Austin Physics for Fun

This event is managed by Nature Nerds Austin -- https://www.meetup.com/nature-nerds-of-austin/

This is the monthly design status and update meeting. Participation is both in person and online.

The meeting will be held at a private makerspace, Diogenes. It is located in the same building as the adult club Colette Austin. The door is at the left end of the building, Suite C. Go to the back of the first floor workspace and head upstairs.

If you have questions please feel free to submit them in the comments below or send them to me directly.

Zoom meeting details will be posted about a half hour before the meeting begins.

HABEX - High Altitude Balloon Experiments

The reference to experiments is two-fold. The first is in regard to the actual balloon construction and flight processes. The second is a reference to the payload and what it does during the flight (e.g. images, environmental measurements, etc.). To be clear, there will be two design processes going on in parallel, the balloon proper and the payload. This initial flight is really focusing on the balloon to get that process pinned down and clearly defined. The initial payload should be simple (e.g. digital camera taking pictures).

One of the primary design considerations will be the use of CanSat techniques in the design and construction process. We may need to build a technology demonstrator for this (i.e. dummy payload) before the actual flight process.

CanSat -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CanSat

Design Process:

Design/Buy > Assemble > Test > Loop (Will it fly?) > Flight Plan

Meeting Sequence:

Pilot - Initial meeting (possibly two) to gauge interest and get first round of participants.

Design - Group responsible for the first four stages of the Design Process. - Multiple meetings.

Pre-Flight - Review process to date and verify readiness - Set the date of launch - Possibly two meetings

Launch - Two teams (Launch and Recovery)

Clean up - Launch team cleans up launch site and transitions to tracking and telemetry

Recovery - Recovery team (possibly several groups) chases the balloon and tries to stay ahead of it.

Post-Flight - Review, analysis, and release of flight report (including experimental results if any).

Flight Plan:

• Pre-Flight
• Schedule
• Assembly
• Launch
• Tracking
• Recovery
• Review/Release Results

Constraints:

• COVID 19
• Budget
• Resources/Tools/Facilities
• Legal (e.g. FAA rules about weight and number of modules)
• People
• Transportation

Spark Talks is a fun series of short talks on all kinds of STEM topics, shared by members of our community. It's a chance give a talk, hear something new, gain new insights, get inspired by what others are working on, and maybe even find a new hobby to explore!

Come join us for some interesting short talks.

Talk topics:
1. Linda will talk about Quantum computing and Grover’s algorithm for searching unorganized data

We encourage small group discussions of 3-4 people following the presentations, though participation is optional. This will give everyone a chance to share their interests and what they are up to these days.

During the meetup, remember to follow these guidelines:
* Be courteous to your conversation partners.
* Don't monopolize time. Give your partners a fair share of speaking time.

You do NOT need to sign up for this event. It is a placeholder only.

It's not too late to volunteer for GARSEF! They still need non-technical volunteers for event execution and technical experts for judging. Please reach out to GARSEF quickly! Please consider donating and be sure to check if your employer does matches.

The timeline of events:

18 Feb - Project Set Up
19 Feb - Judging and Awards Ceremonies

Austin Physics for Fun does request you make students in the age ranges aware of the opportunity. Please consider volunteering for the setup/judging/award activities. If you make a contribution please don't forget to make your employer aware as they may have a matching program!

You DO need to visit this site to register as a student participant, an adult volunteer, or a sponsor ($$) -- https://austinscience.org/

The Greater Austin Regional Science and Engineering Fair has this to say...

The Greater Austin Regional Science and Engineering Fair is one of Texas’ largest regional science fairs with almost 3,000 students from 3rd through 12th grade. It encourages and rewards innovative student research and provides scientists, engineers and other professionals a chance to volunteer in the community.

Winning Junior/Senior Division projects advance to the Texas Science and Engineering Fair. Best of Fair Senior Division projects advance directly to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair.

The Greater Austin Regional Science and Engineering Fair serves students of public, charter, private, and home schools from these counties in Central Texas whose projects won at their schools’ science fairs - Bastrop, Brazos, Burleson, Caldwell, Colorado, Comanche, Fayette, Lavaca, Lee, Mills, Travis, Washington, Williamson, and northern Hays counties.

Austin Science Education Foundation (ASEF) -- https://austinscience.org/asef

Austin Science Fair History -- https://austinscience.org/asef/history

Texas Science and Engineering Fair - TXSEF 2024: March 22-23 -- https://txsef.tamu.edu/

Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair -- https://www.societyforscience.org/isef/