Monday, June 22, 2009

Knowledge is Power

The above topic might sound a little cliche or it is, but it is true.
I applaud all of you who have taken a big chunk of your summer to intern at various institutions. This experience will always afford you a better way of experiencing theories studied in the classroom applied in real-world scenarios or maybe experience something totally different from what you are studying. And somethings you get to meet nice people and also get paid while gaining knowledge. It will definitely look "sweet" on your resume and open doors for you in the future.
So keep up the good work and I will be back to say more!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

This summer I will be working at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, IL. Fermilab is home to the largest Particle Physics laboratory in the U.S and the second largest in the world. I have been assigned to the Alignment and Metrology Group in the Particle Physics Division. I will be performing research in ultrasonic thermometry as well as performing level runs in the Tevatron particle accelerator. I am privileged to be one of the few interns to be working in the tunnel this year as it will enable me see first hand the challenges faced by the metrology group in their goals to ensure precise alignment of the quadrupole magnets in the accelerator. My other assignments cover a wide range consisting of core physics research, some programming, macros and data mining in addition to the level runs. I have been here for three weeks now and have nine more to go. My first couple of weeks involved safety as well as occupational training on how to run various kinds of levels. I was also duely trained on how to operate various laser trackers. The next couple of weeks should be exciting!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Physics Internship at Case Western Reserve Univesity

Hi, my name is Jermaine Taylor, senior, physics major. I am currently conducting my 4th internship going into my senior year at Benedict College. Here at Case we are Experimenting on Light Detectors for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: We are trying to specialize in the detection of gamma-rays and cosmic rays from astrophysical sources. These same experimental techniques can be exploited for a new effort in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). In principle, an advanced civilization that wished to communicate across interstellar distances might find optical signaling processes using rapid-pulsed lasers. If such light pulses are arriving at the Earth, we can detect them with a large-area light detector and fast coincidence electronics. For this summer project, I will work to develop an new detector system that will serve as a prototype for a new kind of Optical SETI experiment. The work requires fabrication, testing, optical calibration, astrophysical observations using the new detector system, and data analysis. The work will be done collaboratively with other members of the HEA group. I was also assigned to reconstruct an 11 year old c# code we tend to use for effective data collection and analysis.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Rainy Weather

As i am here in Greenville, i wonder what others are doing out in that large beautiful world. Although Furman campus is gorgeous i cant help but to be discouraged by the rainy weather. i hope it dries up soon.
Well enough about the gloomy day out side, the experiment that i have been since June 1st seem to be getting more and more complicated and not giving me favorable results. I am trying to figure out why why (C4A2)IM structure is showing both an aggregate peak and monomer peak.......... I'm stumped. but it is suppose to be a closed structure. well basically i need to get this done because my boss would like to put this data in his paper... i will get back to you. and hopefully i will have favorable data : )

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

First internship @Furman University

I'm very excited to be a rising sophomore and to have an internship. Thus far i have completed chem I and II, so i intent to learn a lot from the work that i do this summer.
I am at Furman University and i will be working with Dr. Petty. Some of the thing that we wish to accomplish: to understand more about different oligos such as TA2C4 and C4A2 5'-----3'. we will be binding them in silver clusters and putting them through different situations to examine them closely. both heat and Ph affect the two oligos. With the information obtained we essentially will know more about hunting's disease which occurs with a defect in the DNA

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Welcome

Welcome to the Benedict College NSBE Summer Blog!