Intern Experience Summer - 2019  

Mekhala Paranjpe

H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, United Kingdom

Process of Securing the Intern:

There was an IAF that appeared at the beginning of February on the PT cell. It had three preferences for experiments in high energy physics going on at the University. For my year, the process was fairly simple. I simply had to sign up with a preference order and got selected for a Skype interview after the first shortlist, which I cleared. After the selection, I was offered a choice of two of those projects of which I chose the one that matched our summer vacation timeline.

Work:

I worked to interface the electron detector environment using temperature and humidity sensors, with the MIDAS data acquisition system through a Raspberry Pi. This was a part of the prototype design of the detector for the Mu3e Experiment. The experiment is driven from the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, and involves twelve top universities from Switzerland, Germany and UK. When it begins its run, it is expected to search for the rare muon to three electron decay events to verify lepton flavor violation.

Workload and Tools used:

I had to work only on weekdays from 9 to 5. Neither did I have to ponder on anything after hours or even on weekends. The work involved a lot of electronics and some amount of networking. Apart from the Raspberry Pi, understanding the sensors required reading their datasheets and combing through pages of useless data. The MIDAS software used for the DAQ also had several huge codes in C++, and Python was a necessity.

Courses that were part of the curriculum/ additional courses:

The electronics labs conducted for us were a great help. My work involving communication protocols for sensor interfacing as part of the IITB Student Satellite Team (for Advitiy) also helped substantially.

Learning Experience:

We faced problems in interfacing the RPi with the DAQ machine because assigning an IP address to the RPi over the university Wifi proved to be tougher than we had imagined. We eventually solved this one by connecting the two machines using an ethernet cable and establishing a custom made network, which was also difficult but worked. My accommodation was a student dormitory that was very close to my workplace, which was a saving grace because when I landed during the so called British summer, it was so rainy and cold that I had to wear four layers of clothes. Also, I tried my hand at cooking, but gave up after a few barely successful attempts. I found that it was easier to buy readymade meals from the local supermarket which had a reasonable selection of vegetarian dishes.

Places Visited:

Since I was new to the UK, I took a guided coach tour to Stonehenge and the nearby town of Salisbury. As Bristol is so close to London, I decided that spending at least a day in the capital was worth it. I also spent a day in Bath, which has very old Roman architecture, which was interesting.

My Expectations (before and after):

I had gone with the expectation to work on a live physics project. Eventually, I realized that most experimental work involves using other disciplines.

Contact Details: 
mekhala.paranjpe@gmail.com