Joe's Journal
Day 1: Met my fellow quarknet students. Learned some basics on the Standard Model of Modern Physics. Ate Lunch at Wright Quadrangle. Ryan and I then began to install PCI cards into the PCs used to transmit data. One was completed fairly quickly. The 2nd had to have a new operating system installed. We loaded the system and began the installation. We ran into problems with the new operating system and that took most of the afternoon to fix. We eventually had to purge the entire computer and begin again. We will continue to work on this computer tomorrow.
Day 2: Theorist Mike Berger came in and went into more detail about the Standard Model. We then had a crash course in Web page design. We then began to work on these sites. We will continue to work on these sites throughout the week. After lunch, I started to work on the 2nd computer again. It was stubborn and I got frustrated, so I put it away and began to learn the TestPoint programming language. I read through the beginning of the manual and now know the basic concepts of the language. I hope to learn more and perhaps write a sample program tommorrow.
Day 3: We received insight on the various types of ray detectors in operation first thing this morning. We then broke into groups to discuss our afternoon plans. A tour of the Kirkwood Observatory was next on the agenda, followed by lunch. After lunch, I began to write a program using the TestPoint language to count when cosmic rays come in. I received help from Rick and quickly began to understand. After I finished the rough draft of the program, I tested both computers with it and lo and behold, it works! Today is a good day for science. Tomorrow I will install a new card and software on a late-coming PC and solve the problem of the graphing.
Day 4: We received a crash
course in simple electronics to start off the morning. The theory
group then gave us a list of possible experiments to do with the telescopes
after they are built. We then broke into our groups to discuss our
plans for the afternoon. After lunch, I taught one representative
from every school how to install the new cards and software and to test
to make sure they can work together. I then worked on the time functions
of the TestPoint to make the time easier to read. Ryan got his "and
or" gates to work and we celebrated for a little while. Tomorrow
I must find the time to install one more card before we leave for Fermilab.