Sorry I haven't been updating lately. I'm kind of running out of things to do up here while we wait for our room to be built. We've been told "3-4 weeks" several times over the past 3 months and I'm starting to get a bit frustrated. I don't mind doing all this non-science practical stuff, but I really don't want to leave this internship having done zero scientific research. I'm told our room will be built this week... we shall see.
Right now I'm designing a platform to be added on the recirculation cart that will hold a PLC rack (a rack of circuit boards that control solenoid valves and other electrical things), a power supply, and some gray box thing. It's not terribly complicated... I need to design a square board that will be suspended above the cart below via 3 aluminum rods. It's interesting enough to keep my interest for a day or two, but, really, anybody could do this. The good thing is that even if I get out of this internship without doing any real science, I still would have learned a lot. I wouldn't have even considered going back for my Ph.D. had I not come up here, so I'm still thankful I got the position.
I've uploaded a couple of pictures. The picture on the top is the helium recirculation cart while the one on the bottom is the same cart but with our filtration system included.
