I had a great summer exploring Washington DC and working on comPADRE with good ol' Thad and company.  I got to check out the growing database of resources that comPADRE offers (its more than just your parents piddly website).  I wrote up an analysis of findings and recommendations to be used in enhancing the site, money allowing (I should probably get that done and sent), and got to go out to Sacramento, California for a weekend to the American Association of Physics Teachers annual meeting to present my stuff in a nifty, cool poster.

I learned lots of stuff over the summer.  Pieces of advice if you're going to DC:  First, don't rent a car!  You will only have a car accident.  Take the Metro.  It's like VISA, it's everywhere you want to be.  Second, don't wait until the last minute to see all the touristy stuff.  You will very quickly find out that "I have 8 weeks to see all of this, I'll go some other day" will soon turn into "Ahh, it's my last weekend and I haven't seen anything!!"  And lastly, and this goes for interns, not just travelers to DC, don't spend all your stipend while you're still interning.  Chances are you're making more money there than you were at home.  Have something to show for it!

Hope everyone else had a great summer!

-al

I had an alright summer.  It started out with me working at the cafeteria and bolometer lab.  Some of the coworkers were graduating and thus leaving school forever, so we decided to throw them a good bye party.

I live in Isla Vista, next to UCSB.  However, I live in the part where this college town anomaly of old folk live.  For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to have the party at my house.

It really wasn't a good idea, the party got broken up at 1:30 a.m.  Cops gave one of my house mates a warning.  Only 6 people remain at the house, cops come back at 2:00 a.m.  They hand me a citation, for disturbing the peace, I'm given a $700 ticket.  My neighbor is screaming at one my guests at the top of his lungs, accusing him of urinating on his lawn, cops seperate him from my guest.  It was proven later that there was no urination that took place on the grass that night.

Thus I begin my illustrious career in mobile detailing.  I drive home on weekends this advertise detailing and car washing.  I finally raise enough money to pay for the ticket.  I put 4000 miles on my car in a month.  I can wash a car pretty well, but the strain of driving back and forth from home and school has gotten to me.  So I quit doing that after I raised the necessary funds.  I go to court on Wednesday to pay my debts to society.  I'm never throwing a party again.

Though my Dad and I leave for the Florida Keys on wednesday night to go scuba diving.

Hey hey!  I had an awesome summer out in Socorro, New Mexico, hanging out at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.  Who would have thought that they middle of the desert would be so much fun!  We saw the Grand Canyon, White Sands, and Carlsbad Caverns.  There was much star gazing (green lasers pointers included!), movie watching, Ultimate Frisbee playing, and of course, partying.

We actually did some work, too.  Most of us worked with data from the Very Large Array (VLA) or Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA).  We each gave two days worth of tours of the VLA, which was really awesome, and got to climb an antenna.  We visited the VLA and VLBA Pietown at the wee hours of the morning to watch them take data for our very special student-run projects.  Sleep, who needs it!

The top off to the summer is a prank, known as a "Google bomb" for which we need some help!  If any of you have websites of your own, you can help by linking to the webpage for the VLA (http://www.vla.nrao.edu) with the title "Awful Waste of Space".  As long as you are in Google's index, you will be helping us put the VLA as the #1 search result for the phrase awful waste of space!  Go ahead and see where we are right now, #3 (as of 8/24).  Thanks!

So that was my summer, and many thanks to my awesome fellow REUers.

Hey all,

Just a reminder to please include your school's name in your post - there is a chapter prize to be awarded, so help represent!

--Management

Dodge this.

Hey all,

Just a reminder that all posts need to be submitted by 5pm Friday.

Dodge this.

This summer, I left my home in hot, muggy, mountainous East Tennessee to spend time in Rochester, NY, which is a pretty similar place...except for the heat and the mountains, of course.  I worked for the University of Rochester's infrared astronomy group, analyzing data from the new Spitzer Space Telescope, studying protostars and protoplanetary disks--I want to eventually get my PhD in astrophysics, so this was a really (expletive-deleted)ly awesome job.  Worked hard, got some grad school tips, got many more brain wrinkles--good times all around.

The other physics kids in the REU program really made it great, though.  *Hours* of ultimate frisbee (nerd != weak), trips to Rochester's own "honky-tonk rib pit" (I know, 43 N latitude, what??), excursions to that strange foreign land known as "Canada" (Niagara Falls, baby!), an utter lack of visits to the Distillery (I'm sorry!!), and one unforgettable night of trash-talking throw-down croquet (yes, croquet...blame the guy from Yale).  We went swing-dancing, salsa-dancing, fencing, and tree-climbing.  We watched the Venus transit with our naked eyes.  We baked beer-bread.  And, at the end, we PowerPointed ourselves to death with our final presentations.

And now, back to the grindstone...ahh, senior year...

What a busy summer for such an old man...

I did my usual overload of research and administrative duties.
Even did some instructional work (to quote my favorite line
from a TV show:  "I can't teach!  I'm a Professor!"  Recognize the
show?)

I tearfully watched my students all leave me behind ... Suzanne to
MIT and Purdue, Alyssa to LIGO/CalTech, Allison to DC, even
old Eric graduating 3 months early to start the Ph.D. program
at OSU.  But at least some stayed with me and some came back!

I got to see The Contours in concert ("Do You Looove Me, Now
That I Can Dance?") as well as the Village People!  Now I
know the right way to do the YMCA hand signals (You're All
Doing It Wrong!).

Then there came the heaping on of new administrative duties.

And to top it all off, a new baby for my wife and me at the end
of the summer!

Thank goodness the academic year has started again - I need
a break!

Go University of Louisville Team!

I had an exorbitant amount of time and money after leaving the US Marine Corps, I couldn't start school, and I'd never been west of the Mississippi.  Time to head west for an epic road trip!
It took me three days to get to Montana.  60 miles outside of Bozeman, a friend's hometown, my car died.  Instead of giving up, I bought a beat-up Jeep for a grand and continued my trip.  I backpacked overnight in Yellowstone, Glacier, Olympic, Yosemite, and Rocky Mountain National Parks.  I day-hiked and/or mountain biked in Mt. Rushmore, Devil's Tower, Craters of the Moon, Mt. Rainer, Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Crater Lake, the Redwoods, Great Basin, Arches and Caynonlands National Parks.  Then I drove back to Montana to pick up my busted car.  It took me 46 hours to drive from Bozeman, MT to home, about 2000 miles.
In three months I drove through 15 states, visited 23 national and state parks, saw one free Willie Nelson concert, used two cars, took 3600 pictures, blew $7000, sat on my butt 10,000 miles in a car, and blew off five years of steam from the Marine Corps.  I couldn't be happier.  Time to hit the books!

Daine
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Hi.  My name is Ryan, and my favorite number is 6:00 pm.  I knew I had a problem when I fell asleep on the first day, though it wasn't entirely my fault.  The lisp of the training and development lady reminded me of the beach.  The signs were as clear as the bare walls of my waist-high cubicle; my decline was evident, yet nobody intervened.  They were too busy smoking and getting fatter.  They drank coffee by the pot or Mountain Dew by the two liter--name your poison; mine was the world they lived in.

A mere pre-closing coordinator in a mortgage office I was not strong enough to help myself.  I saw a doctor.  "Sclerosis of the mind," he said, "there is no cure."

At 6:00 pm on 12 August 2004 I left the nightmare behind me.  Here, in the shelter of the hallowed halls of higher learning I continue the quest for my Penicillin.  I have been dry as a used up highlighter for almost a month now, haunted only by dreams of a flashing voicemail light.  Pray for me.  Our strength is in numbers.

I had a particularly productive summer this year. I spent the summer taking classes and generally getting ahead in my studies. Also, I made quite a bit of cash working as a research intern for the Science Alliance in the field of neutrino physics. This experience was important to me because of the multitude of skills I acquired as a result, including FORTRAN programming and experience with LabVIEW and NIM/CAMAC data acquisition systems. Being cooped up in a laboratory all summer is no fun, and I therefore endeavored to spend as much time away from the university as possible. Frequent visits to my local cinema and various restaurants proved beneficial to my moral, and allowed reasonable and healthy interaction with friends. At the end of the summer, I gave a presentation on my research. It is my hope that my work this summer will not have been solely for my benefit, but may eventually help others in future research.

John Carruth
VP - Society of Physics Students
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

My summer internship mostly involved waiting for parts to arrive, and then waiting for parts to be fixed after my nine foot partner Oleg snapped off a metal bar like a Slim-Jim.  I'm a physics major, which has always given me the impression that I am not a computer programming major.  Unfortunately this subtlety was lost on my professor who had me program an interface for a gamma-ray detector.  At one point, for no apparent reason, the room began to depressurize.  The pressure difference between the room and the hallway made it almost impossible to open the door to leave.  This lasted for weeks.
I had plenty of good times besides watching the lights change on electronics.  My girlfriend was away at summer camp – because she was a councilor not because she is 12 – and we wrote each other letters every other day.  On the last day we went hiking in the woods.  She left the path to pick ferns, because she is a humanities major, and I managed to make sure she didn't pick the copperhead resting in the ferns.  The forest was beautiful but nothing makes your heart drop like the plunking sound of your car keys dropping in a river.  

   ---|)ante
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Hey all,
I had fun summer down in Tullahoma, Tennessee at a place called Aerospace Testing Alliance. My primary task involved development of infared FPA technology and the image correction algorithms associated with them. These FPA's are used to study missile plumes and chararacteristics of missiles in flight.

SPS Chapter: University of Tennessee - Knoxville

Well,
    I started the summer with a bang.  I found out my then-girlfriend started banging her ex.  After a week of drinking and feeling sorry for myself, I decided it was time for summer: pools, beer, lakes, vodka, fireworks, and falling off a boat dock, a boat, and down some stairs (I don't blame the alcohol though).  I had a bisezual fling until I realised I hate feminine men as much as prissy women.  The second half of summers wasn't as much fun...Organic 2 in 4 weeks, ouch.  I still managed to get into trouble though.  With Organic over I headed to Savannah, Ga for two weeks.  While there I got in a fight for getting drunk and telling people that I hoped they died in there sleep (You would be amazed at what some people take as personal).  Once I returned to TN, I had my truck window knocked out and the grill kicked in (I'm not bitter, I just hope the drunken individuals who did it are reincarnated as test monkeys).  You never know how much fun vaccuming glass out of a car at 3am is until you try it or you may not guess that at 3am officers aren't dispatched: they file your report over the phone and leave you looking stupid in the street holding a cell phone.  Luckily, I survived summer long enough for UTK to put a stake in it.  Anyway, hope you guys had an equally fun summer and if your drunk, its not a good idea.

SPS Chapter: University of Tennesse, Knoxville!

And they called this the #1 party school...

Summer Part II (it doesn't stop),
   I realise you said 200 words...but to get 200 words I'd have to leave out articles and verbs.  So...I talked a girl into making me a "Women are Subhuman" bumbersticker.  I got into a mayonnaise eating contest and lost (not before eating a substantial amout first...gag).  I ate a lizard, cricket, and craw dad (craw fish).  I frosted my hair.  Surprisingly this actually looked good.  I quit smoking and started back.  One day, I accidentally took 3 Tylenol PMs at ~12 noon to cure a headache.  You may say, "But T PMs are blue and regular T is white."  Yes, but it was a bad headache and it was gone when I woke up.  Finally, I realized that if you go out side to smoke at 2am with nothing but boxers, a cig, and a lighter, you had better make sure the door isn't locked when you shut it.

While trying to remember something interesting that happened to me this summer I realized something. My summer was a bust. Nothing interesting happened to me. It was the first time that I decided to take classes and it will be the last time (hopefully). Apart from studying I spent a lot of time laying around; basically doing nothing.

So, I am left with a choice. I can make something interesting up (which really is not my style); or just tell it like it is. I am opting for the latter. Maybe I can live vicariously through the other posts.

Catherine
Univerity of Tennessee, Knoxville

My summer was a blast.  I spent two and a half months in the glorious Richland, WA.  Did you know that Washington contained a big desert, because I certainly didn't until I got there.  What, you may ask, did I do for 2.5 months in Richland?  Well, as some of you may know, Richland is home to two out of three of the US's laser interferometers for detection of gravitational waves.  Yes, that's right, I worked on LIGO.   I learned a lot and, as is customary with undergraduate research experiences (Thanks NSF!), I had fun.  In addition to studying laser frequency noise suppression, I got to chill with my new friends.  We went backpacking around White Pass, ten of us went to Seattle in two cars and stayed in one hotel room, I went sailing, gliding, and generally had a good time.  Still, I'm glad to be back at school because UofL RULES!

This is it I promise.  I dove off a 30ft rock face.  I mastered a forward-back flip from a 15ft pier.  I went skinny dipping with my friend's mom.  On my birthday (June) I was knocked out via a headlock from one of my highschool buddies.  Strangely he has the exact same birthday as me.  I was also punched in the eye that same night.  I became an uncle twice (two nephews, one from my brother's wife and one from my sister).  Finally, I was assualted at work (a liquor store) by someone accusing me of fooling around with his wife and had to work the rest of the night with a swollen eye and nose.

An Analytical and Numerical Approach to Predicting the Effects of Plastic Implants on Magnetically Induced Currents in the Body

Drew Shores

Rhodes College


Abstract- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the leading medical imaging techniques in use today.    MRI machines use rapidly switched gradient magnetic fields to localize the NMR signals to produce an image.  Time varying magnetic fields such as these induce electrical currents in the body that can cause cardiac and/or nerve stimulation.  MRI-induced currents have been the subject of a number of recent studies, but the effects of  plastic medical implants in the body on these currents are not well understood.  In this study, we used an in vitro system to simulate the effects of implanted materials on magnetically induced currents in the body.  The system consisted of Helmholtz coils used to simulate the time varying magnetic field, and a 15 cm circular dish of 0.85% sodium chloride to simulate the electrical conductivity of human tissue.  A custom dipole electric field probe was used to measure the current density at any point in the sodium chloride.  Measurements from throughout the dish were taken with and without plastic inclusions of varying geometries placed in the sodium chloride solution.  These measurements were compared to analytical predictions based on Faraday's law and Coulomb's Law, and numerical predictions obtained using a commercial finite element analysis package (Maxwell 2D, Ansoft, Inc.).  With no inclusions in the dish, the mean percent errors between measured current density and the predictions was 8% and 13%, respectively.  With an 8 cm half-disk of plastic placed in the dish, the mean percent errors between the measured current density values and the predictions was 4.75% and 5.25%, respectfully.

Whitney Tidwell
Rhodes College
Investigations of Physical Details in Developing Lightning Flashes

This summer, the goal was to investigate the physical details of a lightning flash, as determined by comparing data from three different lightning sensors.  The sensors are a Lightning Mapping Array (LMA), a logarithmic radio frequency receiver (LogRF), and a flat plate antenna for sensing electric field changes, referred to as a `fast' antenna (FA) because of its short (100 microsecond) decay time constant.  The LMA locates impulsive events in successive 100 microsecond time windows, while the FA and LogRF detect impulsive and more continuous events of the developing lightning flash.  The data from these instruments are characterized by time, amplitude or power, and, for the LMA, position.  FA and LogRF sensors have long been used in lightning studies while the newer LMA shows how the flash develops in space and time.
In the future, we will compare the amplitudes of the FA and the LogRF events to each other and to the power of the associated LMA events.  We will examine situations in which only one or two of the sensors are detecting radiation from a lightning flash.  We will also investigate where the FA and LogRF events occur in the time-resolved LMA picture of a flash.  By these comparisons we hope to gain new insights into the physics of a developing flash.

Jeff France
Rhodes College

Title: "Empirical model of high-latitude magnetosphere-ionosphere energy transfer based on satellite data"

At high latitudes there is strong coupling between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and the solar wind generate electric fields that result in the transfer of energy. Charged particles moving along geomagnetic field lines also lead to coupling as they pass through the upper atmosphere at high latitudes. This coupling produces a large amount of Joule heating. Since Joule heating is proportional to the transfer of electromagnetic radiation, the Poynting flux can be used to determine the energy flux. Based on the IMF magnitude and orientation, dipole tilt, magnetic local time and latitude, we have created an empirical model, using data taken from the Dynamics Explorer 2 satellite, to predict the Poynting flux at high latitudes. The model will be used in a general circulation model for high latitudes.

John Janeski
Rhodes College
Novel ultrasonic backscatter techniques for assessing bone density

Abstract

There is increasing interest in developing ultrasonic backscatter techniques for detecting changes in bone density caused by diseases like osteoporosis.  Objective:  To measure two ultrasonic backscatter parameters, apparent integrated backscatter (AIB) and the frequency slope of backscatter (FSAB) using a broadband 7.5 MHz system. AIB represents the frequency averaged power in the backscattered signal and FSAB represents the slope of the frequency dependence of this power.  Methods:  Cubes of cancellous (i.e., spongy) bone with side lengths of 15 mm were prepared from the heads of 10 human femurs (7 donors).  Data were collected by mechanically scanning the ultrasonic transducer over each bone specimen and acquiring the backscattered signals.  These were post-processed to obtain a single value of AIB or FSAB for each specimen.  In addition, the mass density of each specimen was measured by allowing the specimen to air dray for 24 hours and then dividing the mass of the specimen by its volume.  Results:  AIB and FSAB both demonstrated highly significant linear correlations with density, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively.  Conclusion: AIB and FSAB are sensitive to changes in bone density, and may provide a useful new clinical technique for detecting and monitoring osteoporosis.

Drew Scott
Rhodes College
Analysis of Lamellar Stacking in Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene

Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) is a material frequently used in the creation of the socket component of modern hip replacement joints.  However, normal wear on the polymer causes wear particles to break off the joint; these particles are quite dangerous as they can become assimilated into the bloodstream and contribute to osteolysis.  The polymer has two regions: an amorphous region, composed of unorganized molecules, and a crystalline region, made up of lamellae, which are long, organized chains of polymer found scattered in the amorphous region.  This project focused on a parameter called stacking, which is a characteristic found in the lamellae of UHMWPE.  Stacking refers to the arrangement of lamellae parallel and very close to one another.  Higher levels of stacking indicate a higher potential for the development of wear particles in the body.  The study included the analysis of UHMWPE prepared under different irradiation, annealing, and oxidation conditions in order to find the preparation technique that yields the best UHMWPE samples.

This summer I was an intern at ACP for SPS.  I guess the most interesting time of the summer was probably when KB, a fellow intern, and I went to see King Arthur.  Everything was going swimmingly, we got on the Metro and made it to Union Station without problem which for the red line in D.C. is no less than a miracle at times. So we watch the movie and as we are heading out, the first interesting occurence of the night happens, we are witness to a woman shouting obscenities at another woman.  Needless to say I wasn't really expecting to see a fight in the middle of Union Station.  Anyway, a security guard came and restrained the women and things seemed broken up.  KB and I then went to Steak and Shake where he ate.  Then we went back up where the shops in Union Station are to look for a Sam Goody.  After finding the location and that Sam Goody was closed, we headed back to the Metro.  This is where I met my first pimp, if you could call him that.  As we were walking a guy, somewhat shabbily dressed, approached us. I made the mistake of saying hello.  After I nodded my head in acknowledgement the guy started walking over to me.  When he was near to me the guy asked me if I wanted to meet the most beautiful woman in the world.  Being more than a little freaked out I said no and continued walking.  That pretty much ended the excitement of the evening but not the excitement of D.C.

-Matt
Rhodes College

Vote Matt!

I did an REU at the University of Texas at Austin.  I worked in a surface physics lab where I made and modified parts for an MBE cell and for observation of microstructures under an MFM.  But most importantly I went to Austin... "Live Music Capitol OF THE WORLD!"   I did see live music... an act from Canada called "The Arcade Fire" was my favorite show.  Most importantly, I partook of the Salt Lick... an all you can eat BBQ place.  14 college guys and all you can eat cow.  It was just like the final scene from "Apocalypse Now".  (The scene where, well, you know what scene...)  The carnage was incalculable.  It defied words.  I'll have to invent one... it was ridunkulous.  After recovering from meat poisoning I managed trek across the United States.  I drove from Cincinnati to Austin, then to Alabama, back to Austin, flew from Austin to Boston, drove from Boston to Louisville, flew back to Austin from Louisville, and finally drove back to Cincinnati.  Can I get a "Most Miles Traveled" special award?  Or at least a "Most Crossings of the Mississippi" award (6 times)?

P.S.  I also saw 3.5 million bats...

In the beginning of May, having 3 years of undergraduate physics under my belt, I headed out West from Tennessee, to beautiful Bolder Colorado, where I had an internship at NIST in the time and frequency division. Living and working in Boulder was absolutely amazing, every morning waking up to the view of the Flatirons and the Rockies was amazing.  Being so in love with my new surroundings, I decided to buy myself a road bike and take up road biking.  This proved to be a more difficult sport then I imagined, especially since most of my biking was at least at 6,000ft, and the terrain was well really mountainous.  The terrible dehydration and exhaustion, did not stop my love of biking and I started going on weekend long bike rides.  On such weekend bike ride I was going for 160miles in two days, and accidentally ended up on an 18 mile dirt road in the middle of nowhere in southern Colorado with a thunder storm approaching me from all directions.  After about 12mies on the dirt road the storm was able to out run me, and decided to show its true force by having a lighting bolt hit 100 meters from me.  I was able to take shelter in the only house on the whole road that I just passed 2 minutes ago.  After my close encounter with death on my bike, I decided it would be better to go on long bike ride in actual sponsored Century (100mile) rides.  So in mid July I rode in the Triple Bypass which is a 120mile bike ride from Evergreen, CO to Beaver Creek, CO.  During the ride you go over 3 mountain passes and climb 10,000 vertical feet.  I managed to successfully stay alive and finish the ride, and that's my exciting bike stories.l

Jesse II
Rhodes College
My Summer

Abstract
The summer I worked on the Grand Unified Theory.  I solved it and have related everything to itself.  Email me if you want the proofs.

Thanks go out to everyone who posted!  The site editors and chosen others will be deliberating during the week, and we should have the winners posted by the end of the week.

Dodge this.

Thanks again to all who posted - after strenuous deliberation, our judges have chosen the following winners:

Chapter Representation:  Univ. of Tennesee, Knoxville

Most Adventurous - daine

Most Amusing - taitnucleus

Most Interesting - Olga

All winners will be contacted by email in the next week or so to gather street addresses and so forth.  Congratulations!

Dodge this.