Peter Moore presents paper at IDSM’03.

April 28, 2023. Peter Moore presented our work on Cryogenic MEMS microphones for superconductor quench detection at IDSM’03 in Salerno, Italy.

Peter Moore, M. Takayasu, L. Chiesa, R. White, M. Emerling, and A. Desai, “MEMS Microphones for Quench Detection in Fusion Cables” presented at the 2nd Workshop on Instrumentation and Diagnostics for Superconducting Magnets (IDSM’03), Salerno, Italy, April 28, 2023.

Olive Rappoli and Tim Cheng defend their MS Theses!

April 28, 2023 Olive Rappoli and Tim Cheng both successfully defended their Masters of Science Theses today! Congratulations! Tim will be continuing on for a PHD at Tufts, and Olive will be returning to full time work at Draper.

Olive Rappoli, “Characterization of a MEMS Electric Field Sensor” Masters of Science Thesis, defended April 28, 2023. 

Tim J. Cheng, “A High-Altitude Digital Sonic Anemometer: Development and Deployment” Masters of Science Thesis, defended April 28, 2023. 

IEEE Paper Published

Our paper on acoustic quench detection for cryogenic superconducting magnets published in IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity:

P. Moore, B. Isaacson, J. D’Alessandro, F. Alquaddoomi, Z. Zhao, O. Doolittle, B. Zhang, A. Beckett, A. Blackman, E. Ensslin, R. Baris, S. Chau, A. Desai, M. Emerling, M. Takayasu, R. White, and L. Chiesa , “Acoustic sensor development for quench detection in HTS conductors for fusion applications”, IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity, March 2023. DOI Link

NASA Funding

The group has received some new funding to do exciting work with NASA – two projects were funded recently:

In “Sonic Anemometry on Stratospheric Balloons” we will design, manufacture, and test 3 revisions of a three axis sonic anemometer for operation on stratospheric balloons at altitudes up to 130,000 feet. This grant runs for 3 years.

In “Ultrasonic Measurement of Helium Abundance” we will work with our collaborators to demonstrate laboratory operation of an ultrasonic Helium abundance measurement in conditions relevant to the outer atmosphere of Saturn. The goal is to use ultrasonic measurements to determine He abundance in a H2 atmosphere using speed of sound and absorption spectroscopy. This is an exploratory project that runs for 1 year.

Presentation at ASA Fall Meeting

Graduate students Tim Cheng and Rishabh Chaudhary traveled to Nashville with Prof. White to attend the Acoustical Society of America Fall Meeting. Tim Cheng presented a paper.

Timothy J Cheng, Tara Curran, Freidlay Steve, Chris Yoder, Don Banfield, and Robert D White, “An Improved High Altitude Ultrasonic Anemometer” in the 183rd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Nashville, TN Dec 4-9, 2022.

Applied Superconductivity Conference

October 25, 2022

Tufts graduate student Peter Moore presented our work (collaborative with Prof. Luisa Chiesa, Tufts, Prof. Makoto Takayasu, MIT, and Tanner Research) on MEMS microphone arrays for quench detection in superconducting magnets.

P. Moore, B. Isaacson, J. D’Alessandro, F. Alquaddoomi, D. Zhang, O. Doolittle, A. Beckett, R. Baris, S. Chau, A. Desai, M. Emerling, M. Takayasu, L. Chiesa, and R. White, “Acoustic sensor development for quench detection in HTS conductors for fusion applications” presented at the Applied Superconductivity Conference 2022, Honolulu, October 25, 2022. 

Stratospheric Balloon Launch

August 23, 2022. The Tufts sonic anemometer flew to 124,000 feet on a 11 million cubic foot helium balloon out of Fort Sumner, New Mexico on a piggyback courtesy of the NASA Balloon Programs Office and Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility. The goal was to measure stratospheric winds using the prototype high altitude sonic anemometer. Good job students Tim Cheng, Tara Curran, and Freidlay Steve for making this happen! https://tinyurl.com/3k29xhvc

Tufts sonic anemometer at 124,000 feet over New Mexico.

Paper at ASA Conference

Prof. White traveled to Denver to attend the Acoustical Society of America meeting and present a paper:

Robert White and Don Banfield, “Sonic Anemometry on a High Altitude Balloon” presented at the 182nd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Denver, CO, May 23-27, 2022.