Here is the google story that I created for now: https://goo.gl/photos/vVU8U3x4KrNZrk3Q7
Quick Note about my photos: I am sorry for the lack of resolution in my google photos, I am downloading a 50Mb photo file off my camera which gets down converted by my phone to 1Mb. I will upload full resolution pictures once I get back to the states.
Cern
This week at work, I really got into the grind of things. First, i designed and implemented a fiber optic mount( used to couple fibers to sensor) using a 3D printer. The interesting thing about this project is my group was unfamiliar with a 3D printer. Therefore, after showing them the results I could achieve they wanted me to continue building more models. Currently, the group has a machiner who takes about 2 weeks to make parts, but with the rapid prototyping of a 3D printer this should go down to zero. Additionally, I am going to develop a microlens array to help fibers be evenly distributed over a pixel. I will include some drawing with this to further highlight the details.
The second project that I worked on this week was a website to develop theory and experimental data plots. A large part of this project had been implemented by a past student, although I am adding on many additional features. Currently, the plots created via this server are static images, what I have implemented is a graphing utility to modify the plots intrer-web. This will be of great use to many physicist who would like to modify and share data plots amongst each other. The code that I have written for this project is in an assortment of scripting languages such as Python, HTML, PHP and Javascript. Also, I have developed an automated utility in bash to set up the necessary parameters for hosting the website.
Along with my projects, I attended a open data outreach program for the ATLAS experiment. This program is set for undergraduates to allow them to see the steps in analyzing data from the ATLAS experiment to find the Higgs Boson. Our job in the program was to test all the parts of the program and optimize it for easier readability. If any of you would like to take a look yourself the site is now live at atlas.opendata.cern.ch!
Barcelona
For my second week, I had taken a trip from Geneva to Barcelona for La Merce. La Merce is a giant festival in Barcelona for 4 days celebrating Our Lady of Mercy with tons of fun events! I am going to list a few below and along with some side trips.
Parc Guell
Parc Guell for those not familiar is a housing development, developed by the famous engineer, architect and designer, Antoni Gaudi. Antoni Gaudi was visionary who was very detail oriented in all of his projects. His project Parc Guell was developed in the early 1900s in a remote part of Barcelona inaccessible by public transportation. As a results of this, not that many people bought these plots of land, which left him with only two customers. Thus, his project slowly derailed and only 2 houses of the larger community were built. Even with two houses, Gaudi’s masterpiece of Parc Guell is a beautiful community. Gaudi implemented many abstract concepts in this community such as self draining benches, mushroom shaped chimneys and intricate mosaics apart of everything. The coolest part about Gaudi was that he performed the whole design process: from idea to implementation.
Cosmocaixa
Cosmocaixa is a science museum in Barcelona, with over 5 floors of mind boggling exhibits! Thanks to the La Merce festival, I was able to get into this museum for free, while it is normally 4 euros. The coolest exhibit at this museum was a live rain forest with a pond that they developed. In the forest/pond, I was able to see animals such as turtles, catfish, fire ants and tons more! Aside from the forest, another few exhibits that were interesting were: a light exhibit(highlighting diffraction, snell's law, brewster angle and lens), a huge brick of ice (that you could try to imprint your thumb, if it didn't freeze to death), a standard pendulum exhibit and a strobe light water freeze exhibit. Overall, this was an awesome place to visit and I recommend to anyone visiting Barcelona to take a trip.
Dance of the Giants+Human Towers
The Dance of the Giants is a tradition for the La Merce feast where “Giants”, basically large stilted people, dance with each other in a large square. The characters of these giants are based off political figures. All together, there were about +20 different giants who danced in the square, most of the time in pairs. After the giants left the forum, various competing groups from around Catalonia developed Human Towers. Human Towers are huge masses of people standing on top of each other. In one case the tower was 5 people high and it would move amongst the square.
International Fireworks Festival
After one of my friends got me into photography, I have been very interested in long exposures. I have taken long exposures before of various things such as meteor showers, fireworks and light painting. Therefore, I knew when I attended the fireworks festival in Barcelona, I wanted to get some more pictures. One problem with my setup for this festival was I did not have my tripod. Normally, I use my tripod to get nice and stable pictures. Therefore, I had a problem getting stable pictures, which I slightly fixed by using my backpack and the ground as a stable reference plane. All in all, I got some decent pictures which need to be post processed with some noise removal. Aside from photos of the event, it was awesome fireworks show lasting 20 minutes.
Building Illumination
The Building illumination was where various projectors were set up to align with a building’s structure and feature a light show/colorful facade. The building illumination occurred at two places one at a government house and another near the Arc de Triomf. The one at the Arc de Triomf building had a music component to it where someone would select a genre using a laser pointer. As a result, a dazzling light show would form all over the building.
Little Spanish Village
The little Spanish village was a place where different regions of Spain’s culture is highlighted through different villages. Each of the Spanish villages has various restaurants, ice cream shops and shopping , all in each region's architectural style. In one region, I was able to go to a glass blowing seminar where I found Guy Fieri! Guy was filming a new segment for his show Travel Guides.
Olympic Stadium
The olympic stadium was a region in Barcelona used for the 1992 olympic games. One of the coolest parts of the whole stadium is an iconic telecommunication’s tower for the games video traffic. Another cool part is the stadium was converted into a live, “ Day in an Olympian” activity called Open Camp. Open Camp is a program where people come and do various olympics events to get the true olympic’s experience.
Child Fire Run
The fire run is the highlight of the La Merce festival. During this run people dress up as devils and run around with very big sparklers. These sparklers were huge and their sparks would reach over the whole crowd of the street. While the event was happening, it sounded as if bombs were going off since each sparkler had a popper at the end. Overall, this event was awesome to see the sparks flying and an unique event!
Food
The food in Barcelona was amazing. I had paella two times during my visit and each was fantastic. One of the paella had a mix of calamari, crawfish and shrimp while the other had more vegetables and spices. Aside from the paella, I also had an awesome sandwich with prosciutto and fresh mozzarella. At the end of that meal, since I was able to speak the little Italian I know, the chief gave me a fresh slice of the porchetta(Italian Spiced Pig) straight from the pig! As for dessert, I had some great oreo gelato and cream filled croissants!
Check back next week for my next adventure!
Check back next week for my next adventure!
COMMENTS