Shifrah Aron-Dine HM ’16, like most young adults, enjoys watching TV (Parks and Recreation, to be specific) and has a quirky hobby or two (she juggles). However, beyond the pastimes of a typical student, Aron-Dine has spent the past two summers working at the Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory, helping researchers work on photolithography techniques.
Photolithography may sound complex, but in simple terms, it involves working on chip production for computers.
“I helped create a way to take a nano-scale image without a camera or magnification,” Aron-Dine said.
Technology like this is still developing, but people involved with the project hope that the technique will correct errors in manufacturing and be implemented in most computers. The process requires an understanding of computer programs and manipulating photos.
“We take as many pictures as there are pixels, do some math on the computer and get your image,” Aron-Dine said.
As a first-year, Aron-Dine has already dealt with technologies that many people don’t even know exist. She thinks her time working on this project is over for now, but her unique opportunity is one that she won’t forget anytime soon. Her unusual exposure to technological research is representative of the outstanding experiences that many Harvey Mudd students have had before even stepping onto campus.