Working the 9 to 5

But not really. Just a couple of hours before, between, and after classes.

Earlier this semester I managed to get a job as a research assistant at the "Center for Plasma Material Interactions" lab or CPMI for short. After all of the paperwork was out of the way, I was finally able to come in and meet the people I was working with. Dr. Vijay Surla (working on his post-doc research here) gave me a tour around the lab and the different things they are working on which was mind-boggling.

Currently, Dr. Surla has me maintaining the experimental conditions for an Ion Beam Gun which has many parameters: the vacuum has to be held, voltages in the right ranges to center the ion beam, the, pressure of the gas input from which the ions are made, etc.
There are many things going on at once but it's very interesting to me nonetheless. The ions made from the argon gas hit a target (lithium is the upcoming one to be tested, I believe) and the interaction data is stored. The ions are made by running a current through a tungsten fillament which creates many loose elecetrons. These loose electrons interact with the argon atoms coming in and a voltage difference is created inside the chamber. All of these things create ions out of the gas and propel it towards the target. The different voltages in different dimensional directions center this beam to be sure that it hits on target (done with a device called Faraday cup).

It's crazy to see so many electrical principles involved in this experiment, as primary research field is more closely related to nuclear interests. That is why electrical engineering is so great--it is applied in practically every modern technology or experiment. It is a fundamental part of our civilization.

One thing I know for sure though, if I wasn't in iFoundry, I would have never met Dr. Neumann and would have never known that there was a position opening at the CPMI lab for an undergrdauate, and I would have never been able to take advantage of this great learning opportunity. Networking, networking, networking!

check it out here:

http://cpmi.illinois.edu/