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Design and construction of a cosmic ray detector array for undergraduate research at the City University of New York

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Conference

2017 Mid-Atlantic Section Fall Conference

Location

Penn State University - Berks Campus - Reading, Pennsylvania

Publication Date

October 6, 2017

Start Date

October 6, 2017

End Date

October 7, 2017

Conference Session

Mid Atlantic Papers

Tagged Topic

Mid-Atlantic Section Fall Conference

Page Count

8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--29372

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/29372

Download Count

533

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Paper Authors

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Raul Armendariz Queensborough Community College

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Assistant professor of physics

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Aiwu Zhang Brookhaven National Laboratory

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David Jose Buitrago Queensborough Community College

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Tak Cheung CUNY Queensborough COmmunity College

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Tak Cheung, Ph.D., professor of physics, teaches in CUNY Queensborough Community College. He also conducts research and mentors student research projects.

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Garrett Stoddard Stonybrook University

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David E. Jaffe Brookhaven National Laboratory

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Abstract

Cosmic ray detectors are being built by undergraduate engineering and computer science research students, high school teachers, and college faculty, for a detector array at campuses of the City University of New York. One hundred surplus plastic scintillators were donated from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, and 100 decommissioned photomultiplier tubes obtained from the Brookhaven National Laboratory for the detectors. This paper discusses the quality testing of photomultiplier tubes and the scintillator, the detector design, and cosmic ray measurements using the QuarkNet data acquisition board. Students are involved over the course of their undergraduate studies via research and scientific computing courses, and REU summer internships at the national laboratories. By involving students, teachers, faculty, and research scientists from eight different institutions a learning community has been established.

Armendariz, R., & Zhang, A., & Buitrago, D. J., & Cheung, T., & Stoddard, G., & Jaffe, D. E. (2017, October), Design and construction of a cosmic ray detector array for undergraduate research at the City University of New York Paper presented at 2017 Mid-Atlantic Section Fall Conference, Penn State University - Berks Campus - Reading, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--29372

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