4th EPS TIG Hands-on Event for Science, Technology and Interfaces

Experiments necessitate many hard skills, such as physical understanding of the process, but also a bundle of other skills like know-how in instrumentation, hard- and software and strong teamwork capabilities. It is to give these skills to students –classically difficult to obtain during studies– that the 4th EPS Technology and Innovation Group's (TIG) Maker Event for Science, Technology and Interfaces was held this weekend at IdeaSquare, CERN. The purpose of the event is to offer young physics and engineering students from European institutions new hands-on skills in hardware, software and related interfaces, around the domain of health. Two experiments were proposed to work on interfacing employing devices that are modern, compact and affordable for a standard laboratory. The first consisted of measuring the Doppler effect with lasers. The Doppler effect is the change in frequency of a wave when either is emitter or receiver are moving relative to each other. Measurements based on the Doppler effect are widely used in medicine, astronomy and radar. The students built a simple laser Doppler measurement and measured the speed of a moving target. The second experiment consisted in building a compact superresolution sensor, in order to take a comprehensive peek into one of the basics of nano-science! Both experiments enlarged the participants’ hands-on skills in applying modern technologies and furthermore fostered communication skills when it comes to “complex” in-project synchronisation.