03. April 2024

DIY detector workshop on the Color Meets Flavor School at the DPG Physics Centre in Bad Honnef DIY detector workshop on the Color Meets Flavor School at the DPG Physics Centre in Bad Honnef

25 students and doctoral students from the field of particle physics built their own small particle detectors. As part of a workshop at the Color Meets Flavor School at the DPG Physikzentrum in Bad Honnef, they soldered, tinkered and screwed things together to gain an even better understanding of the detector principle and implement it themselves using a small example.

Start of the DIY detector workshop with the leaders and helpers
Start of the DIY detector workshop with the leaders and helpers © Uni Bonn
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From March 18-22, there was the Color Meets Flavor School at the DPG Physics Centre in Bad Honnef, organized by Prof. Johannes Albrecht (TU Dortmund University), Prof. Florian Bernlochner (University of Bonn) and Prof. Alexander Lenz (University of Siegen). Participants from different countries and universities had the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of flavor physics in lectures and exercises.

A special highlight of the program was the DIY detector workshop, which was led by Prof. Florian Bernlochner, Sebastian Laudage and Maike Hansen. The participants had the opportunity to gain their first experience in soldering and assemble their own particle detectors. These detectors enable the measurement of ionizing radiation, allowing the participants to measure various samples of natural radioactive at the end of the workshop. The self-built detectors could be taken home for further measurements and as a souvenir.

The detector design is based on the open source project „DIY Particle Detector“ from Oliver Keller (CERN) and offers a beginner-friendly opportunity for those interested in building their own small particle detectors.

With soldering kits from the Elektronics Lab of the Research and Technology Centre for Detectorphysis 12 mobile workstations were set up at the DPG Physics Center, where students could solder and assemble their detectors in pairs. 

During the workshop, the participants received support from Tobias Schiffer (Uni Bonn). In addition, they were actively supported by two student interns who had already gained experience with the detector concept and were completing an internship at the Institute of Physics in collaboration with the Argelander Institute for Astronomy during the school period.

Students and supervisors during the detector workshop in the small lecture hall of the DPG Physics Center in Bad Honnef
Students and supervisors during the detector workshop in the small lecture hall of the DPG Physics Center in Bad Honnef - The soldering sets for the workstations come from the electronics laboratory of the Research and Technology Center for Detector Physics (FTD) at the University of Bonn © Uni Bonn
Students soldering at the workshop during the color meets flavor school
Students soldering at the workshop during the color meets flavor school - To build the particle detectors, two people each shared a soldering and workstation and supported each other. © Uni Bonn
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