physics and activism
What I love about being a physicist are the conceptual strategies we are taught to solve complex problems. For instance, when approached with a problem that tempts me to quit due to the sheer amount of time it seems it will take to solve the problem, I remember to return to the fundamentals. From this beginning I can build in complexity and pull in different mathematical tools along the way to solve the problem.
The answer to this seemingly
impossible problem tends to fall out during this process. If not, no need to panic. I must simply restart the process and employ the series of questions to be asked that help clear the muddy water:
“What assumptions are being made?”
“What are the initial conditions?”
“Have I seen this type of problem before? Where?”
When I came to college, I was going to be a biological engineering major. I had been thinking about this major for a few years though I am not sure if it was because of a true love for the field or because I had been in NSBE since 2008 and had only imagined an engineering future for myself. This uncertainty combined with my interest in human physiology and biology made B.E. feel like a natural fit.
I remember sitting in Thermodynamics of Biological Systems during the spring of my first year and asking the question, “Why do we use [this] equation to solve [this] problem?” This was my first class in the Biological Engineering department and I had already taken three classes in physics: Classical Mechanics I, Electricity and Magnetism I, and Special Relativity. I had grown accustomed to being able to ask this question in these physics classes and receiving a comprehensive answer; and if not comprehensive at least appreciative responses and follow-ups, if need be.
As an innovator, I don’t simply like to know ‘how’ to use something — though that is critically important in a world where knowing ‘how’ save lives — but I seek to understand the ‘why’.
In response, my professor said “We get it from physics,” and believed that to be a satisfactory answer. And, I’m not going to say that this answer was not satisfactory for some. However, I could feel that this lecturer was teaching me and my peers how to solve specific problem types and incorporating complex equations and phenomena along the way, whereas in physics we seek to first understand the complex equations and phenomena (where questions of who, what, when, where, why are entertained) and then apply it to a specific problem type. A different way of thinking, but one that was for me.
My love for physics is not purely academic. Although it has been a worthwhile spiritual experience learning about the intricacies of quantum mechanics and phenomena behind statistical physics, what intrigues me most about physics is the way it has developed and continues to develop my mind to better enable me to solve problems that I care more deeply about — justice and truth.
Due to my scientific training, when I think about an issue plaguing people I am similarly drawn to “return to the fundamentals”. In this sense, this means historical contextualization. Who? What? When? Where? and Why? If these still leave lacking an understanding on how to approach the issue I ask myself three familiar questions:
“What assumptions are being made?”
“What are the initial conditions?”
“Have I seen this type of problem before? Where?
***
During the fall semester of my first year, I was a part of the inaugural course called MIT and Slavery, where our mission was simple: What are MIT’s ties to slavery, if any? We were on a truth-seeking expedition.
During my research, I analyzed racialized cartoons in MIT student publications, namely Technique (student yearbook) and The Tech (student newspaper) from late 19th century and early 20th century. I believed that to understand MIT’s relationship to slavery, it is important to understand how students were engaging with race on MIT’s campus. These cartoons were drawn by students themselves, and so provided a raw lens into their imaginations.
What links the fields of physics and history, what ties together fields often considered to be disparate to my peers is the embracing of questions and the conceptual strategy toward problem solving and problem understanding. Common problems are too much solving without understanding, or sufficient understanding with little action. As a physicist and as an activist, I utilize both to create comprehensive and lasting change for communities and peoples whose voices have been long unheard.
On May 17, 2018 I was sworn in as the Vice President of MIT’s iteration of undergraduate government. In my approach to accomplishing campaign goals, I find myself using the lessons I’ve learned in physics and the work done through years in activism to not only problem solve, but problem understand.
Entropy can be interpreted as the measure of disorder in a system. When students lack sufficient support from their institution, and people from systems like government both local and federal, there is disorder in the system. This is what I seek to lower.
As I continue to pursue my purpose and fulfill my mission in life, God reveals to me how the unconventional path I’ve traversed in education has been intentional in providing the pieces to the puzzle of my calling. I am humbled to see grander clarity of the image.
*On September 3, 2019 I took a leave of absence from MIT to work at Warren for President. This leave ended my tenure as the 2019-20 MIT UA Vice President.
