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Undergraduate Contribution

SSX as Student-Integral Lab

As a liberal-arts college, Swarthmore has a purely undergraduate student population. While this means there are no graduate students to conduct research on the machine, it does give undergraduates the opportunity to experience high level, cutting-edge science research in their place. The Swarthmore undergraduates are what make the SSX laboratory successful. The students contrbute in many ways including building hardware and probes, conducting analyses on data or developing simulations. Since its inception, nearly 50 students have added to the SSX's ever growing body of work. In addition to contributing to published work, the students have produced valuable theses, focusing on data analysis topics or diagnostics, as well as making and presenting posters for display both at Swarthmore itself and at the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics annual meeting.

Peter Weck and Emily Hudson help Doc Brown clean the extension chamber of the SSX wind tunnel before it is attached to the main chamber.

Adrian Wan (right) poses with Post-doc David Schaffner (middle) after Adrian received an award for Outstanding Undergraduate Poster at the 2013 APS-DPP Meeting in Denver, CO.

Doc Brown wipes down the SSX end bell with Emily Hudson.

Doc Brown prepares Emily Hudson and Peter Weck for the days work.

Emily Hudson cleans one end of the SSX windtunnel copper flux conserver.

Peter Weck cleans the other end.

Ken Flanagan discusses his research at the 2011 APS-DPP meeting in Salt Lake City, UT.

Darren Weinhold talks about his poster at the 2011 APS-DPP meeting in Salt Lake City, UT.

Mike Fisher explains his work to an during the poster session at the 2011 APS-DPP meeting in Salt Lake City, UT.

Darren Weinhold in front of his poster at the 2009 APS-DPP Meeting in Atlanta, GA.

Max Korein poses in front of his poster at the 2009 APS-DPP meeting in Atlanta, GA.

Tom Kornack in front of his poster at the 1997 APS-DPP meeting in Pittsburg, PA.

Peter Weck and Emily Hudson help Doc Brown clean the extension chamber of the SSX wind tunnel before it is attached to the main chamber.

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Buzz Feature: Prof. Brown Gives Turbulence Tutorial at APS-DPP 2014

Prof. Brown Gives Turbulence Tutorial at APS-DPP 2014

At the American Physical Society Division of Plasma Physics conference (APS-DPP) this year, Professor Brown gave a tutorial talk on turbulence titled "MHD Turbulence: Observation and Experiment." The talk, which was attended by about 150 other plasma physicists from around the country, gave an overview of basic turbulence theory, then discussed four particular metrics used to analyze turbulence and specifically how these metrics are used on SSX. The talk incorporated research conducted by Swarthmore undergraduates Adrian Wan '15 and Peter Weck '15.

See the pdf version of the talk here.

Buzz Feature: Peter Weck '15 Presents Poster at APS-DPP 2014

Peter Weck '15 Presents Poster at APS-DPP 2014

Peter Weck '15 presented his research at the APS DPP meeting in New Orleans during the undergraduate poster session. Peter's work focuses on a relatively new turbulence analysis technique that looks at the permutation entropy and statistical complexity of a time series signal. See Peter's poster here.

Buzz Feature Vandervelde-Cheng Scholar 2014 - Emily Hudson

Emily Hudson '17 Named a Vandervelde-Cheng Scholar

Emily Hudson '17 was named a Vandervelde-Cheng Scholar for the summer of 2014. The Vandervelde-Cheng Scholarship supports summer physics research for Swarthmore undergrads. Emily's work this summer focused on studying the velocity of plasma plumes down the MHD wind tunnel on SSX. She presented her work at the Sigma Xi exhibition in the Science Commons.

Buzz Feature: SSX in APS-DPP Press Release

SSX among experiments profiled in APS-DPP press release

The field of plasma astrophysics is explored in various laboratory settings including MRX at Princeton, LAPD at UCLA, the dipole experiment at Columbia University and SSX at Swarthmore.

See press release here.

Buzz Feature: Grappling with the Unknown

SSX hits Swarthmore front page

Undergraduates Peter Weck and Adrian Wan are interviewed about research and publishing on the SSX in this news feature from the Swarthmore front page.

Grappling with the Unknown

Buzz Feature: Laboratory Astrophysics on Physics Central

Solar Winds and Hot Plasma Experiments

Turbulence research on SSX was recently profiled on the Physics Buzz blog along with experiments from UCLA and Princeton. All three research areas fall under the umbrella of laboratory astrophysics. The blog post includes a podcast with interviews of David Schaffner, Seth Dorfman (UCLA) and Masaaki Yamada (Princeton).

Physics Central Physics Buzz

Buzz Feature: Two new papers accepted to start 2015

Two Papers Accepted to Start the New Year

Two papers, "Permutation entropy and statistical complexity analysis of turbulence in laboratory plasmas and the solar wind" written by Peter Weck '15 and "Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence: Observation and Experiment" by Michael Brown have been accepted January 2015 for publication in Physical Review E and Physics of Plasma respectively. The first is Peter's first publication and also represents the SSX lab's first foray into both information theory analysis as well as the use of solar wind data. Mike's paper stems from his Invited Tutorial from APS-DPP 2014 and comprises a tutorial on turbulence analysis techniques using a single time series from the WIND satellite in the solar wind. Online versions will be available as soon as they are published.

SSX Buzz Archive