Student Achievements 2012-13

Congratulations to Our Graduates for 2013

  • Lena Heffern
  • James Delles
  • Carlene Busse
  • Justin Baran
  • Dana Baylis
  • Evan Ide
  • Chris Hasek

Arloe Anania-Murray Scholarship Recipients 13-14

  • Adam McKinley
  • Carlene Busse

Michael McGie Service Award Recipient 13-14

  • Jason Stockton

Floyd L. English Scholarship Recipient 13-14

  • Sam Mish

Other Student Achievements of Note

  • Daniel Lund and Lawrence Lechuga along with Dr. Eric Ayars earned third place in the Apparatus Competition at the AAPT National Meeting in Philadelphia PA in July 2012 for their project, "Apparatus for Quantitative Measurement of Heat Flow in Two Dimensions." In addition, they presented a poster entitled, "Real-Time Thermodynamic Experiments with High Resolution."
  • Isaac C. Aguilar and Dr. David Kagan published the paper, "Breaking Bat" in the February 2013 issue of The Physics Teacher.
  • "Polarization effects induced by a two-mirror laser beam scanner" was the title of a presentation by Scott Gimbal, Qiaochu Li, and Dr. Anna Petrova-Mayor, at a meeting of the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation.
  • Mark Nipper, Sean Quinn, and Dr. Anna Petrova-Mayor shared "Building a Fiber Optic Proximity SensorÓ at the 9th Annual Poster Session of the NCS at CSUC, Chico in May 2013.

Faculty Achievements 2012-13

Dr. Eric Ayars was very busy at the AAPT National Meeting in Philadelphia PA in July 2012. He presented an invited talk, "Tweak your labs with Arduino Microcontrollers", shared, along with two students a poster, "Real-Time Thermodynamic Experiments with High Resolution" and third place in the Apparatus Competition. In addition, Ayars presented a workshop entitled, "Arduino as a Gateway Drug" as part of the ALPhA - Laborataries Beyond the First Year Conference at the meeting. Ayars has developed new course, "Electronics for Scientists" (PHYS 327) to better meet the needs of CSUC physics majors and a new textbook "Python for Physics Students, in conjunction with Textbook Alternative Program supporting low and no-cost texts for CSUC students.

Dr. David Kagan published "Stolen Base Physics" and, along with a student, "Breaking Bat" in The Physics Teacher. He presented an invited talk, "Get in the Swing of Physics" at the American Association of Physics Teachers Northern California Section Fall Meeting at Sierra College in Rocklin, CA. Kagan continues as the PI for the National Science Foundation Noyce Phase II grant of $750,000 to provide scholarships and professional development for future science and math teachers. He has developed new introductory physics courses with internet resources replacing traditional texts as part of a grant from the CSU Chico Textbook Alternative Program.

Dr. Chris Gaffney, Lynda Klein, and Dr. Xueli Zou earned a CELT Impact Grant, "Designing an Innovative PER-Based Course: Thinking Like a Physicist." They developed the one-unit CR/NC course, "Thinking Like a Physicist" (PHYS 102) designed to help prepare students who need PHYS 202A & 202B. The course uses active inquiry throughout. Gaffney spearheaded significant overhaul in our curriculum including the creation of two new courses and major revisions in three existing courses. He also collaborated with Upward Bound students at Lower Lake High School and Upper Lake High School including three day-long workshops using active inquiry and intensive writing.

Dr. Anna Petrova-Mayor and two students presented the poster, "Polarization characteristics of a two-mirror lidar beam steering unit" at the 26th International Laser Radar Conference (ILRC) in Porto Heli, Greece in June 2012. With the same two students, she shared a talk entitled, "Polarization effects induced by a two-mirror laser beam scanner" at the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation. Again with two students she presented the poster, "Building a Fiber Optic Proximity Sensor" at the 9th Annual Poster Session of the NCS at CSUC, Chico in May 2013. Petrova-Mayor mentored several students in research projects:
  • Scott Gimbal, Qiaochu Li, and Joseph Steinberg - Polarization induced effects in lidar scanner
  • Lena Heffern - Solid model of the REAL lidar transmitter
  • Ryan Barnes - Building a Raman spectrometer
  • Denton Scott - Worked on the REAL lidar transmitter
  • James Holloway - Building a robotic obstacle avoidance system.
  • Mark Nipper and Sean Quinn - Building a fiber optic proximity sensor


Achievements Archive