ELOG Advice

Amy , To-dos for writing thesis

Wed, 13 Oct 2021 09:32:57 -0400

Acknowledge federal funding.

Writing:

Check paragraph structure. Make sure that the first sentence of each paragraph summarizes the entire paragraph, and every later sentence is there to support the first sentence.

Do not start a sentence with a variable.

Look up the difference between "which" and "that" and check their usage throughout.

Make sure every figure or table is referred to in the text.

Provide enough details that a later student can reproduce what you did, included function names, etc. Use appendix if needed.

Avoid colloqial language, such as instead of "we got," write "we measured."

Brian Clark, Box Opening Advice

Tue, 27 Aug 2019 16:23:34 -0400

You will likely adjust your code to go from running the 100% to the 10%. Make sure you actually re-process the 10% with the 100% code and check to see that every value is duplicated correctly. This was a problem for both Jacob's and Brian's box opening.

Amy and Kai, Do's and Don'ts in a paper

Fri, 05 Jul 2019 15:51:14 -0400

Things to say, and not say, in a paper.

Keith McBride, Running icemc

Wed, 20 Jun 2018 14:28:47 -0400

This is a list of things that should be expected when trying to make and run icemc.

1. The directory includes a Makefile.arch, but seems to have lost it’s
StandardDefinitions.mk, which was necessary in previous versions. Is it no
longer necessary?

2. When you try to execute “./icemc” it tries to make an
“outputs/coherent_sum_data_file.root” object. But “outputs” is not a default
directory, so it will fail: “SysError in <TFile::TFile>: file
outputs/coherent_sum_data_file.root can not be opened (No such
file or directory)”.

3. The default settings for inputs.conf have the “Apply impulse response to
digitizer path: 1” enabled. However, this can only be done if the Anita tools are
sourced: “Signal chain impulse response can only be applied when
the Anita tools are sourced”. So “icemc” will not run out of the box for a more
“casual” user without anitaBuildTool. See anitaBuildTools for installation. \

4. When we source the anita3 input file “./icemc -i inputs.anita3.conf” it has
both the apply impulse response digitizer and apply impulse response trigger enabled
by default. This is in direct contradiction to the GitHub documentation where its says
these are not enabled. Because of this it does not run (since these require the anitaBuildTools). The default should not be
enabled.

5. If the user forgets to set the environment variables “ICEMC_SRC_DIR”,
“ICEMC_BUILD_DIR”, and to update the LD_LIBRARY_PATH as instructed on the
GitHub, the code will proceed as if everything is fine by printing the following message:
“Warning! Could not find environment variable ICEMC_SRC_DIR.
Will guess icemc source directory is present working directory&

Brian Clark, Lessons Learned from a Year in ARA Hardware

Wed, 23 May 2018 09:17:37 -0400

Lessons Learned from a Year in ARA Hardware

Test samples, then build batches.
- If building a new board, always build one to completion to verify functionality before building the rest.
- We lost lots of time to the ARAFERFv5 for this reason.
Building in batches is easier than building to order.
- Maybe this should have been obvious, but it is easier to build 10 of something in an assembly line than to build 10 to completion individually.
Strain relief is essential.
- We ran into problems on both the APWR and the ARAFE RF boards with not properly strain relief-ing these systems. They will be jostled, and worse, handled by overzealous grad students. Strain relief the heck out of everything. Sacrifice board space if you have to.
Lead times suck.
- We use lots of proprietary technology that can have long lead times (LARK filters, IsoRate cables/adapters, SBC and SSDs…). Plan ahead, and order in at least 25% excess. If you need 12, order 16 to allow for failures.
You always need spares.
- Things break, or don’t work how you’d like them to, and sometimes the only solution is outright replacement. Order spares in the quantity ~20%.
- If you run out, assume you need a spare, and order immediately. Waiting until you actually, desperately need the spare is a recipe for high cost and unnecessary stress.
It’s not done until it has been thermal tested.
- Solder joints crack, transistors aren’t wired right, amps don’t behave quite like you expect. It all happened this year. We must thermal test and validate the results before assuming something is ready

Amy Connolly, Marjorie-isms

Wed, 16 May 2018 12:56:15 -0400

Advice about physics from Marjorie:

Always start with the physics!
Triggering is where the physics is

Brian Clark, Making the Most of APS April Meeting 2018

Mon, 09 Apr 2018 00:03:09 -0400

Yay, it's April Meeting time! This is the biggest conference for the high-energy physics community in the US.

Resources and Lingo

A high level summary of the meeting can be found here: https://www.aps.org/meetings/april/upload/AP18Program.pdf
You can download an app from the app store to make a schedule, etc.: https://www.aps.org/meetings/mobileapp.cfm
Plenaries
- The "plenaries" happen in the morning
- they are usually in the big conference hall, and are meant for everyone
Scientific Sessions
- The scientific sessions happen in the later morning and throughout the afternoon.
- You pick and choose what session you attend, or even what talks you attend within a session.
- It's completely normal to change rooms after each session concludes, and you are even welcome to jump between sessions to catch specific talks.

Sessions of Interest

What sessions should I attend?
- If you're totally clueless as to what would be interesting for our science, I'd recommend anything pertaining to "neutrinos", "cosmic rays", or "dark matter".
- Some I'd recommend in particular:
  - Saturday 3:30: High energy particle astrophysics: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/D07
  - Monday 10:40: Detection and origin of high energy astrophysical neutrinos: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/R17
  - Monday 1:30: Neutrinos, Gamma rays, and cosmic rays oh my!: http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR18/Session/S17

Jorge Torres, TProfile (ROOT) error options

Mon, 12 Feb 2018 00:17:14 -0500

Different ways on which TProfile can estimate and plot errors.