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.

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 183^rd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Nashville, TN Dec 4-9, 2022.

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. 

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

September 1, 2022. Rishabh Chaudhary joined the group as a new PHD student. Rishabh will be working on the Mars Sonic Anemometer project. Welcome Rishabh!

Happy to welcome 8 students who are working in the lab this summer! Glad to be working with Aidan Beckett, Tim Cheng, Tara Curran, Odin Doolittle, Lillian Fullford, Olive Rappoli, Freidlay Steve, and David Zhang. https://sites.tufts.edu/senselab/people/

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 182^nd meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Denver, CO, May 23-27, 2022.

On Friday March 18 we launched a latex high altitude helium filled balloon from Troy NY and recovered it in Weston MA, a flight of 225 kilometers (139 miles). The balloon reached an altitude of greater than 70,000 feet, but unfortunately we lost contact and do not know the maximum altitude achieved, we estimated it at between 80,000 and 90,000 feet. Although the goal of the flight was to fly the Tufts sonic anemometer – we were unsuccessful this time but we will try again! It was a good dry run to understand the radio and tracking equipment. All FAA and FCC regulations were followed, and a NOTAM was filed.

Dec 3, 2021

Freidlay Steve, Reid Baris, Mischael Anilus, and Lillian Fullford made the trip and presented three papers (presentations by Freidlay, Reid, and Lillian), with collaborating authors from Tanner Research, Draper, Cornell, and MIT PSFC:

Freidlay Steve, Robert Littrell, Craig Core, Don Banfield, and Robert D. White, “Aluminum Nitride Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasound Transducers with Applications in Sonic Anemometry” in the 181st meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Seattle, WA, Nov 29 – Dec 3 2021.

Lillian J. Fullford, Robert D. White, Jonathan J. Bernstein, “Vibro-Tactile Display for the Visually Impaired using Miniature Electrostatic Transducers”, in the 181st meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Seattle, WA, Nov 29 – Dec 3, 2021.

Reid Baris, Mischael Anilus, Zijia Zhao, Steve Chau, Wayne Liu, Amish Desai, Michael Emerling, Robert Littrell, Craig Core, Stacey Tang, Luisa Chiesa, Makoto Takayasu, and Robert D. White, “Cryogenic Testing of Microphones and Preamplifiers for MEMS Quench Detection in Superconducting Magnets” in the 181st meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Seattle, WA, Nov 29 – Dec 3, 2021.