"No Pain, No Gain” could be the motto of Wallace Hui. He is enrolled in Cornell’s Applied and Engineering Physics program, consistently ranked number one in the country. During his first year, Wallace was able to stick pretty well to a self-imposed bed time of 2 a.m. Sophomore year found him up until 3 or 4 a.m. Now as a junior, all-nighters have become routine. “But it’s OK,” he says. “Apparently, that’s how you learn engineering physics, and I’m doing something that I like.”
Wallace wouldn’t have to stay up so late if he weren’t involved in so many activities at Cornell. He does undergraduate research in photonics, teaches other students and performs in the Cornell Symphony Orchestra. It might sound like he’s overextended, but he has learned to limit his activities. “There’s so much you can do here, but you can’t do all of them at one time,” he says.
Working in Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Farhan Rana’s Optoelectronics and Quantum Optics Group, Wallace has devised an tapering system that can stretch optical fibers to just 2 microns—so thin that a pulse of intense laser light “explodes” into an ultra-broad band of frequencies called supercontinuum when shot through them. This has provided an economical source of spectroscopy for a semiconductor waveguide one of Rana’s graduate students is designing. Wallace plans to write an honors thesis about his research.
Although the experience was sometime frustrating, like when a fiber would break after he spent excruciating hours slowly stretching it, Wallace says it has left him determined to go to graduate school. “It’s a lot like what grad students go through,” he says. “It’s a good test but I think I can get over it.”
Wallace has been teaching Academic Excellence Workshops since his sophomore year. He says at first it was scary helping other students with subjects like linear algebra, because he didn’t think he understood the material as well as he could have. “This process forced me to study,” he says. “Through teaching it I felt I understood this material really well. I didn’t know teaching could help me that way.”
Playing violin in the Cornell Symphony Orchestra, Wallace toured Berlin over the winter break and discovered a love of traveling. “We spent a week there and I didn’t really want to leave,” he says. “Europe is so inspiring. There is so much history you can look at.”
Although his school work keeps him busy, Wallace says it’s important to take a break sometimes. “You have to find time to hang out with friends,” he says. “It would make my life really boring if I didn’t make time for other activities. I really like teaching and orchestra. I won’t sacrifice these things to do work.”
