Miana

Journal entries imported from the previous iteration of wisrd.org

MIANA

I am the Program Director of WISRD. This is my third year with the institute, and my final year at Wildwood. While with WISRD, I have worked on engine deconstruction/reconstruction projects, covering physics and math curricula, and worked at the UCLA Plasma Physics Lab through the Los Angeles Physics Teacher Alliance Group (LAPTAG). As of Spring 2017, I am the primary Editor for the WISRD Journal.

Learning Outcomes for the 2016-2017 year:

Over the summer, I began some projects at the plasma lab, which I will continue through the school year. To supplement my research, I need to learn basic E+M concepts and more plasma physics. To this end, I have found various texts which I would like to have covered by the end of the year. I additionally need to spend more time developing my computer programming abilities, primarily in Python, IDL, and possibly C++ for data analysis. Evidence for meeting these learning outcomes will come from my successful completion of the research project I am currently conducting.

I would also like to learn how to use our CNC and 3-D printers.

Current Work (Summer 2016 – Spring 2017):

I am in the process of conducting a research project at the UCLA Plasma Lab, with the goal of publication in a journal. For this reason, public updates on the progress of the paper are not being made.

The research is on the functionality of B-dot probes. B-dot probes are used to measure time-varying magnetic fields in plasmas. They are generally some variety of a magnetic pickup coil, which function by measuring the induced voltage in the coil as described by Faraday’s Law:   (V is voltage, n is number of loop, A is area of coil, B is magnetic field). There are many B-dot probe designs that are used with little justification for why one design is better compared to another. The ~7 most common designs are constructed and tested for magnetic field response and electrostatic pickup, with the aim of maximizing the magnetic field response while minimizing electrostatic pickup.

Helpful guide(s):

A Primer on Basic Probe Construction – How to build simple Langmuir and high-frequency B-dot probes. Good information for beginning work with LAPTAG. Good beginning projects for learning basic lab-relevant construction: Primer on Basic Probe Construction

An explanation of citation style for WISRD publications – We use a modified version of Chicago Style: WISRD Citation Style Guide

WISRD Journal formatting – This document contains helpful information (both in content and formatting) for those writing articles for the journal: WISRD Journal Editing and Formatting

Here is a crash course on what you should know if you want to work at the plasma lab. It briefly covers vectors and calculus. It also offers a very simple intro to what a plasma is and an introduction to Maxwell’s equations through light waves: Plasma_Crash_Course

I was the primary editor and contributing author on the 2017 WISRD Journal, which can be found under publications. It is also right here: 2017_WISRD_Journal_Comp_4

This is a copy of the presentation I gave on B-dot Probes at the spring 2017 SCAAPT presentation at Loyola Marymount University: SCAAPT_2017_Spring_Presentation

This is the WISRD Constitution as of early 2017: WISRD Constitution

These are my final sets of [let’s-call-them-reflections]: WISRD_Reflection_Short and WISRD_End_Year_Reflection