An End to the First Week

Since the last post, I have met with Prof. Battat several times to discuss current mini-goals and the overall framework for what we hope to be the end result. I have learned (most likely) over fifty different physics and electronics terms, read two papers on dark matter experimentation and lasted through a two-hour meeting between two very intelligent people on this particular project. I would call this a very successful first-week. For instance, yesterday, not only did I work more on the individual project and generate a Youtube playlist (below) of tutorials and lessons, I also gave a presentation on my progress through the week, had a group meeting to discuss the DRIFT experiment overall, and then jumped into a Python workshop. Today, I'll be busy again with an Alumnae lunch and a guest lecture in the afternoon on science education. One day can pack in a whole lot....



On a similar note, two days ago, Prof. Battat and I met with Jim Phillips, who works at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on a project regarding the equivalence principle, to discuss the framework and path of the project. Much more experienced in analog electronics than I am, he explained how to find adequate multiplexers, particularly looking at the noise and calculating the LSB (leas significant bit) for accuracy. During this meeting, we also brought up pressing questions: whether we can build our own multiplexer or not in two months; if development boards are the way to go; and where to begin with field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), for which we'll utilize the expertise of another collaborator whom I have yet to meet. Fortunately, I am more interested (and exposed to) in digital electronics and the balance between the two types works out. By the end of meeting, I had generated a long list of topics to research and understand, such as the Nyquist frequency, and returned to refine my list of multiplexers (below):


The next day, I gave an oral presentation (along with a paper hand-out, below) on the development of my project. I explained what types of components I am currently researching, what features I am focusing on, and other tasks I am finishing, e.g. tutorials on building a ribbon cable. I also showed the project site and its contents (as well as this blog) to the other researchers as an example of my documentation.

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