Cosmos Journey
A running log of what I'm learning, building, and figuring out at the COSMOS program — Summer 2026.
Each entry is written shortly after it happens. The goal is to document not just what I learned, but how my thinking changed.
Week 1 — Arrival and Orientation
What happened: First day was mostly logistics — meeting my cluster, getting lab access, understanding the schedule. I expected to feel overwhelmed but the pace felt manageable. The hardest part was figuring out which questions were worth asking out loud vs. looking up myself.
What I learned: The program is less "lecture and absorb" and more "here's a problem, go figure it out." That's a bigger mental shift than I expected.
What surprised me: How collaborative everyone was. I assumed it would be competitive. It wasn't — people shared resources freely and helped debug each other's setups.
What I want to follow up on:
- [Topic you encountered that you want to dig into]
- [Tool or concept introduced that you didn't fully understand yet]
Week 1 — First Lab Session
What happened: [Describe what you worked on in the lab. What was the experiment or project? What were you asked to do?]
What broke: [Something always goes wrong in a first lab session. What was it? How long did it take to figure out?]
What I figured out: [What did you actually understand by the end that you didn't going in?]
Confidence level going in vs. out: Going in: 4/10 — I didn't really know what to expect. Going out: 6/10 — I know what I don't know now, which feels better than not knowing what I don't know.
Week 2 — Getting Into the Real Work
What happened: [The second week is usually when the actual project starts. What are you working on? What is the goal?]
The concept I struggled with most: [Pick one concept that took real effort. Explain it in your own words — not the textbook version, your version.]
How I got unstuck: [What resource, conversation, or approach finally made it click?]
A mistake I made: [Something you did wrong — a calculation, an assumption, a setup error. What was it and what did it cost you in time?]
Week 2 — Talking to a Researcher
What happened: [Did you have a one-on-one or group session with a professor, grad student, or researcher? What did you talk about?]
The most interesting thing they said: [One specific thing — not a general impression, a specific sentence or idea.]
How it changed how I'm thinking about the project: [Did it shift your approach? Give you a new direction? Confirm something you suspected?]
Week 3 — Midpoint Check-in
Where the project stands: [What have you built, measured, or produced so far? What's working?]
What's not working yet: [Be honest. What's still broken or unclear?]
What I wish I'd done differently in week 1: [Hindsight from the midpoint — what would you tell yourself at the start?]
Skill I've improved most: [Be specific. Not "I got better at coding" — what specifically? Reading error messages faster? Writing cleaner functions? Setting up experiments without help?]
Week 3 — Presentation Prep
What the presentation covers: [What are you showing and to whom?]
What I'm nervous about: [The specific part you're least confident in.]
How I'm preparing: [Practice runs, feedback from peers, revision process.]
After the presentation: [How did it go? What feedback was most useful? What would you change?]
Week 4 — Final Sprint
What's left: [What do you need to finish before the program ends?]
What I'm cutting: [Almost every project has scope cuts at the end. What didn't make it, and why?]
What I'm proud of: [One concrete thing — not the whole project, one piece of it.]
Week 4 — Final Presentation
What I showed: [The finished (or finished-enough) work. What did it do? What did it demonstrate?]
How it went: [Honest reflection. Not "it went well" — what specifically worked, what didn't, what questions you got that you weren't ready for.]
What I'd do differently if I had another week: [One specific improvement.]
Reflection — What COSMOS Taught Me
The most important technical thing I learned: [One concept or skill. In your own words.]
The most important non-technical thing I learned: [How to work in a research environment, how to ask better questions, how to deal with being stuck, etc.]
How this changed what I want to do next: [Did it confirm a direction you were already heading, or open up something new?]
Would I recommend it: [To who? Under what conditions?]