sound like a jet engine, so that's something.

> no high voltages So electron beams ahoy then? "But muuuum! -45kV is a LOW voltage!"

He also excluded "high velocity". No electron beams alas.

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#95

Post by dookahku »

sthatipamala wrote: post #11

This kid is awesome but this particular comment really made me sad: "Spending 3+ hours a day on a project during junior and senior year did not help my grades. My counselor told me that I wouldn't get into the top colleges because of this reason. I believed her and didn't apply to my dream colleges."

Same thing happened to me. I almost dropped out of HS because I got admitted to college early. I was administered a 'residual' ACT and was admitted.

The counselor told me people wouldn't want to hire me if I didn't have a diploma or a college degree if things didn't work out.

I honestly believe the counselor was looking out for me and wasn't incompetent, but christ I wish I hadn't listened to him.

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#96

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

MagnumOpus wrote: post #94
taneq wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no high voltages So electron beams ahoy then? "But muuuum! -45kV is a LOW voltage!"

He also excluded "high velocity". No electron beams alas.

"Keep it under the speed of light, OK?"

"Deal."

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#97

Post by joebergeron »

nlh wrote: post #43
sthatipamala wrote: post #11

This kid is awesome but this particular comment really made me sad: "Spending 3+ hours a day on a project during junior and senior year did not help my grades. My counselor told me that I wouldn't get into the top colleges because of this reason. I believed her and didn't apply to my dream colleges."

And at least from my experience, that is wrong wrong wrong. I was a solidly B student in high school, but I had some extracurriculars (not quite building fusion reactors) that I devoted an absurd amount of time to and excelled at. And I got into MIT.

Being in almost exactly the same boat, I would have to agree. I was a decent student in high school. There were those in my class who were certainly better off academically in terms of GPA, those who presented at ISEF, etc. When that handful of students and I applied to MIT however, only I was admitted, for reasons I attribute to my passions and interests which I simply could not have explored in a meaningful way through any "sanctioned" or school-sponsored activities.

My guidance counselor as well as extremely discouraging, however after being at MIT for two years, I'm inclined to say that admission to a university like mine hinges on both being an interesting person and possessing demonstrable intelligence - not necessarily through scholastic channels.

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#98

Post by kriro »

I have to wonder if college is actually the right choice altogether. The brothers basically learned everything on their own and most importantly actually shipped. Seems like a solid investment for some tech company to just offer them a job doing whatever research work they want for a year or two and seeing how it goes. Supposedly there's a job shortage in tech...here's an opportunity to sign a couple of HS students that build a reactor (and some other cool things) for kicks. I mean yeah sure they didn't build a fancy webapp but surely people at Tesla, Google whoever read Reddit.

The pros for college are access to lab stuff and some smart people + what you learn. I believe they can do the learning on their own just fine and well access to cool tech toys is also readily available at most tech companies...and there's also a lot of smart people around.

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#99

Post by lostlogin »

eggy wrote: post #74

Amazing work by this young man! My children will love this. My son and daughter are both doing well, but my son loves to experiment outside of school. I have been encouraging my son to experiment and learn, and he has taken it to a higher level than I had imagined. I have bought him a telescope, and a 3D printer over the years. He works for his own equipment and supplies too. More each year. Some of his experiments o…

What were you hoping would happen to your mother?

Re: “I built a fusion reactor in my bedroom – AMA”

#100

Post by argonaut »

vinceguidry wrote: post #19
sthatipamala wrote: post #11

This kid is awesome but this particular comment really made me sad: "Spending 3+ hours a day on a project during junior and senior year did not help my grades. My counselor told me that I wouldn't get into the top colleges because of this reason. I believed her and didn't apply to my dream colleges."

Well, you can look at it this way, he would have never been well-served by the traditional society-determined path anyway. A project like this has the tendency to just blow away all other considerations. If you were hiring for a physics position, would you take the guy who got straight A's on his physics coursework, or the guy who built an effing nuclear reactor in his bedroom?

This dichotomy isn't the actual choice, though. You'd hire the person with straight A/A-'s (read: nobody cares about perfect grades) from Stanford/Berkeley/MIT/Caltech who also worked directly with some well-known professors, publishing papers that advanced the field, albeit incrementally, either building experiments or developing theoretical results.

In other words, the person who has demonstrated solid abstract knowledge (breadth/versatility) and actual ability to do research (depth/hands-on).

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