I did my practicum work at the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics (IREAP) with the Maryland Centrifugal Experiment (MCX) located at the University of Maryland College Park. I found this site through the UMD physics website. The UMD physics website has a list of professors who have opportunities for undergraduates. I read through the list about possible programs and picked the ones that sounded most interesting to me. I had enjoyed my E and M physics course and decided that I would look for an internship with IREAP. I emailed Professor Hassam and he put me in contact with my mentor Carlos A. Romero Talamas who had opportunities for undergraduates. I was given the task of designing a calibration setup for the magnetic probes that are used in the MCX. I had to solve differential and circuit equations and design circuit setups for the calibration setup. I took measurements of magnetic probes to measure their inductance, internal resistance, and the errors on these measurements. I also learned how to use Mathematica to calculate and predict current and charge in circuit setups. Learning how to work with this computer program was very cool and will be useful for future physics research that I do. Other tasks that I performed at the site would vary from day to day depending on what they needed me to do.
The practicum gave me an excellent opportunity to do research in experimental physics. I got to experience working on an ongoing physics research project. The theoretical part of physics is still very important even in an experimental project. The majority of my time was spent deriving and calculating predicted outcomes of the calibration setup. The idea that I am mathematically and physically proving what I am going to build is very cool. The goal of keeping track of your errors while you make calculations is very important to research and is taken seriously in professional labs just like in my Physics lab courses. The importance of error is not to be underestimated in the real world. The other difficulty of my practicum work is designing circuits requires taking into account reflection and critical and over damping. When this occurs in the circuit, the displays would not produce a good circuit and the circuit would have to be redesigned to account for these problems.
My practicum project caused me to readjust how I view normal society interactions with experimental research science. The manufacturing and distribution services are required for gathering the parts necessary for the MCX. These parts must be purchased and clearly require the manufacturing industry to provide the parts necessary in order for the complex instruments that are necessary for modern physics to continue. These manufacturing companies are essential and provide easy to order catalogs to specialize the right parts needed for the experiment. The long term goals of the MCX are to maintain a better controlled fusion through rotating plasma. The long term goals of plasma physics and fusion are to provide a cleaner alternative energy to coal and oil that society currently relies on. This is how the project hopes to one day better interact with society.
I have enjoyed working on my Calibration Setup with MCX and getting acquainted with plasma physics and understanding circuits better. I can see myself continuing to pursue this field in post- bachelor academic plans. I will be working with the MCX team this summer continuing my work on the calibration setup as well as other projects assigned to me. I look forward to continuing to work with the MCX team on future research project. My practicum project allowed me to gain real lab experience in a scientific setting. I would highly recommend both the practicum experience and Plasma physics as a field of interest for anyone who is studying physics or interested in alternative energy studies.