Caltech's Compact Muon Solenoid Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships program introduces students to research under the guidance of mentors within Caltech’s CMS group. Students experience physics research as the framework for creativity and thinking different.

UNDERGRADUATE

The year of the Higgs

2012 is the year of the Higgs discovery at the Large Hadron Collider. This experimental high energy physics finding, marks the beginning of a radically new view of the Universe. The HEP Caltech group at the LHC is committed to undergraduate physics research. The undergraduate students will be driving the next big discoveries in the field trying to elucidate the mysteries of Dark Matter and Dark Energy. We thank the Caltech SURF program and the Musk Foundation for explicitly supporting the 2012 undergraduate summer fellows at the LHC.

DISCOVER

The  Large Hadron Collider (LHC)  marked in 2012 a centennial milestone in high energy physics, with the discovery of the Higgs particle. The implications of the discovery, which sheds light to the physics mechanism by which elementary particles acquire mass, guide the  future of the the highest energy physics program and the connections with the dark matter and dark energy of the Universe.

The Caltech team,  known for  they  strong physics program and the outstanding graduate students and fellows, has been at the center of the action since the beginning of the LHC:  providing stewardship in the  detector  design and operation as well as  innovation in the physics research  program and data technologies that lead to the big discovery. The group fosters a vibrant undergraduate research program: in 2013, 13 undergraduates will be conducting research on the physics and technologies related to high energy physics.

PHYSICS RESEARCH

LHC AT CALTECH

Lisa lee (sophomore, Musk Fellow)

“My CMS detector noise & calibration project was h igh ly in te res t ing . I l e a r ned a l o t a bou t particle physics, as well as programming and o t h e r d a t a a na l y s e s

methods.It didn't hurt that the summer we were there was the summer that the Higgs boson's discovery was announced! I am currently working in the Laboratory of Interfacial and Small Scale Transport (Caltech, applied physics).

I plan to do my PhD in some field of applied physics.”

Max horton (sophomore, Musk Fellow)

“My SURF experience with the Caltech CMS group was amazing. My project involved creating a tool to a u t o m a t e s t a t i s t i c a l analysis to be used in the search for Dark Matter. I worked with extremely talented and bright students and professors to develop my project and learn particle physics. Our mentors were extremely interested in the progress and the success of the undergraduates. We were encouraged to provide weekly updates on our progress at the group meetings. We were offered advice from leading thinkers in the world of particle physics. It was very refreshing to work on a high-impact project with mentors who were genuinely interested in our success. This summer I have an internship at Facebook.

I plan to pursue graduate school in both physics and CS and will consider industry also. “

Sung Bong Chun (junior, Musk Fellow)

“My SURF experience taught me not only how a research in Particle Experiment is conducted in general, but also how a huge, worldwide g r o u p o f p h y s i c i s t s collaborate. Also, projects at the LHC are active and d iverse, and i t wasn ' t difficult to find a project that suits my interest the best. Finally, CMS people are wonderful - hard working, ready to help, and actively interacting. I can only say my SURF experience at CMS with the Caltech group was great in every aspect.

My interest lies in HEP Theory. After graduation, I will continue my PhD studies at Caltech. I would like to remain in academia.”

Tony Tong (senior, Musk Fellow)

“It was great. I had the opportunity to go to CERN and work directly with the grad students and professors, and the atmosphere there is ex t reme ly we l come, positive and rewarding

for a young physicist. I think that wonderful experience finally made me decide to continue working in HEP experiment. I worked on a project that elucidates QCD phenomena at the LHC energies.

I am now at Harvard doing my PhD in HEP at the LHC.”

alex takada (junior, Musk Fellow)

“I got a great deal of help and suppo r t f r om the Caltech group at CMS on my summer research project. My project involved a Higgs detection channel so it was exciting to work on such a topical subject at the time of discovery! It allowed me to experience first-hand the work of an experimental particle physicist, and thus was very important in showing what that entails.

I will go to grad school (Berkeley) and start a research project. I will work in high-energy physics, on theory.”

Valere Lambert (sophomore, Musk & Rose Hill Fellow)

Working with the Caltech group at CMS was a unique experience because of the c o m b i n a t i o n o f t h e professional work atmosphere with welcoming social group. A

good deal was expected of us summer students and that really pushed us to work harder and learn more. The group members were very open to giving up their time to help us and guide us through our work. I learned and practiced a multitude of practical skills in coding, presenting and collaborative working. My current project focuses on producing a multi-model inference ranking system which will have applications towards model testing in many fields of science, including High Energy Physics. The method will have direct implementations in the Caltech-CMS Higgs analysis and Dark Matter studies at CMS.

After graduation I plan on attending graduate school to pursue a PhD in High Energy Physics. “