Research Student Corner

From MariachiWiki

Contents 1 Highlight 2 Current MARIACHI Students 3 Past MARIACHI Students 4 Start your Research

Highlight

Isaac Degani from Wellington Mepham HS, in Bellmore, NY is a 2007-2008 Intel Science Talent Search competition semi-finalist. As a project, Isaac developed a pattern recognition software to identify meteors, lightning and airplanes in signals seen by a MARIACHI radar. If this already sounds intriguing the story gets better when you learn about how he got there. After the MARIACHI workshop in July 2007, Isaac set his mind to develop a project with the MARIACHI radar. He built and installed a MARIACHI radar pretty much on his own borrowing and obtaining parts from hardware stores and the experiment. He built the antenna, connected it to the radio receiver, interfaced to a computer, and installed and configured the software for data acquisition. This was all done at his house with help from his physics teacher, Mr. Bill Leacock. The antenna Isaac built is known as SPIDA-2 (Simple Prototype Inverted Dipole Antenna) and was designed by Ms. Jessica Newman, a Stony Brook mechanical engineering student who worked in the experiment in 2005 and later perfected by Dr. Bob Warasila from the Suffolk County Community College.

The MARIACHI radar is a forward scattering radar that listens to distant sources of radio frequency. These stations are below the horizon and are not seen by the radar station except when meteor ionization or other objects intervene. The shape and frequency response of these signals, as seen by the radar, is characteristic of the reflecting object. Isaac explored this fact to distinguish meteors, airplanes and lightning. With this in hand he acquired data for several days and verified that the events identified as meteors had the correct periodicity. His work also revealed signals whose origin are still unknown. Isaac embraced the challenge of solving many problems related to data collection, storage and analysis. His ingenuity and persistence were key factors for the successful conclusion of his project. Isaac is the second student from Wellington Mepham HS to become a semi-finalist in this project. Kudos goes to Mr. Bill Leacock.

(by Helio)

Current MARIACHI Students

1. Jessica is from Sachem High School East. When it rains it pours... at least meteors... tiny ones...
2. Akshay from Sachem East HS
3. Glen from Northport HS
4. Hochan from Smithtown East
5. Mike Lopez from Rocky Point
6. Sungsu Lee from Port Jefferson

Past MARIACHI Students

Description of previous research performed by high school students.

1. Josh Seidman, Mepham HS, Search for Cosmic Ray Induced Lightning Strokes. (Josh was selected to be an Intel Semi-finalist for this work!)
2. Alicia, Rocky Point High School, Read about her research project
3. Oscar, Brentwood High School
4. Chris is a senior from Westhampton Beach.
5. Dan is from Smithtown High School West Campus.
6. Isaac Degani from Wellington Mepham High School

Start your Research

Research starts with ideas. During the 2007 summer workshop, we brainstormed and developed a list of topics that could be explored just using the MARIACHI scintillator array. The list can grow, and we should keep adding to it. If you have an idea of what you'd like to do, let your physics teacher know, or let us know.

Return to Research Opportunities.