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Our group includes several undergraduate students who assist us while carrying out their own research. Here is a collection of past projects by our undergraduates:
IRFTS: The Infra-Red Fourier Transform Spectrometer is a spectrometer for millimeter to far infrared wavelengths. This device is necessary in order to determine the accuracy of the MAT telescope's current and future generations of CMB detectors. It is essential that the detectors "respond" only to a select band of frequencies because the CMB data is extremely faint in amplitude compared with low frequency noise, noise from dust and noise from atmospheric oxygen spectral lines. An IRFTS with a blackbody source spectrum can be used to produce an interferogram (a plot of power versus interferometric path difference), the Fourier transform of which will determine the frequency response of MAT's detectors. Design and construction by Jonathan Fisher and Ariel Michelman, processing software by Yongzhong Xu and improvements to software by Muhammad Bilal Aslam.
- Brief writeup of IRFTS.
- IRFTS Image gallery, showing various views of the experiment.
DAQ: Since no commercially available product existed which met the specifications required by the MAT group, this project satisfied the demands of the MAT group in a manner that was flexible, scalable, and capable of evolving to suit future needs. It was autonomously capable of handling up to 255 double-ended channels with 16-bit resolution. Individual channel sampling rates could be set from 2 Hz to 6 kHz. Separate conversion boards handled analog-to-digital conversion, greatly reducing degradation of input signals. The conversion boards linked via a 50-pin cable to a primary control board housed inside a personal computer. System software avoided taxing the computer's resources through the use of 512 Kilobyte First-In-First-Out data buffers and provided an easy-to-use interface for specifying which channels were to be sampled and how often. Design and construction by Jon Bruzzi and Harvey Chapman.
- Research report (PDF format)
- Research summary poster (PDF format)
- Kelle's Results
- Galactic regions at 30 GHz, 145 GHz, 40 GHz (Q1), 145 GHz (Q4) (PDF format)
- MAT 1997 Beams on the Sky (PDF format)
Levitating Frictionless Bearing (Ruth Toner):
One of the unique properties of a superconductor is its ability to to levitate a magnet.
Scientists are currently researching this phenomenon for possible practical applications, such as flywheel energy storage and the creation of nearly frictionless bearings.
This page is a record of an introductory-level study of the properties of the bearing, including a determination of the spring constant and of the time constant of the decay of rotational velocity.
The work was done in May and June, 2003.
- Results
- Research presentation (PowerPoint format)