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Current Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Below are some options for current CMU undergraduates interested in doing research on campus with professors. Also, feel free to knock on doors or contact Professor Ryan for guidance. Send her an email 

Still unsure? Check out the Gelfand Center's features on Prof. Alison and Prof. Tristram-Nagle to get a sense of what it means to conduct research as an undergraduate!

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Astrophysics & Cosmology

Rupert Croft - Cosmology

1. Analyze Hubble Space Telescope images for measurement of galaxy parallax.
2. Develop an explainable AI algorithm using cosmological parameters as a test case.

Tiziana Di Matteo - Astrophysics & Cosmology

Simulating the first galaxies and black holes at the cosmic dawn

Richard Griffiths - Astrophysics & Cosmology

Investigation of gravitationally lensed images in Hubble Space Telescope data, with the goal of constraining the properties of dark matter using gravitational 'folds'.

Tina Kahniashvili - Theoretical Cosmology

  • Cosmological magnetic fields: their origin, evolution, and signatures 
  • Primordial Hydro and Magneto-hydrodynamical Turbulence: Origin, Evolution, and Signatures

Antonella Palmese - Observational Astrophysics and Cosmology

  • Machine learning classification and discovery of time domain observations.
  • Searching for ultra-light dark matter in galaxies.
  • Measuring the expansion rate of the Universe with gravitational waves.
  • GPU-accelerated discovery of new extra-galactic explosions

Jeff Peterson - Radio Astronomy and Cosmology Instrument Development

Students design and build radio astronomy receivers and use these to search for Fast Radio Bursts and the origins of the first stars which formed 200 million years after the Big Bang. We deploy these instruments to remote sites in Canada, South Africa, and desert islands such as Isla Guadalupe and Marion Island.

 

Hy Trac- Cosmology and Machine Learning

  • Galaxy cluster mass reconstruction with machine learning.
  • Simulating dark matter and baryons with the cosmological code HYPER.
  • Modeling cosmic dawn and the epoch of reionization with semi-numerical code AMBER.

Sayan Mandal - Astrophysics & Cosmology

  • Generation, evolution, and signatures of Primordial magnetic fields (often in collaboration with Prof. Tina Kahniashvili).
  • Models of dark matter, dark energy, and origin of neutrino masses.

Biological Physics

Markus Deserno

My group is interested in theoretical and computational biophysics, with a focus on lipid membranes. Typical theory projects focus on membrane elasticity, shape/geometry, phase behavior, and the implications of lipid asymmetry across the leaflets of a bilayer. Computational projects approach the same subjects via molecular dynamics simulations of highly simplified models, or investigate how to measure a membrane’s elastic parameters by analyzing its fluctuations. For details, check out some of our recent work on our webpage If you’re interested in any of this, talk to me. As a prerequisite, you do not need a background in biology, but some familiarity with thermal/statistical physics is very useful. For computational projects, some experience with programming is needed, but you definitely don’t have to be seasoned coder.

Fangwei Si

Our lab's drive is to discover “biological laws” that can help us understand living systems in a quantitatively precise way. Towards this goal, we develop/adapt tools, do rigorous measurements, and define new concepts. We are currently searching for simple yet fundamental rules connecting the complicated form of bacterial cells and their fitness in different environments. Please check out the lab website for more descriptions of our research. If you are curious about how living systems emerge from non-living matter and want to get your hands dirty in a wet lab, you are always welcome to contact us!

Stephanie Tristram-Nagle

The Tristram-Nagle lab is looking for 3-4 interested undergrads to participate in Biological Physics research for credit for this semester.  We use circular dichroism (CD) to determine the secondary protein structure of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) as they interact with lipid model membranes, mimicking bacterial and eukaryotic cells.  This is a collaboration with Dr. Toni Deslouches at Pitt; antimicrobial peptides are one answer to the problem of superbugs. They are much slower to incur resistance than conventional antibiotics. The work entails collecting CD data using the JASCO instrument in Mellon Institute and analyzing the data using fitting algorithms.  Some sample preparation may be involved.  The second part of Tristram-Nagle's lab focuses on collection and analysis of structural data obtained with x-rays at CMU, and at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source in Ithaca, NY.

There are no absolute prerequisites, but Experimental Physics is helpful, and Modern Biology and Organic Chemistry courses are useful.  Permission of Dr. Ryan is required.  Research credits (hours) may be 3, 6, or  9/week.  If you are interested please see my website below where all of my publications are downloadable.  Please send me an email this week and we can meet to discuss your schedule. Thank you for your interest.

Website: https://www.cmu.edu/biolphys/jfstn/ 

Newell Washburn

My group is interested in understanding the physics of aging using both experimental and computational methods in collaboration with Prof. Fabrisia Ambrosio at the University of Pittsburgh. The current focus is on modeling transcriptomic changes in muscle stem cells to elucidate alterations in information flow through the gene network as a function of organism age. Our computational tools include machine learning, information theory, and by drawing analogies with classical and statistical mechanics. Email

Condensed Matter Physics

Randy Feenstra - Experimental Condensed Matter

Simulation and/or curve fitting of spectroscopic data from a scanning tunneling microscopy or a low-energy electron microscope.

Steve Garoff - Applied Soft Matter Physics

Experimental projects on a wide variety of topics in wetting and the behavior of complex fluids

Sara Majetich - Small Angle Neutron Scattering of Magnetic Nanoparticles

This computational project will compare theoretical models of magnetization patterns in magnetic nanoparticles with data from small angle neutron scattering (SANS) experiments. Just as x-ray diffraction arises from the Fourier transform of the electronic charge distribution in a crystal, neutron scattering can be used to reveal the nanoscale magnetization. Working with collaborators at NIST and Oberlin College, the Majetich group has investigated many types of magnetic nanoparticles using SANS with polarization analysis. Here neutrons are polarized “spin up” or “spin down” before scattering, and afterward they are analyzed to see if there have been spin flip events due to the magnetization in the nanoparticles. SANS with polarization analysis was used to demonstrate non-uniform magnetization within nanoparticles [1]. When a magnetic field is applied, surface spins may cant reversibly, depending on the temperature and magnitude of the field. For magnetite, Fe3O4, the form factors of a sphere plus a spherical shell were sufficient to explain the experimental results, but with manganese ferrite, MnFe2O4, the magnetization pattern is clearly more complex. The approach will be to assume a magnetization pattern for the nanoparticles, divide them into two-dimensional slices, take the Fourier transforms, and add up the scattering contributions from the different slices. There is already a lot of experimental data that will be useful for comparison and model refinement. 

  1. Visualizing Core-Shell Morphology of Structurally Uniform Magnetite Nanoparticles, K. L. Krycka, J. A. Borchers, J. A. Borchers, Y. Ijiri, W. C. Chen. S. M. Watson, M. Laver, T. R. Gentile, S. Harris, L. R. Dedon, J. J. Rhyne, and S. A. Majetich, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104 207203 (2010); doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.207203.
Contact Professor Majetich

Sufei Shi

Building state-of-the-art 2D materials-based devices. Low-temperature optical and electrical measurements of the devices. Development of optical spectroscopy and electrical transport measurement techniques.

Simran Singh - Experimental Condensed Matter

Spin transport in atomically thin quantum materials

Mike Widom - Condensed Matter Theory

Professor Widom models the structure and thermodynamics of complex crystal structures using a combination of quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics. Highly motivated students with strong computer skills are welcome to inquire about a research position.

Nuclear & Particle Physics

Roy Briere - Experimental Particle Physics

Belle II experiment at KEK; various software projects

Matteo Cremonesi - Experimental Particle Physics

Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at CERN in Geneva.
Searches for dark matter with CMS data.
Data analysis using industry-standard computing techniques.
Real-time machine learning.

Valentina Dutta - Experimental Particle Physics

CMS experiment at CERN and Light Dark Matter eXperiment (LDMX) at SLAC.

Possible projects on CMS vary from data analysis related to searches for new physics including the use of machine learning, to hands-on instrumentation work. LDMX is an exciting prospective experiment to search for dark matter lighter than the proton mass, and is in the development phase. Possible projects on LDMX include the analysis of simulated data sets and software development.

Diana Parno - Experimental Neutrino Physics

Our group does primarily analysis and simulation work for:

- The COHERENT experiment, which measures neutrino-nucleus scattering to test the Standard Model, probe nuclear physics, and understand future supernova measurements

- The KATRIN experiment, which uses the radioactive decay of tritium to make world-leading measurements of the neutrino mass scale

- The Project 8 Experiment, which is doing R&D for improved neutrino-mass measurements using new techniques

We have a variety of projects. Contact Prof. Parno ( dparno@cmu.edu ) for details.

Manfred Paulini and John Alison - Experimental Particle Physics

CMS experiment at CERN with various projects from hands-on instrumentation work to data analysis and also event classification using machine learning

John Alison

Undergraduate Research Assistant Positions in High-Energy Particle Physics

Project #1: Build a real-time monitoring system for XML Uploads
Tools: Grafana, Python3
Description:
At the CMU Module Assembly Center, we assemble and inspect detector components (“modules”) that will be installed in the CMS experiment. As part of this work, we store and monitor module quality data to ensure compliance with detector requirements. These data are shared with the CERN collaboration by exporting records from a local PostgreSQL database to the central CERN Oracle database. While the data transfer pipeline is already in place, additional development is needed to build a robust monitoring system, using Grafana, to track upload status for both ongoing and completed data transfers. Upload status information is stored in PostgreSQL. This project will expose students to relational databases, data monitoring and analysis, and Python-based development that connects a backend database to a Grafana-based visualization frontend.

Project #2: Build a holistic website for HGCAL Module Assembly

Tools: Grafana, Python3, WebEOS site, CSS, HTML
Description:
The CMU Module Assembly Center consists of several subgroups that assemble, inspect, and test detector components (“modules”) to be installed in the CMS detector. At present, monitoring tools, computing resources, documentation, past presentations, and other team materials are scattered across many online locations. To consolidate these resources, a centralized team website is needed. While most of the content already exists, work is required to curate and organize the material, present it in a user-friendly way, and implement the site so that it is easy to update and maintain. This project will expose students to front-end web development skills and provide a bird’s-eye view of the module assembly and testing workflow. In addition, the project will involve embedding existing Grafana dashboards, which have been used to monitor module production, into the website.

Project #3: The Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University is looking for two undergraduate students to assist in building and prototyping a Kubernetes cluster. This cluster will support cutting-edge research in high-energy particle physics, particularly in enhancing data processing speeds for large datasets.

Key Responsibilities:

  • System Administration: Manage and maintain multiple machines within the cluster.
  • Programming: Develop skills in scripting (Bash/Python) and work extensively with Linux/Unix systems. 
  • Cluster Management: Learn and gain hands-on experience with Kubernetes and other Linux cluster provisioning tools like Puppet, Cobbler, and Ansible. 
  • Monitoring Tools: Learn to use large-scale monitoring tools such as Nagios, Ganglia, and PerfSONAR.

Why Apply? 

  • Help Shape the Direction of Future Computing in High-Energy Physics: Contribute to pioneering research efforts and influence the development of new computing infrastructure.
  • Collaborative Environment: Work closely with faculty members in the Department of Physics and system administrators from the Mellon College of Science.
  • Professional Growth: Receive guidance from computing professionals, including collaborators working on the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. This position offers a unique opportunity to develop valuable technical skills while contributing to significant research efforts in particle physics.

Contact Professor John Alison (johnalison@cmu.edu), if you are interested in or have any questions.