Our research makes us better teachers. Collaboration with our students makes us better researchers. The physics faculty at Ithaca College maintains a wide variety of professional-level research projects both independently and in collaboration with colleagues world-wide. Our emphasis is in applied and experimental physics. We currently have long-term projects in ground-based remote sensing with applications to agriculture and archaeology; acoustical instrumentation and analysis with applications in wild animal studies; astronomy and astrophysics with applications in the areas of planetary science, star and planet formation, and instrumentation; and optics and optical engineering.
Are you interested in doing research? If so, stop by the physics department and talk with any of the faculty. We offer a range of opportunities to do research with the physics faculty during the academic year and during the summer. We also help students find interesting projects at universities and research labs during the summer (find out how to get involved in research).
Freshman Sweta Shah recently traveled to Hawaii with professor Beth Clark Joseph to make observations of asteroid compositions at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. Sweta is pictured (on this page) in front of the twin Keck Observatories. See more of Beth and Sweta's trip.
Senior Matrika Bhattarai is working with professor Bruce Thompson on the Elephant Seismic Project. He is helping Bruce put together various mechanical parts to build equipment to produce vibrations on the ground, similar to those produced by an elephant's leg. They have built various filters, and other electronic circuits to reduce the noise from the signals. Matrika has also built some interfaces to collect data from microphones, geophones, and accelerometers so that they can be entered into the computer and analyzed.
Matrika says of his research, "Our main goal has been trying to simulate the vibrations caused by elephant calls, so that we can better understand how elephants communicate. This project could possibly have good prospects for determining elephant population in an area, like in a forest. It will also help us collect and understand seismic signals better. I have really enjoyed working on this research project with Professor Thompson. We are planning on a trip to the Syracuse zoo in a few weeks, so that we can take some real data with the elephants there. We will then be able to see how close our equipment comes to simulating the elephants. Through this research, I have had the opportunity to learn how to design circuits and solder electronic parts, as well as to use the equipment in the machine shop to make many different interfaces. The best part of doing research as an undergraduate student is that you get hands-on experience by using the knowledge from classes to solve real-world problems."
Junior Alex Williamson is also working with Professor Thompson on the Elephant Seismic Project. Alex is analyzing seismic signals created by elephants.
Kevin Faendrich and Greg Shear traveled to New Mexico with professor Michael Rogers to conduct magnetic surveys at a 1,000-year-old pithouse village site. Along with providing excavation guidance to an archaeology team, they built a laser-alignment device to help reduce positional errors when surveying and studied the effect of the magnetic properties of rocks on magnetic surveys. See a photolog of their summer research trip.
