One of our very own professors gave a talk on his research this last meeting! Dr. Martin Mourigal shows our members his lab here after speaking about the collective electronic and magnetic phenomena in quantum materials his group studies. A member, Zak Kennedy also works in Dr. Mourigal’s lab growing crystals to be used in neutron experiments at Oak Ridge National Labs in Tennessee.
The SPS hosted their annual Waffle Party to welcome new members and share our love of breakfast sweets! As always, it was a crazy feat to feed so many people with so few waffle makers, but this year the event was made better with a special waffle mix recipe! They were extra delicious!
A new event this year, the ice cream social was inspired by Georgia Tech’s own Society of Women in Physics. Professor Martin Mourigal bought the club a huge canister of liquid nitrogen which to make lots of ice cream. By the time everyone had ice cream, the tank wasn’t yet depleted and we couldn’t store it anywhere so it had to be used up. We spontaneously found other things like cookies and hot dogs to freeze until it was all gone. One of our cold concoctions was a ‘cold stir fry’, what a time!
It is the end of the year and we must celebrate at the annual SPS Formal – a unique opportunity to dress up and be awkward in a non-academic setting. The dancing was bad, but the friends were good. We saw that both Aradhya Rajanala and Will Hall can really get down low and Piero Chaiappina did a backflip! We wrote goodbye cards to those graduating and watched them sign the wall. Then we went up to the roof and watched the stars…some people may have gotten stuck in the elevator, too!
For our last meeting of the semester we tried something new! Members to signed up to give a technical talk on some already disproven theory in physics – but they had to present it as if it was true. It made for some quite hilarious presentations. Andrew Shumway presented on the Aether wind, Alex Buser on Phlogistron Theory, CJ Llorente on Flat Earth, Austin Gilbert on The Time Cube, Sam Wiley on The Moon Conspiracy (because the moon is totally fake), and Martino Stino presented on Geocentrism.
This year, the annual SPS cookout was a great success! The planning committee decided to add some extra excitement buy putting on a BBQ competition between some of the people in the department; apparently they had been boasting about their great skill. Well the SPS saw that they were tested – without a curve, no less. Professors Edwin Greco, Michael Chapman, and Nepomuk Otte competed and…..professor Michael Chapman won! The SPS presented the first place winner with a plaque, but one of the judges – professor Morigal handed out his own prizes; first place received a white onion, second place received a yellow onion, and third place a shallot! We hope this competition becomes a permanent part of the annual cookout!
This year for the Spring Trip, SPS went to Philly! While in Philadelphia we went to The Franklin Institute as a group, then we all split off into separate groups to explore the city. Some people went to the art museum, some went to see the liberty bell, and some went to the park and found…occult things. The next day we all went to the Princeton Plasma Physics lab and saw stellarators and fusion chambers. unfortunately the trip was cut short because an incredible snow storm swept across the northeast and we fled home to Georgia as quickly as possible to avoid being trapped.
At this meeting, SPS member and Historian, Robin Glefke, suggested we play a game called quantum werewolf! This game is like mafia or werewolf (whichever name you are more familiar with) except your role in the game is in a quantum superposition of all roles in the game. As soon as a player ‘dies,’ their role is determined and can in turn affect other players status! Overall it was incredibly confusing and complicated, but a load of fun. The command line executable we used to play the game can be found here: http://my.fit.edu/~wellsm2011/qwolf/” rel=”noreferrer nofollow”>my.fit.edu/~wellsm2011/qwolf/
At this meeting, former president, Alex Buser, put together a game of Physics Jeopardy for us to play! Unfortunately, the links for questions in the jeopardy power-point were all messed up; each time someone chose a question it was a surprise to see what they actually got. This also lead to scuffles over whether the originally chosen number of points or the displayed points would be awarded – rampant cheating prevailed. In the end, the group “Aaradhya and the Ladies” won by a large margin – completely fair and square as well. Go girls!
