William Hodges
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Aerospace Engineering Department
William joined LDPDL in summer 2019 and has been working on the development of a rubidium supersonic jet source. William initially focused on the integration of thermocouples and cartridge heaters into the jet source and remote control of the source through NI Labview. More recently, William has developed a theoretical model of a supersonic throat of the rubidium jet source as a continuum flow. This model, combined with one developed by Hayden of the free molecular flow regime, will enable a better understanding of the flow field of a particle source expanding into a vacuum.
Julian Reidenauer
Undergraduate Research Assistant, Department of Aerospace Engineering
Julian joined the lab in fall of 2020. His research has focused on the development of beam propagation models, the characterization of atmospheric turbulence, and the relationship between these two phenomena. This research is intended to provide reference data for further research and experimentation with beam propagation through atmospheric disturbances being conducted at the Subscale Atmospheric Facility (SAF).
Nicholas Manavi
Former Undergraduate Research Assistant, Aerospace Engineering Department
Nicholas joined the LDPDL in spring of 2020. His research focused on the design of a turbulence generator for the new Ballistic, Aero-optics, and Materials (Mini BAM) facility. This facility, which will be located in the ALLEMO, is the precursor to a one-kilometer long above-ground tunnel (BAM) located at Texas A&M’s Rellis Campus. Both tunnels will investigate the propagation of high-intensity lasers through varying atmospheric conditions.
Diego Morales
Former Undergraduate Research Assistant, Aerospace Engineering Department
Diego joined LDPDL in summer 2018 and first worked on simulations of laser propagation through free space and inhomogeneous media. This project centers on understanding the capabilities of collimated particle jets for focusing and guiding lasers through space, with applications to propulsion and communications. Later, Diego assisted with the design of the beam propagation section and beam dump for experiments on cold rubidium particle beams.
After graduating, Diego joined the team at Blue Origin as a manufacturing engineer.
Pierce Hauver
Former Undergraduate Research Assistant, Aerospace Engineering Department
Pierce joined the group in 2018 and first worked on the fabrication of a barium atomic vapor filter for LIDAR applications. As part of this effort, Pierce designed, fabricated, and tested a unique fusing apparatus for assembling sapphire vapor cells containing vacuum-sealed elemental barium. The cells are sealed by non-contact heating with an induction heater and proprietary glass frit binder. In his later involvement with the lab, Pierce investigated laser-generated breakdown at high temperatures.
Jay Patel
Former Undergraduate Research Assistant, Aerospace Engineering Department
Jay previously worked on understanding how atmospheric variations affect sonic boom loudness across the continental united states. For this work, Jay compiled and analyzed an extensive dataset of numerical weather modeling and balloon soundings using publicly available sources.
After graduation in the spring of 2020, Jay continued his TAMU education as a master’s student in Dr. Helen Reed’s lab.
Nikita Beebe
Former Undergraduate Research Assistant, Aerospace Engineering Department
Nikita is developed a pulsed plasma source for laser diagnostic development and small satellite applications. As part of this effort, significant improvements of the current ultra-high vacuum system were made, including the incorporation of electric and gas feedthroughs for thruster operation.
After graduation in the spring of 2020, Nikita continued her TAMU education as a master’s student in Dr. Greg Chamitoff’s lab.
Eunyoung Kim
Former Undergraduate Research Assistant
Eunyoung previously worked on development of an automated software tool for assembling an input file for the sonic boom propagation code sBOOM. This work streamlined the integration of weather data, balloon soundings, and synthetic LIDAR measurements with sBOOM and the loudness calculation tool PyLdB.
Thomas Marks
Former Undergraduate Research Assistant