Something new the SPS tried this semester, under the leadership of amazing fundraising chair Martino Stino, was a smash tournament fundraiser. It was a SMASHing success! The top rankings are as follows: PM Singles – 1st Mathilda Avirett-Mackenzie, 2nd Ben Kalziqi, 3rd Aradhya Rajanala; Melee Doubles – 1st Mathilda Avirett-Mackenzie/Tristan …
The SPS has been giving demonstrations to Morningside Elementary’s science night for many years now! Previous president, Vivian Romero, and Outreach Committee Chair, Charles Cardot, lead the new wave of SPS outreach members, Lauren Prinn, Martino Stino, John Lewis, Chesson Sipling, and Somil Joshi. The kinds of demonstrations we bring have changed only slightly; we now have more because the demo room has been better organized by the kindness of Andrea Welsh, a Physics Grad Student.
This semester has been incredibly active for our outreach committee! The New School in Atlanta is just one of many new places we are beginning to give demonstrations to. It is also important for our graduating members, like CJ Llorente, to pass along the torch of outreach to others, Liam Regan, Karthik Yadavalli, and Charles Cardot
In traditional fashion, the SPS got together before the end of the semester, and before finals, to decompress and spend time together performing shenanigans. The gifts were pretty hilarious: Samus brought a giant can of beans, Vivian Romero brought yarn (stolen three times!), Tony Aportela brought a box of things from his childhood. CJ Llorente gave the gift of knowledge in his old PDF textbooks. There was lots of candy and money. Mathilda Avirett-Mackenzie also brought a bunch of squash. Most importantly, the new gatekeeper of the SPS was named…Paige! Allover it was a fantastic time and we laughed and laughed at each other’s terribly ridiculous gifts. Until next year…
Georgia Tech hosted an event to educate students in K-12 about the fun you can have in STEM fields! The SPS was invited and brought along our Spark, Spin, Freeze demos as well as a bunch of friends and had a blast. It was very exciting to see old members, like CJ Llorente, that will be graduating soon pass along the torch of one of the SPS’s pillars: outreach. It is looking like sophomore members Charles Cardot and Martino Stino will be major additions to future SPS outreach endeavors!
For the spooky season, the SPS played a game called Murder in Howey (lovingly named by our past members). The game is like a mixture of tag and mafia: there are two secret murderers who walk/run around the halls of Howey with us regular players while trying to pick us off one by one…..
This year the SPS paired up with the Society of Women in Physics to combine our spooky halloween events into one big exciting event! There was pumpkin painting, a bake sale, a costume contest, and – the SPSs big contribution – THE PUMPKIN DROP. This years drop was more exciting than any before because we had professors sponsor pumpkins. For 25$, 50$, and 100$, professors could buy a pumpkin which we would drop in their honor, carve whatever they wanted, and finally freeze with liquid nitrogen. In good humor, two professors – Flavio Fenton and JC Gumbart commissioned pumpkins with jabs at the other! The event in total was a huge sucess and raised SPS and SWIP a lot of money for conferences, trips, and events. Here’s to hoping we can make it even better next year!
This year we went to Knoxville for the bi-annual SPS trip. While originally we had planned to visit Oak Ridge National Labs, circumstances out of our control kept us from doing so, but that did not stop us from having fun! We went hiking through a stream in the nearby Great Smokey Mountains National Park. A few of us also ended up hitchhiking a few miles up the park road after collecting some overexcited members that had gone the wrong way! The fields were beautiful and the fresh air was good for us to recuperate from our hard work during classes. We also explored the city of Knoxville. There were many cute bookstores, thrift stores, and eerie (but delicious) ice cream shoppes. On the ride to and from our destination, different groups took side adventures to the Knoxville Art Museum, a water filled quarry, a flea market, and MANY trips to Starbucks.
One of our very own professors gave a talk on his research this last meeting! Dr. Martin Mourigal shows our members his lab here after speaking about the collective electronic and magnetic phenomena in quantum materials his group studies. A member, Zak Kennedy also works in Dr. Mourigal’s lab growing crystals to be used in neutron experiments at Oak Ridge National Labs in Tennessee.
