RSPS 2014 Program

8:15 AM – 8:45 AM:  Registration and poster setup (B&L LOBBY)

8:45 AM:  Welcome (B&L 109)

Prof. Frank Wolfs, University of Rochester.

8:50 AM:  SPS (B&L 109)

Prof. Sean Bentley, Adelphi University

9.00 am – 10:30 am:  Session IA.  Condensed-matter physics (B&L 109)

Session Chair: Prof. Mohammed Tahar, SUNY Brockport

9:00     In-situ EBSD Study of Texture Transformation in Thin Ag Films

Emily Morrow, Ethan Ocock, and Brandon Hoffman, Houghton College; Markus Chmielus, Elizabeth A. Ellis, and Shefford P. Baker, Cornell University.

9:15     Effect of Substrate Annealing and Seeding on ZnO Nanowires Synthesized Using a Hydrothermal Method

Orlando Lopez, Ashley Tucker, Kimberly Singh, Spencer Mamer, MostafaSadoqi, and Huizhong Xu, St. John's University

9:30     Interaction of vortices and discrete breathers in Josephson junction ladder

Daniel Schussheim, Colgate University

9:45     Frequency Synchronization of Coupled-Oscillating Josephson Junctions

Jonathan Martin, Colgate University

10:00   X-Ray Diffraction of Indium Film

Natalie Mundt, SUNY Brockport

10:15   Quantized Conductance of Nano-contacts

Colby Raymond, SUNY Brockport

9:00 am – 10:30 am:  Session IB.  Quantum optics and optical techniques (B&L 106)

Session Chair: Sean Bentley, Adelphi University

9:00     The Faraday Rotation Effect

Stephen Doud, SUNY Brockport

9:15     Lock-In Detection

Thomas Loughlin, SUNY Brockport

9:30     Single-Emitter Nanocrystal Characterization and Manipulation for Room-Temperature Single Photon Source Applications

J. MacNeil, J. Winkler, D. Mihaylova, E. Shockley, and S.G. Lukishov, University of Rochester

9:45     Generation and Measurement of Two-Qubit Single-Photon States

Xinru Cheng, Colgate University

10:00   Development and Utilization of the Tel-X-Ometer

Ali Ropri and Dr.McColgan, Siena College

10:15   The Design and Construction of an X-ray Diffractometer

Jennifer Newcombe and Brandon Hoffman, Houghton College

10:30 am – 11:00 AM:  session II.  Poster session (Lobby and B&L 208)

Proton-Induced X-Ray Emission Analysis of Crematorium Emissions

Salina F. Ali, Benjamin J. Nadarski, Alexandrea D. Safiq, Jeremy W. Smith, Josh T. Yoskowitz, Scott M. Labrake, and Michael F. Vineyard, Union College

Improving Sophomore-Level Modern Physics Laboratory Equipment

Jessica Bruckner and Professor John Cummings, Siena College

Modeling the Dust Composition of Protoplanetary Disks in the Taurus Region

R. Challener, W. J. Forrest, and S. Fogerty, University of Rochester

Population Synthesis of Radio and Gamma-Ray Millisecond Pulsars

Sara Frederick, Peter Gonthier, and Alice K. Harding, University of Rochester, Hope College, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Cosmic Ray Response of Megapixel LWIR Arrays from TIS (Teledyne Imaging Sensors)

Julian Girard, William Forrest, Judith Pipher, Craig McMurtry, Meghan Dorn, and Amy Mainzer, Siena College, University of Rochester, Teledyne Imaging Sensors, and NASA

An Investigation of the Rayleigh Scattering of Light

Shauna LeFebvre, Union College

Potentials at the Limits of their Existence: Particle-Vibration Coupling in the Nuclear Many-Body Problem

Philippe Lewalle, Elena Litvinova, FilomenaNunes, and Luke Titus, Michigan State University and University of Rochester.

Analyzing the effect of the Four Factors of Basketball Success on Offensive Efficiency

Daniel Loman and Matthew Bellis, Siena College

A Study of Weak Magnetic Focusing

Sylvia Morrow and Mark Yuly, Houghton College

Examining the Relationship Between Period vs. Diameter of Asteroids

Nicholas Powers and Anthony Smith, SUNY Oswego and National University of Taiwan

The Coincidence Efficiency of Sodium Iodide Detectors for Positron Annihilation

Thomas Eckert and Mark Yuly, Houghton College

Development of Synchronous Direct Digital Receiver System for Geospace Imaging Studies

Chan Tran, Meghan Harrington, Joe Kujawski, and Allan T. Weatherwax, Siena College

Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence for Heavy Metal Quantification on Soil Products

Nguyen Truong, Dr. Zewu Chen, Jon Dunphy, and Dr. Michele McColgan, Siena College and X-Ray Optical Systems

Methods for Dispersing Long Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes

Jaime C. Vela, Amanda Amori, and Todd Krauss, University of Rochester

Star Formation in the NGC 5846 Group of Galaxies

Lucas Viani, Union College

Robotics Beacon for Robot Positioning with Simulink

Katherine Robinson, Siena College

11:00 am – 12:00 Pm:  Session IIIA.  High-energy and nuclear physics (B&L 109)

Session Chair: Prof. Mark July, Houghton College

11:00   Opportunistic High Energy Physics Computing in User Space with Parrot

Dillon Skeehan, Paul Brenner, Ben Tovar, Douglas Thain, N. Vallis, A. Woodard, M. Wolf, T. Pearson, S. Lynch, and K. Lannon, University of Rochester and University of Notre Dame

11:15   Reconstructing Energy of Large Angle Muons in Neutrino Quasielastic Scattering Events

A. Bodek, R. Sims, M.E. Christy, and T. Walton, University of Rochester and Hampton University

11:30   A Measurement of the ¹²C(n,2n)¹¹C Cross-Section for use as an Inertial Confinement Fusion Diagnostic

Garrett Hartshaw and Mark Yuly, Houghton College

11:45   Construction and Characterization of a Farnsworth-Hirsch Fusor

Ian Love and Mark Yuly, Houghton College

11:00 am – 12:00 Pm:  Session IIIB.  Astronomy (B&L 106)

Session Chair: Prof. Bill Forrest, University of Rochester

11:00   Observations of the Eclipsing Binary U Cephei using the SUNY Cobleskill Remote Observatory

Ronnie Rera & Edward Stander, Siena College and SUNY Cobleskill

11:15   Quasar Variability Measurements in Hubble Space Telescope Archive Data

Robert Chancia, SUNY Brockport

11:30   A Study of Ultra-Long-Period Cepheids

Brittany Barrett, Scott Lucchini, David ONeill, C. Ngeow, and Prof. S. Kanbur, SUNY Oswego

11:45   Principle Component Analysis of Cepheid Variable Stars

Daniel Wysocki, Zachariah Schrecengost, Earl Bellinger, ShashiKanbur, Sukanta Deb, and Harinder P. Singh, SUNY Oswego

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM: Lunch (DANFORTH DINING HALL, BLDG 48 on page 32)

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm: Physics Jeopardy (B&L 109)

2:00 pm – 2:45 pm:  Session IVA.  Biological Physics (B&L 109)

Session Chair: Prof. John Moustakas, Siena College

2:00     Bifurcations in the Synchronization States of Entorhinal Cortex Layer II Stellate Cells

Anna Miettinen, Colgate University

2:15     The Effect of Ion Channel Noise on Synchronization of Entorhinal Stellate Cells

Mary Rose Devine and Patrick Crotty, Colgate University

2:30     Synchronization of non-identical entorhinal cortex stellate cells

Betty Anderson, Colgate University

2:00 pm – 3:15 pm:  Session IVB.  Experimental Techniques (B&L 106)

Session Chair: Prof. Dale Zych, SUNY Oswego

2:00     CANCELED

2:15     Black Body Spectrometer

Jonathan Delehanty, SUNY Brockport

2:30     The Design and Construction of an Atomic Force Microscope

Ethan Ocock and Brandon Hoffman, Houghton College

2:45     Inexpensive Ultrasonic Interferometer for measuring changes of the speed of sound in materials

John Grossmann, Colgate University

3:00     Angular momentum transfer to strongly trapped absorptive particles via LG modes

Michael Senatore and Professor Catherine Herne, Colgate University