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Quarknet at the University of Iowa


History

1999

Quarknet was established in 1999 and originally located at the University of Iowa as well as Iowa State University. The first two physics teachers to be involved in the project were Peter Bruecken from Bettendorf High School and Jeff Dilks from Ames High School. The two worked for eight weeks with particle physicists on the Pre-Production-Prototype of the HF (Hadronic Forward Calorimeter).
[Image: HF PPP]

2000

During the summer of 2000, Bruecken and Dilks returned to the University of Iowa and ran a two week training and information session for 5 physics teachers in the state of Iowa. They also continued their work and research on the HF. Bruecken ended his summer with a trip to Switzerland to work for a few days at CERN.
[Image: Quarknet Teachers]

2001

In 2001, Jeff Dilks did not return as a member of Quarknet, but continues to use his experience in his classroom at Ames. Peter Bruecken was officially hired by CERN to work on the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid), still collaborating with Quarknet. Ron Newland of Prairie High School and Bill Cox of West Des Moines Dowling High School took the place of the previous two and continued work on HF. Chris Like was also hired on to the project.
[Image: Ron Newland]

2002

Newland and Cox ran a training session at the University of Iowa for approximately twenty Iowa high school Quarknet teachers. Bruecken completed his fourth summer at Iowa and brought with him two physics students from Bettendorf High School to work with the team of physics professors at U of I on the CMS project.
[Image: Quarknet Student Beth Takemoto]

2003

The group of Quarknet teachers continue to expand and collaborate with each other to bring particle physics to more students. Bruecken brought 7 students with them to the University this year. They are continuing work and experimentation on CMS.
[Image: 2003 Quarknet Students]

2004

Two students from Bettendorf High School continued research, (under the guidance of group leader Yasar Onel, Professor Edwin Norbeck and Bettendorf High School science teachers Peter Bruecken and Chris Like), on damage sustained to fiber optic wires exposed to various radiation levels. Newland, Like and Bruecken also ran a week long session for Physics teachers across the state.
[Image: Flux Measurements]

2005

Bruecken and Like brought four students from Bettendorf High School, two of which returned from the previous summer. They continued to experiment with materials for next generation particle detectors
[Image: HCAL]

2006

Six students worked for the lab during the summer. Two students were given full time appointments (8 weeks) and four were given part time (4 weeks). Dolan Murphy was the only returning student from 2005. The others were hand picked from applicants taken at Bettendorf High School.
[Image: Quarknet Student Jose Gomez]

Jose Gomez and Nick Hunt were given the task of cleaving fibers for a prototype calorimeter called the ZDC (Zero-Degree Calorimeter). Their first job was to design a workspace and proceedure for cleaving some 3000 fibers to be threaded into the device. Jose became so efficient in cleaving that he was asked to train some undergraduate college students from Kansas State in his methods. Half of the fibers were cut here and the other half, cleaved in Kansas using Jose's methods. Jose and Nick are both juniors at Bettendorf High. Jose has expressed interest in becoming a physics teacher. Nick is undecided in his plans for the future.
[Image: Quarknet Students Jose Gomez and Nick Hunt]

Tom Johnson and Louis Constantiau were tasked with setting up experiments and keeping their log books. Tom worked through the ins and outs of each of the experiments and detailed their proceedures in the logbook. Louis and Tom also helped assemble and calibrate a Cosmic Ray Detector that was given to Iowa teachers from Fermilab.
[Image: Quarknet Student Louis Constantiau]

Mitch Miller was the newest of the group, just turning 16 in July. Being just a sophomore, it is our hope that Mitch will be with us for years to come. His main job this summer was to learn as much as he could in the litttle time he was there, especially Labview programming language. Dolan will be lost to graduation next year, and we are looking to Mitch to pick up where he left off. He is seen here trying a collision demo with Nick at FermiLab.
[Image: Mitch and Nick at Fermilab]

2007

Peter Bruecken and Chris Like returned this summer, and oversaw the operations of Quarknet, assisting the group of students that they brought with them every day.

Mitch Miller, Tom Johnson, and Nate Premo spent the first week learning Labview, and they picked it up fast. They started with programming simple card games, and moved on to programming experiments using the X-Y scanner.

Alex Bruecken moved from Labview to testing fibers, and then on to web design, assisting Chris Like in creating a new Quarknet webpage, along with others.

Anna Selser, the late-comer of the summer, began her experience by learning Labview. She also helped with the design of the Virtual Control Room.

Jake Hemberger, one of the part-time participants, came every other day, assisting with everything from the vacuum pump to learning Labview himself.

Moira Truesdell, another teacher joining quarknet over the summer, assisted Brittany Swearengen for the first weeks. They spent that time fixing the vacuum pump, a tool that was later used for vapor deposition.

2008

The summer of 2008 began with a lot of work on basic research of next-generation detectors. Brittany did some vapor deposition on quartz plates in an attempt to enhance their detection capabilities. She is seen here polishing the ends of some plates with our ancient polisher.[Image: Quarknet Student Brittany Swearinger]

The Summer also included a new Muon Telescope that had to be put together from scratch and then calibrated. Chris Like and Chris Pratt spent a lot of time learning the nuts and bolts of telescope design and instrumentation.
[Image: Testing Muon Detectors]

The summer ended with an institute of teachers from across the state who did a lot of work with the Muon Telescopes. There are currently three telescopes involved with this program taking data in high schools across the state of Iowa.
[Image: Institute Participants]

2009

The summer of 2009 brought five students and two teachers to The Van Allen building for six weeks of research work. The students prepared various fiber optic devices for testing at CERN and did their own testing in the lab. Most of the projects centered around increasing the activity of quartz by using p-terphenel (ptp), an organic substance that shifts ultra violet light to visible light. The Quartz and ptp are known to be radiation hard so they are good candidates for use in the upgrades of calorimeters inside The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) at CERN. The team had to set up the lab for cleaving, burning, and cleaning fibers. After the fibers were prepared, they were deposited with ptp and mounted in various carriers for testing. The group also performed tests on the prepared fibers using a digital spectrometer and cosmic rays.
[Image: 2009 Students]