LHC Summer Research Experience

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the renewal of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program coordinated by the University of Michigan offering research experiences at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN). When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is completed at CERN, it will represent the frontier for experimental high energy physics for several decades to come. Students and teachers working on LHC focused problems at CERN experience an intellectual apprenticeship and learn to understand the nature of international scientific collaboration and the questions and methods of modern physics. The two parts of the program are (1) the historical UM-CERN physics program involving 15 students in research at CERN with CERN based mentors and (2) a high school teachers program involving five teachers participating in the three week CERN High School Teacher program augmented by a three-week period of research participation in the LHC experiments. The students will spend 8-9 weeks at CERN participating in research projects, attending a physics lecture series and interacting with European scientists and science students. The program orientation contains components designed to help them learn how to live in Geneva, instruction in computing, seminars on physics and ethics along with tours of the CERN experiments. The students will gather frequently to give talks about their research activities, learning about the protocols and techniques of physics presentations. Each day they also work with assigned mentors on current physics problems. An onsite Coordinator is present at CERN to assist the students with any matters related to program or personal needs. Each student must give a final talk on their accomplishments and participate in the program evaluation. The teachers will participate in the CERN HST program http://teachers.web.cern.ch/teachers/ and will have the opportunity to work with LHC research groups. This award is co-funded by the Division of Physics and by the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Directorate.