Meeting Logistics
About Towson
Towson University, located in the heart of Towson, Md., welcomes visitors to
campus. Each year more than 800,000 people come to Towson to participate in the
university’s many educational, scholarly, cultural, recreational and athletic
activities.
Towson is within easy easy driving distance of major East Coast cities. The
campus is eight miles north of downtown Baltimore, about an hour north of
Washington, D.C., and four hours south of New York City. Baltimore
International Airport, located about 45 minutes south of Baltimore, handles air
traffic from all major carriers. Train service is available via Amtrak in and
out of Baltimore’s Penn Station, 20 minutes south of campus.
Directions
From I-95 (northbound and southbound): Take the Baltimore
Beltway I-695 west (toward Towson). Take exit 25, Charles Street, south. Proceed
approximately 1.7 miles. Turn left on Towsontown Boulevard and proceed to the
first stoplight. Turn right on Osler Drive and make the first right to the
Enrollment Services Center parking lot.
From I-83 (northbound and southbound): Take the Baltimore
Beltway I-695 east (toward Towson). Take exit 25, Charles Street, south. Proceed
approximately 1.7 miles. Turn left on Towsontown Boulevard and proceed to the
first stoplight. Turn right on Osler Drive and make the first right to the
Enrollment Services Center parking lot.
From I-70 (eastbound): Take the Baltimore Beltway I-695
north (toward Towson). Take exit 25, Charles Street, south. Proceed
approximately 1.7 miles. Turn left on Towsontown Boulevard and proceed to the
first stoplight. Turn right on Osler Drive and make the first right to the
Enrollment Services Center parking lot.
Housing
There are many hotels located around the Towson Campus. Below is a list of
possible housing locations with comments
If you have a specific meal restriction or request,
please contact Dave Schaefer.
Nanomaterials
Inspiration from Ancient Materials
Jonah Erlebacher
Department
of Materials Science and Engineering
Johns
Hopkins
University
Sometimes,
modern technology really is influenced by historical craft! In
this presentation, we will examine a new material – nanoporous gold (NPG).
NPG is an ultraporous form of gold in which the pores are only tens of
atoms wide. The material is formed by a chemical process
called dealloying in which one element of a silver/gold alloy is selectively
etched away, a technique related to the ancient surface finishing method known
as depletion gilding. NPG is beginning to find applications
in a wide variety of fields, from biosensors to fuel cells and the hydrogen
economy.
One
reason that nanoporous gold is beginning to be accepted as a viable
“nanotechnology” is that a new form for this material has been developed in
the form of inexpensive free-standing membranes made from artists’ silver/gold
leaf. Leaf is metal in the form of a thin
sheet made by hammering a metal into a foil only a few thousand atoms thick, and
we like to believe that ours is one of the first new, non-decorative,
applications for this traditional fabrication method to appear in quite some
time (millennia?!).
By
using nanoporous gold as a case study, we will introduce modern trends in
nanotechnology and materials science, examine cutting-edge applications for old
materials, and forge links between modern technology and ancient craft.
Presentations
If you are interested in presenting at this year's meeting,
please contact David Schaefer (dschaefer@towson.edu
410 - 704 - 3007) or Rhett Herman (rherman@RADFORD.EDU).
Presentations can take the form of a 20 minute oral presentation or a short
demonstration.
Presentations will begin on Saturday, March 31 at 9:00 am in
Smith Hall, Room 420. Registration and refreshments will begin at 8:30 in Room
554 of Smith Hall. (Please note that the list below does not indicate the exact
order of the presentations.)
| Title/Presenter |
Abstract |
| Orbits on a Concave Frictionless Surface
by Midshipman Sean A. Genis, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD*
*Project Advisor: Prof. Carl E. Mungan |
The equations of motion of a puck sliding
frictionlessly on a parabolic dish can be straightforwardly deduced using
the conservation laws of mechanical energy and angular momentum. But the
solution of these equations requires that they be recast into the form of
Newton's second law. I illustrate why this is necessary and how it can be
done with a simpler example. A rich variety of orbital patterns of the
puck is found by numerically solving the resulting nonlinear equations. |
| A Portrait of Physics and Bureaucracy
Harold Geller , George Mason University |
I will give an overview of my adventures as
the new associate chair of the physics department at George Mason
University. I will discuss dealing with faculty and scheduling courses,
organizing a state science fair, establishing a new observatory, dealing
with a new college organization, responding to state requests for new
higher education standards of learning, and how it all effects teaching. |
| Space-time Invariance and Quantum Gravity
Dr. Harold Alden Williams, Planetarium
coordinator and physics & geology lab coordinator, adjunct professor,
and vice president of Montgomery College staff union, AFSCME local 2380 |
Or how Max Planck in 1899 wrote
a paper which still on the cutting edge today, and how we can share this
via dimensional analysis with undergraduates in the first or second
physics or astronomy course. This is a focused part of a larger talk
that I give yearly in the planetarium as a public program, but for the
CSAAPT it will be done briefer and at a higher level than the
general public talk. |
| Faraday,
Maxwell, and Lines of Force
James O'Connell, Frederick Community
College, Frederick, Maryland, 21702, jsoconnell@aol.com |
One hundred and fifty
years ago, the physical chemist, Michael Faraday, first met the
mathematical physicist, Clerk Maxwell, newly arrived in London. In this
historical essay I want to trace the
thought process that led them to the development of electromagnetic theory
using analogy, symmetry, and the new applications of vector calculus.
Faraday's experimental work on magnetically induced electric currents led
him to picture all electric and magnetic interactions as through lines
of force. Maxwell quantified this field theory applying vector
calculus. Two of the resulting equations produced the conclusion that
visible light is an electromagnetic wave, whose velocity is given by the
product of electric and magnetic static-force constants.
|
|
Mathematica
Examples from the LC Undergraduate Physics Curriculum
John
Eric Goff, Lynchburg College, Lynchburg, VA 24501
|
I
will present examples of how the symbolic software Mathematica
is used at all levels of the Lynchburg College physics curriculum. We
have imbued computational techniques to various degrees in all of our
physics courses, both for pedagogical visualization and for student skill
development. I will show how an intermediary between “no
computation” and “full code writing,” such as Mathematica,
can be used with first-year students all the way up to seniors
participating in research projects. |
| Helping the Blind See the Stars
Brian Eney and members of Westminster Astronomical
Society
|
Teaching astronomy to a group of children
that have never seen planet Earth with their eyes, the universe that
surrounds them is a very challenging task. Only four percent of matter in
the known universe is “visible”. So, the Sighted only have a four
percent advantage over the Blind to understand the
Universe around all of us. This project explores tools, techniques,
and ideas to convey the vastness for of the universe to the Blind adapted
from standard educational tool kits and materials from NASA, and other
sources. Using telescopes with a camera attached and plugged into a
special printer, adapting current teaching methods to accommodate the
Blind, and teaching difficult concepts such as how do you find a black
hole if you can not see it are just some the topics this project will
cover.
|
|
Thickness Dependent
Properties of CMR Manganite thin films on Lattice Mismatched Substrates:
Distinguishing Strain and Interface Effects
Anthony Davidson III, Rajeswari Kolagani, Ellisaveta
Bacharova, Grace Yong, Vera Smolyaninova, David Scheafer, Rajeh Mundle,
Towson University |
Epitaxial thin films of CMR manganite
materials have been known to show thickness dependent electrical and
magnetic properties on lattice mismatched subtrates. Below a critical
thickness, insulator - metal transition is suppressed. These effects have
been largely attributed to the role of biaxial lattice mismatch strain.
Our recent results of epitaxial thin films of LCMO on two substrates with
varying degrees of compressive lattice mismatch indicate that, in addition
to the effect of lattice mismatch strain, the thickness dependence of the
properties are influenced by other factors possibly related to the nature
of the film substrate interface and defects such as twin boundaries. We
will present results correlating the electrical and magneto transport
properties with the structure and morphology of the films. |
| The Revolution in Particle Physics
Dr. Jonathon Bagger, Johns Hopkins University
|
|
| |
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