WEBVTT FILE

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[Music]

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Gabriel off-screen: My name is Gabriel Apaza, I live in Northdale, Michigan

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I am currently attending Michigan State University getting a major in computer science and engineering

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and I'm minoring in mathematics and I'm a rising senior.

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[Music]

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My name is Philip Lu, I grew up in Hacienda Heights, California.

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and right now I'm actually going to UCLA for my PhD in physics.

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[Music]

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I've been playing classical piano probably since about the age of six.

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and I've been taking lessons from a local piano teacher until I was about 16 years old.

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I started learning piano when I was about four

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and I had a piano teacher teacher until I was maybe 13 or so.

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but then I decided to just focus on my studies more, so I stopped taking lessons but I've been playing ever since.

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Gabriel off-screen: As a Goddard intern I'm working on a project called TAT-C

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which stands for the Tradespace Analysis Tool for Communications

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and that's just an application that allows end users to decide which space mission is best for what they want to accomplish

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and my role personally on that project is I'm a software architect

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so I just use different design patterns to put together different pieces of software that makes the application easier to maintain and easier to use.

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The most exciting part about this project is actually seeing the project implemented into real life

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and seeing real science being used with TAT-C.

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[Music]

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Philip off-screen: my project is on microlensing

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so microlensing is based on the principle that gravity bends light around it.

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So when you have a star or planet, move in front of another star, it makes the star behind it brighter.

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and by just looking at how well it gets magnified we can infer characteristics of the planet or the star

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and it's really cool because we can perhaps find earthlike exoplanets which are planets orbiting around other stars besides the Sun in our galaxy.

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[Music]

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Gabriel off-screen: Whenever I'm working or coding I always like to have music playing in the background, specifically classical music.

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I feel as if music that has set patterns in it, that I can recognize, really helps stimulate my subconscious

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and it helps me find answers to problems that I wouldn't be able to solve otherwise.

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Gabriel off-screen: Each composer has their own different style and a pattern that's recognizable just like how in different branches of math they have different patterns that you can see.

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and I can always go to the piano to just play and kind of de-stress a little bit, and it definitely helps me solve problems.

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Philip off-screen: Classical piano and mathematics both present similar types of problems.

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Both types of problems requires a similar kind of problem solving and when you find that elegant solution it feels great whether or not it’s mathematics or piano.

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It’s also nice to have a second creative outlet, because when I’m stuck on a math problem I just feel like I’m in a rut and I can just go blow off some steam and play some piano and vice versa.

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I also like having music whenever I do some coding or do some grading because it really keeps me invigorated

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[Music coming to a close]

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[Satellite passing, beeping]