• Question: What is something you are very proud of (that you've made/built)?

    Asked by Orla to Stephen, Sita, Rory, Hannah, Brian, Alison on 5 Mar 2019. This question was also asked by Ruu.
    • Photo: Hannah Currivan

      Hannah Currivan answered on 5 Mar 2019:


      There are two!!!
      The first is being part of the I-LOFAR (Irish Low Frequency Array Radio Telescope) construction team, in Birr Castle grounds, Birr, Co.Offaly. (http://lofar.ie/). I-LOFAR is part of a much bigger telescope streaking across to Poland, in total the telescope has a 2000km diameter!!!! There a LOFAR in the UK (https://lofar-uk.org/), France, Germany, and Sweden, with the main centre being in the Netherlands. πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Which I then got to operate to observe a supernova remanent (Cas A) which is 11,000 light years away, Radio Galaxy (Cygnus A) which is 3200 light years away, and a Black Hole (Cygnus X-3) which is 3200 light years away for my BSc thesis. πŸ™‚
      The other is a where I made a rail with a stepping motor which flex’s data tapes! I did this as part of my Particle Physics Summer Internship at the University of Glasgow. These data tapes were prototypes for CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) home of the Large Hadron Collider, and especially for one of its detectors called the LHCb ( Large Hadron Collider beauty), its jobs is to detect slight differences between matter and antimatter. The reason I was flexing the data tapes that are to be used for the LHCb was to see if the data being read was being affected by the small flexing it will experience as the detector moves (the detectors move, but very little). This upgrade to the LHCb has been happening since 2018 and will continue for 2019. πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ πŸ™‚ Link to LHCb website: https://home.cern/science/experiments/lhcb

    • Photo: Sita Karki

      Sita Karki answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      I have made an early warning system for harmful algal bloom in Florida using satellite data. That was my doctoral project and I am very proud of that.

    • Photo: Alison Dufresne

      Alison Dufresne answered on 6 Mar 2019:


      A 3D printed, direct injection peroixide-methane rocket engine. It’s pretty badass πŸ˜‰ It will be used to get a NASA telescope to the moon and a spacecraft to an asteroid and back. It also has pretty flames (blues and purples) which makes me happy πŸ™‚

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