LH Spring 2013

January 2013
Jan 9- (1 hour) Today I met Ann Marie and became acquainted with the lab. Ann Marie showed me how to solder wires together and heat shrink them. She explained that the wires must be isothermic because they'll be used in a thermocouple.

Jan 10- (2 hours) Today I attended the weekly meeting.

Jan 29- (1.5 hours) Today I attended the 1.5 hour Chemical Health and Safety workshop in the Biophysics building. They discussed the safety precautions the lab must take to ensure the safety of it's workers and the proper storage of chemicals. Jan 30- Finished gathering the required signatures to officially enroll in my Independent Study.

February 2013
Feb 14th- (2.5 hours) After the weekly meeting Ann Marie and I replaced the covers of the lights in the clean room with UV filtering covers. We soon realized that the length of two lights were shorter than the other four. Brendan cut the UV plastic tubes and I then assisted Ann Marie install the new covers.

Feb 15- Ann Marie and I were going to clean the tank today, but as I arrived, Ann Marie was discovering that a reaction was occurring when the tank was cleaned with the chemical we were using, so we did not clean the tank.

Feb 21- (2.5 hours) After the meeting, I searched online for about an hour or so looking for a place to order test tubes to keep the fibers in, as well as 3' x 3' x 1' cardboard boxes that will be used to ship the fibers to Jlab. The cardboard boxes had to be new and fairly cheap. After about an hour, I couldn't find a vendor that sold boxes cheaper than what Ann Marie had found.

Feb 22-(1.5 hours) Today I helped Ann Marie create the Microscope Construction Schedule in Google Docs using the deadlines Jim had set in his excel spreadsheet. We included the task, the number of man hours needed, and who should complete the task (whether grad student or student worker).

Feb 28- (2.5 hours) I attended the weekly meeting today. Also, I started to complete of the CITI (Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative) training online. After which I double checked the Microscope Construction Schedule on Google Docs.

March 2013
Mar 1- (1.5 hours) Ann Marie showed me how to cut fibers today. So I cut 10-2cm pieces of both scintillating and clear fibers and then recorded their length/width/height using the new dial caliper. I also started this set of wiki pages and recorded all the work I've completed since January.

Mar 6- (1 hour) Today I completed the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative Training online.

Mar 7- (1.5 hours) Today I attended the weekly meeting, and then Ann Marie and I worked on the cardboard box for the fibers.

Mar 14- (2 hours) Today I attended the weekly meeting and planned to come in over Spring Break with Jim and Ann Marie to plan my schedule for the summer and make up some hours that were lost due to snow day cancellations. I also completed Ann Marie's counterfeit and suspect items quiz and powerpoint.

Mar 15 (1.5 hours) Today I cut 30-3 cm scintillating fibers and recorded their cross-sectional length in the Google Doc.

Mar 19- (2 hours) Today I insulated the rim of the tank with foam. After that I cut some light guides at 4 inches each and squared the ends with sandpaper. Then I straightened them by pouring hot water on them and then cool water while being tied to a straight piece of metal.

Mar 21- (2 hours) I attended the weekly meeting today.

Mar 22- (1 hour) Today, I took apart the computers for their fan components, and cleaned the desk that had previously held all of the extraneous wires and components.

Mar 28- (2 hours) Today I attended the weekly meeting.

Mar 29- (2.5 hours) One of my classes was cancelled so I came in for an extra hour today. I emptied the 10 bottles containing ethanol and propanol, careful not to let the fibers fall into the waste bucket. Then I set them out to dry, and rinsed and dried the bottles.

While the bottles and fibers were drying, I imported the Strength Test table (I believe it was made by Kenny and Ann Marie) into Google Docs. It contained the lengths of fibers that Ann Marie had successfully fused, the cross-sectional widths of the fusing site, and the amount (in grams) that broke the fused fibers. It appeared that the fibers that withheld the most amount of force on them had the largest cross sections.

Once I completed the table and the fibers were dry, I wiped each fiber with a lint-free cloth. Then I recorded the length and widths of each scintillating fiber and light guide into the Alcohol Test Google Doc table that had also contained the measurements taken from before they were soaked in alcohol.

I noticed that a few of the fibers' cladding were peeling and appeared wrinkled and pointed it out to Ann Marie. The fibers in the 80% or 60% alcohol mixtures had the most noticeable differences.

April 2013
Apr 4- (2 hours) Today I went to the weekly meeting. We discussed the Alcohol Test table that I created in Google Docs of Kenny's recordings. We then made a frequency chart and talked about the data. We also went over the Strength Test data.

Apr 5- (1 hour) I heard both Alex's and Brendan's poster presentations in BPB today. Afterwards, I unwrapped the new tools and marked them with nail polish for the two new toolboxes. I also removed more computer fans.

Apr 11- (3.5 hours) After the meeting, I uploaded all of the Post-Alcohol Test photos of both light guide and scintillating fibers onto the Google Drive.

Apr 12- (1.5 hours) Today I created links for all of the Post-Alcohol Test photos into the Excel spreadsheet. I also neatened the Strength Test 1 spreadsheet and remade the Historgram. Afterwards I helped Ann Marie record the breaking masses of 9 newly fused light guides for Strength Test 2.

Apr 18- (2 hours) Attended the weekly meeting

Apr 19- (2 hours) Today I cut and sewed the velvet onto the second blind.

Apr 25- (2.5 hours) After the weekly meeting, Ann Marie showed me how to take pictures with the microscope. I was unsuccessful in focusing the camera properly, however.

Apr 26- (1.5 hours) I cut and measured scintillating fibers and light guides for the heat test. I created a Google Doc and input the data. Ann Marie is going to run the test next week and I'll re-measure them next Thursday or Friday.

May 2013
May 2- (2.5 hours) After the weekly meeting I measured and recorded the lengths and widths of SciFi/Light Guides 2 and 4 which were at the time dried and cooled to room temperature.

May 3- (1.5 hours) Today I re-took the length measurements for SciFi/Guides 2 and 4 because the measurements I took last night seemed a bit dramatic. I remeasured once with the Vernier caliper and had Ann Marie measure again with the micrometer. It appears that the measurements I took last night were on the larger side, but this is good as it can show the maximum error.

After that, I took measured and recorded the lengths and widths of SciFi/Guides 1 and 3. These fibers were noticeably different upon first glance. They were smaller in length and very clearly bowed. I took pictures of each set of SciFi/Guides and uploaded them to the GoogleDoc including all the measurements.

Independent Study Final
LH Independent Study Spring 2013