During the winter of 2021-22, I spent five months as a Research and Design Intern at Intelligent Imaging innovations (3i). 3i specializes in advanced multimodal microscopy systems and solutions. I particularly worked on adaptive optics microscopy solutions. This internship formed my interest and love for optics and awe at the wide range of applications this field has. This internship required me to be laser-trained and I worked with multiple highly complex microscopy setups.
The main goal of the internship was to test an adaptive optics solution that takes star-guided adaptive optics from astronomy and applies it to microscopy to correct optical aberrations. The product has been released and is known as the C-Shaper, which corrects classical optical aberrations dynamically using a deformable mirror, allowing for quick and complex adjustments of images. This product addresses aberrations arising both from imperfect lenses and samples themselves, including the ability to adjust as aberrations worsen deeper into thick samples.
I also learned how to assemble, align, and use multimodal microscope systems. I even got to travel to install a device independently at a lab in Hanover! I also worked on a machine learning project that works to identify and count different parts of cells for ongoing outside research. This machine learning application would revolutionize this research, where currently these measurements are taken by hand and take significantly longer than AI solutions.
For more about 3i and their products, check out their website!
Check out my internship addressing adaptive optics at LIGO!