Student activities

Student Activities

New members in Physics Honor Society
March 30, 2017 -- We inducted eleven new members into the Wesleyan chapter of Sigma Pi Sigma, the national physics honor society. Members are selected based on outstanding academic achievement. Sigma Pi Sigma is housed within the Society of Physics Students, a professional association explicitly designed for students. The society operates within the American Institute of Physics, an umbrella organization that includes ten other professional science societies.

This year's officers are President Rebecca Davis, Vice President Eleni Brick, Secretary Allison Haertter, and Treasurer Kaylee Burdette.

The Society of Physics Students exists to help students transform themselves into contributing member of the professional community. Coursework develops skills in only one of many types. Other skill-types are needed to flourish professionally, including effective communication and personal interactions, leadership experience, establishing a personal network of contacts, presenting scholarly work at professional meetings and in journals, and outreach service to the campus and local community. SPS has over 700 chapters on college campus across the country. About 5000 student take part in chapter activities each year.

Inductees, L-R: Dr. Bradley Conrad, National Director of Sigma Pi Sigma; Dr. Milbury, Chapter Adviser; Kaylee Burdette; Becca Davis, Chapter President; Caitlyn Baicar, Olivia Rycroft, Eleni Brick, Mackenzie Robatin, Kimmie Culver, Dr. Reynolds, Allison Haertter, Eric Reynolds, Angela Meyer, Randy Corathers, Dr. Popson

Medical physics colloquium
March 13, 2017 -- Peter Sandwall (2004) spoke to our students on careers in medical physics. Dr. Sandwall earned his degree at the University of Cincinnati. He is Chief Medical Physicist at Tri Health Center and owns Vantage Oncology. In addition, Dr. Sandwall teaches Nuclear Medicine Physics at the University of Cincinnati. He gave our students information on the latest trends in medical physics. He has provided clinical opportunities for several Wesleyan graduates. Medical physicists are licensed professionals who use radiation to treat cancer. They work in nuclear medicine, X-ray imaging, computerized tomography, ultrasound, and MRI.

Student presentations at AAPT conference
October 15, 2016 — Four students presented the results of their summer research today at the conference of the Appalachian Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers.

Mark Leadingham, Chaos theory applied to pulsars: Mark worked with Dr. DeLaney at Wesleyan. Funding was provided by the WV Higher Education Policy Commission's gravitational wave grant.

Angela Meyer and Olivia Rycroft, Space flight design challenge: The students designed, built, and programmed a payload that flew on a sounding rocket launched in June under the mentorship of Dr. DeLaney at Wesleyan. Funding was provided by the NASA WV Space Grant Consortium.

Rebecca Davis, Growth and structure of iron fluoride: Rebecca reported on her project in the West Virginia University NanoSafe program under the mentorship of Dr. Leon Lederman. Funding was provided by the WV Higher Education Policy Commission.

Student summer research at Wesleyan
May 9, 2016 — Seven physics students started working today on summer research projects at Wesleyan. Working with Dr. DeLaney are Kimberly Culver, Mark Leadingham, Angela Meyer, Olivia Rycroft, and Samantha Stinson. Their projects include developing a payload for a NASA sounding rocket, research on pulsars and gravitational waves, and building radio telescopes. Their stipends are provided by the NASA-WV Space Grant Consortium, the WV Higher Education Policy Commission's radio telescope grant, and by the WV Higher Education Policay Commission's gravitational waves grant.

Dustin Kimble and Kody Tucker are working with Dr. Wiest on nanotechnology involving our electron microscope and on Raman sepctroscopy research. The students are paid by grants from the NASA-WV Space Grant Consortium.

Engineering/Physics Club
September 14, 2016 — Tonight we elected officers for the new academic year.
President, Olivia Rycroft
Vice-President, Kaylee Burdette
Secretary, Kimmy Culver
Treasurer, Tim Bristol
Technology Guru, Lennard Schleiff.

Afterward, Thomas Haines gave a presentation on his summer internship at the Jefferson National Lab. He performed research on electro-polishing of copper by thin-film deposition. This process is used to smooth the copper surface before it is coated with niobium metal. It is useful because niobium-plated copper costs less than bulk niobium but often performs just as well as a superconductor. Thomas studied the effects of temperture, voltage, solution flow velocity, and anode-to-cathode separation.

Engineering/Physics picnic
April 17, 2016 — Bob Grose invited students and faculty to his home for a picnic. The weather was perfect. We ate plenty of Bob's famous chili. We enjoyed dessert and games.

Afterward, Bob took us to his garage to see his antique car restorations. And he let us fire his homemade cannon.

Angela·Meyer·makes presentation at NASA IV&V
April 16, 2016 — Angela Meyer and Tyler Heffner attended the annual NASA-SPACE Day, hosted by the NASA-WV Space Grant Consortium and Fairmont State University. Angela, as President of the SPACE Club, gave a poster presentation about the small rocket payload that the club built to fly on board a sounding rocket to be launched from NASA Wallops Island in June as part of the RockSat-C program. Our payload uses an inertial measurement unit to sense the rocket's spinning motion. An Arduino microprocessor records the data and then an H-bridge drives a small reaction motor in response to the rocket's spin. This is an example of a reaction wheel, which is used to control the orientation of spacecraft. In the photo are Dr. DeLaney and SPACE Club members Angela Meyer, Olivia Rycroft, and Tyler Hefner.

Physics student give presentations at the Mid-Atlantic Undergraduate Research Conference
March 18, 2016 — Eleven physics majors made research presentations today. Corey Rhodes and Aaron Weaver won awards for best presentation. Photo, right to left: Dr. Wiest, Mark Leadingham, Cody O'Meara, Paige Rutter, Matt Phares, Amelia Riley, Corey Rhodes, Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Popson, Evan Gorman, Ryder Bolin, Aaron Weaver, Nick Jones

American·Association of Physics Teacher meeting
October 17, 2015 — Several students and faculty attended the fall meeting of the America Association of Physics Teachers in Wheeling, WV. Faculty included Dr. Wiest, Dr. DeLaney, Dr. Xu, and Dr. Popson. Students included Ryder Bolin and Andrew Tiffin. Ryder gave a talk on his summer research involving geophones and a remoting-control vehicle to travel through underground pipes. Andrew talked on his NASA research involving measure Earth's magnetic field using a sounding rocket.

Freshman·catapult contest
October 8, 2015 — Today our engineering students participated in a catapult design contest. Prizes were awarded for the least expensive design, the most aesthetic design, and the grand prize for the most accurate design.

Engineering/Physics Club
September 29, 2015·— Tonight we met to elect officers for the new academic year.
President, Thomas Haines
Vice-President, Kimmy Culver
Secretary, Tim Bristol
Treasurer, Cody O'Meara
Technology Guru, Lennard Schleiff

Afterward, Corey Rhodes and Cody O'Meara gave a talk on their summer internships at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Corey worked on circuitry to improve atomic force microscopes in NIST's Physical Measurements Lab. Cody worked on three-dimensional laser scanners in their Dimensional Metrology Lab. And the students were able to meet two Nobel prize winners.

SPACE·Club balloon launch
March 7, 2015·— Members of the SPACE Club sponsored a tethered helium-filled balloon launch today. They flew a payload consisting of magnetic-field sensors, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a Geiger counter. In addition, they tested a transceiver to receive data from the payload in real time. Dr. Steven Hard from NASA IV&V supervised the flight. Andrew Tiffin, Eric Kramer, and Paul Mallory constructed much of the electronics. We were joined by students and faculty from Marshall University.

Space Day
October 11, 2014·— Space Day was organized by the SPACE Club with support from the NASA-WV Space Grant Consortium. The program featured activities for students K-12 as well as college students. In the photo, SPACE Club members are registering participants from the community. More details here.

Students at Celebration of Summer Experience
September 3, 2013 — The following physics / engineering students made poster presentations today: Andrew Ferguson, Conor Forrester, Will George, Russell Gillespie, Josh Hiett, Andrew Knotts, Mark Mattis, Jacob Poldruhi, David Rhodes, Matt Spicer, and Matt Stadelman.

Seniors present research at the Mid-Atlantic Undergraduate Research Conference
March 28, 2014
Andrew Ferguson designed a procedure for digital holography, an electronic method to make three-dimensional photography using lasers.
Jacob Poldruhi designed a system to generate power on a spacecraft using organic waste.
Dillon Huffman designed a cost-effective prosthetic arm using an Arduino microprocessor.
Quinn Gray created an electronic speech synthesizer using Fourier transform circuitry.
Lucas Greza designed a variety of wings to determine how to minimize drag.
David Rhodes designed a jet turbine engine for maximum efficiency.
Russell Gillespie designed an electronic feedback system to stabilize a hovercraft.
Eddie Hasis studied methods to maximize efficiency of a hybrid engine.
Conor Forrester developed an electrochemical method to convert graphite into graphene.
Andrew Knotts designed an ion thruster with maximum efficiency.

Nobel-Prize-winner discusses the Big Bang theory
March 21, 2012 -- We drove to WVU to hear John Mather's lecture, The History of the Universe in a Nutshell. Mather won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics.

From the Big Bang until now, and on to the future -- Mather told the story of how we got here, how the Universe began with the Big Bang, how it could have produced an Earth where sentient beings can live, and how those beings are discovering their history.

Mather is Project Scientist for the NASA Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) at NASA-Goddard. COBE measured the spectrum (the collection of colors) of the radiation from the Big Bang. He also chairs the James Webb Space Telescope mission.

Mather's team discovered hot and cold spots in the Big-Bang radiation. Mather discussed Einstein's biggest mistake, how Edwin Hubble discovered the expansion of the Universe, and how COBE data supports the Big Bang theory.

Colby·Stanley wins competition
March 8, 2012 — Colby Stanley aspires to a career in electrical engineering. He is off to a good start: his knowledge of computers garnered him a first-place finish in the High-Performance Computing Competition involving students from colleges and universities throughout the state. High-performance computing involves using a cluster of computers to solve a problem that is too complex for one computer. Colby used data from pulsars -- stars that emit pulses of electromagnetic radiation similar to a lighthouse. He used wavelet analysis software to separate the pulsar data from the noise.

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