After becoming aware of unique fabrication needs within our group and other groups on campus, I initiated, wrote, and managed a successful grant proposal for a $200k high-power laser cutter system and have since been responsible for installing and managing the system. The system is a Kern HSE 100 with 400W laser and … Continue … Continue reading Laser cutters
I developed a track meet registration system for a Seattle-area middle-school league. League administrators can authorize coach access, create meet event listings, and print athlete tags. Coaches can create team rosters and register athletes for their events. It runs on Google App Engine. If someone’s interested in using it, I can make the code available.
Update (20 Feb 2014): It looks like the Maxwell Institute changed their website and the script no longer works. It’s fixable, but I don’t know when I’ll get around to it. The code is available here. A Python script to generate epub ebooks from the books made available online by the Neal A. … Continue … Continue reading GetBook.py
The science data for our torsion-balance experiments is collected by measuring the rotation of the pendulum using laser autocollimators. In these autocollimators, light from a laser diode is collimated by a lens, reflected off a mirror on the pendulum, refocused by the original collimating lens, and directed onto a position-sensitive photodetector by a … Continue … Continue reading A device to measure picoradians
As an offshoot of our torsion-balance experiments, our group was involved in technology development for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, a proposed three-spacecraft space mission to detect gravity waves. These spacecraft were to stay in a perfect free-fall orbit by tracking a free-floating “test mass” contained within each spacecraft. We were investigating the … Continue … Continue reading Low-energy electron gun
A web app I created that allowed blog authors to create RSS feeds for private blogs on Blogger. The feeds contained only the titles and links to posts, so the blog content would stay private. Those who were authorized to view the blog could use a browser plug-in to view the post content from within … Continue reading BlogFeedUnlocker
I designed and made two titanium pens for Christmas gifts in 2008. The bodies consist of three components I manually turned from titanium rod: the lower tube, upper tube, and finial. The finial screws into the upper tube to hold the clip, and the lower tube screws into the upper tube to hold the cartridge. … Continue reading Titanium pens
One of the main areas of investigation in our research group at UW is the behavior of gravity at short distances. We have tested Newton’s inverse-square law down to distances less than 100 microns, about the average width of a human hair. These tests involve objects with dimensions of a few inches, with … Continue … Continue reading Custom cleanroom for short-range gravity experiment
