You will have the last 2 to 3 weeks to complete your final project.
Following that period, each group will give a 15 minute presentation
of their final project results to the class. A final report will be
due by the end of term.
This final project presentation and report is in place of a final
exam. You will be expected to include elements of the content covered
in the lectures, and your lab experiences, including technical details
describing how your detection system acquires data and the associated
experimental uncertainties, and the correct application of statistical
methods in the analysis of your data.
Potential projects include, but are not limited to, those described
in the list below. You are encouraged to propose your own topics if
there is something you want to explore that is not listed below. We
will spend lab time working with each group to provide the input and
resources, including some of the software, necessary to successfully
get started with any of the ideas listed, or work with your group to
ensure you will be able to collect and analyze the necessary data for
your proposed project.
Identifying the isotopes present and determining the activity of
unknown sources of radiation.
-
We will supply the sources and ask
you to determine what radioactive materials it contains and at what
rate they are producing radiation - the activity.
Exploring environmental factors leading to variations in local
background radiation rates. This project can go in two directions,
each of which could be done by different teams. The options are:
- Explore large-scale environmental factors using data
from our radiation sensor network. Are there weather effects
or other factors (temperature, etc.) that correlate with radiation
levels?
- Explore more localized effects using your portable devices
- with our portable spectrometers - combining radiation and
environmental sensor data. Are there correlations between
air quality, etc. and radiation levels locally? What could
be the explanation for this?
A radiation detector requires calibration if it is to be used to provide
a measure of the absolute radiation levels or dose, rather than basic
counts and relative changes in radiation levels. Working within the limitations
of the materials you will have access to, come up with a calibration procedure to
determine how the counts registered in your radiation sensor relate to true radiation
rates from sources.
- Fully establish your systematic uncertainties related to this calibration
procedure and test your procedure with known sources.
- NOTE: We will provide guidance and any necessary materials, such as additional
radiation detectors that are already calibrated, calibration sources, etc.
Explore the energy dependence of dose-rate.
-
We calibrate our dosimeters using sources that roughly mimic the
spectral composition we find naturally - is this sufficient? What
systematics does this introduce to our dose-rate estimate? Could we
improve this with a different calibration procedure?
The various environmental sensors that have been integrated into your
multi-sensor device may not be accurate. Come up with a procedure for
verifying the accuracy of one of the environmental sensors. There are
several ways you may approach this - either through lab tests or
comparisons of deployed devices with other sensor networks.
- Fully establish your systematic uncertainties related to this calibration
procedure and test your procedure with known sources.
- NOTE: We will provide guidance and pointers to any necessary materials.
Integrate new sensors, such as altimeters, magnetometers, etc. This
would be an extension of the work done to integrate the base set of
sensors our systems use.
-
These are new sensors: this project would require new software
or readout modifications to the electronics boards for interfacing
with the Raspberry Pi for final integration into the full system.
-
As part of this project, you will be expected to come up with an
experiment or set of experiments to verify the performance of the
new sensor and establish the sensitivity, etc.
The software developed throughout this semester relies on a command-line
interface. Data collection in the field or for non-experts is greatly
facilitated by a graphical interface. Similarly, immediate display of the
data being recorded can be quite useful.
- Create a GUI for starting data collection and showing current readings
for the sensors on your device.
- NOTE: this is a programming intensive project and should only be
selected by a group with an existing and strong background in software
development.
We have a PCB design for the circuit board we use for the interface between our sensors and
the Raspberry Pi. This leaves us with a fixed set of inputs available in a fixed configuration,
which may limit options for new sensor inputs, etc. To add new inputs, you would be required to
create a new PCB design that included these new inputs, and possibly modified the existing
configuration to accommodate these updates.
- Using Eagle,
which you can download for free through campus by creating an
Autodesk account using your Berkeley credentials, create a new PCB design.
- Come up with a potential new input/output (LED controls, etc.) and modify/improve/personalize
the design to incorporate this new feature.
The existing case for our portable devices were 3D printed from a model developed by several
students. There are a range of potential improvements one could imagine developing.
- Design an enclosure for your Raspberry Pi system, including
screen, circuit board, and any sensors or other components you want
housed inside the enclosure.
- Use Autodesk Inventor
is recommended, although this software only runs on the Windows 64-
bit OS. There are alternatives, including open source options like
Blender, but Inventor is the most intuitive. We will have a laptop
with Inventor installed available if needed.
- Prints can be done through Jacobs Hall, there is a training
you will need to complete to get access to those printers.