Society of Physics Students

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WPI Society of Physics Students
WPI Society of Physics Students

The Society of Physics Students (associated with the Physics Honor Society ΣΡΣ) is a student organization dedicated to enjoying a creative and entertaining pursuit of physics. A chapter exists at almost every physics department in the United States, but of course the WPI chapter may be the coolest. Every physics major is automatically a member and is eligible to be an officer.

Our meetings run on Wednesdays from 6-7 in the Physics Lounge (Olin Hall 118). Please feel free to drop by, we are usually either talking about physics, watching YouTube video's, or building/utilizing various physics demonstrations (see SPS Projects for lists of past, present, and future projects).



Contents

Current Events

Our calendar: Google Calendar

Physics Department Colloquia

Date: Monday, November 9

Time: 4-5 PM

Location: OH 223

Plan: Masafumi Fukuto of Brookhaven National Lab will give a talk entitled "Lipid Membrane-Assisted 2D Assembly of Bionanoparticles at Liquid Interfaces". The full abstract is available here.

The "SpudTech" Meeting (November 11, 2009)

Location: Physics lounge/library (OH 118)

Time: 6-7

Plan: So this past week, we started building a potato cannon. Any of you who were there know there were some hitches, and long story short, we did not get to finish. Well, as we had left a meeting just before Thanksgiving relatively unplanned, which allows us to bump the Reuben Tube to that week, and finish the potato cannon next week! Yay for mutable plans!

So this week, we will be attaching the igniter and hopefully firing it. Of course, we'll need to find a place to fire it, as any of you who have used one before (or just seen videos) know that these things pack one heck of a punch. That should be no problem. So join us, as we complete the construction and commence the firing of our very own spud gun!

Upcoming Events

Weekly meeting (November 18, 2009)

Time: 6-7

Location: Physics lounge/library (OH 118)

Plan: It's a Reuben's Tube! See how freaking awesome that is? We're going to build one! Nate has had all the materials for a while, but not the time. Thus, we shall all work together and see sound in action!

Want to build your own? Along with the many instructional videos and instruction sets online, we have our own. Check it out!

Weekly meeting (December 2, 2009)

Time: 6-7

Location: Physics lounge/library (OH 118)

Plan: Okay, so I've attempted to entice you into doing out domino related stuff with videos before. Well, here's a few more videos. No living room? No problem!. I want to go to this museum!. Seriously, this museum is amazing.

Alright, so, once again, I have proven how freaking amazing dominoes can be. Nate is ordering 500 more dominoes for us to play with. HERE'S THE CATCH. This time, instead of setting you loose, the officers will be coming up with challenges for you to complete. Maybe it will be individual challenegs, maybe you will form teams and compete. We don't know. We might even have prizes for those who complete our challenges! (but you didn't hear it from me). Be sure to join us for kinetic awesomeness.

Museum of Science Boston Trip (December 5, 2009)

All details relating to this trip can be found here

Projects and Regular Events

see SPS Projects and Regular Events

Colloquia and Conferences

WSC

SPS is responsible inviting speakers for the wonderful speaker colloquium series, a supplemental physics department colloquium series. These are the colloquia marked as wonderful speaker for people who pay attention to the emails about the colloquia or if reading the list of events on the physics department website. If anyone has specific people they would like to invite or research areas in physics they would like to see talks on, email sps-officers@wpi.edu or the wonderful speaker coordinator before the beginning of the school year the talk would be given.

Wonderful Speaker Invitees

Listed here should be invited professors, person who emailed them, that person's position in SPS (WSC Committee, Officer, etc) and the email date. If an invited speaker responds to your email positively, then send an email to Erken Tuzel (etuzel@wpi.edu) asking how you should proceed. Include their response in the email to Erken so he knows whats going on.

  • James Kakalios - Nathan Nesbitt - sps president - 10/10/2009
  • Michio Kaku - Austin Noto-Moniz - sps webmaster - 10/1/2009
  • Brian Greene - Austin Noto-Moniz - sps webmaster - 10/1/2009
  • Alan Guth - Austin Noto-Moniz - sps webmaster - 10/1/09
  • David Morin - Zhen Chen - sps member - 10/05/2009
  • John Wardle - Tingting Liu - sps secretary - 10/27/2009
  • Emanuela Barberis - Tingting Liu - sps secretary - 10/28/2009

SPS Officers

Officer Description

President - Makes decisions, runs meetings, leads the attack on paperwork and red tape to make SPS events happen. Can take the lead on planning events and projects, as well as buying the supplies for the projects.

Vice President - Helps president out, gives suggestions, runs meeting if president can't come, helps with the paperwork (like submitting a request to Lens and Lights to come to the Fruit Drop), helps with events planning/material buying.

Treasurer - In charge of money. That means submitting a budget request to SGA that is typically due beginning to mid December, as well as Semester Report Forms at the end of B and D term (which means tracking spending throughout the year). Treasurer is also responsible for dealing with/signing off on Expense Reimbursement forms, to pay people back if they buy stuff for SPS, and submitting SFR's to SGA for new events to get money for the event (budget money should be used for recurring events that were included in the budget request). All the SGA forms can be found here. Treasurer can also take the lead on buying project materials, especially since he/she knows best how much money should be spent on various items. In this case the president will need to sign off on the Expense Reimbursement form.

Secretary - Takes minutes at SPS meetings, emails those minutes to all the officers. Manages the email alias.

Webmaster - Updates the SPS website.

Wonderful Speaker Coordinator - Coordinates inviting wonderful speakers (awesome professors from other universities that coordinator would like to have come to WPI for a few days and give some talks about their research). Invitations to these professors usually need to be sent out during A-term, so this job requires a bit of work of the summer.

Past and Present Officers

2009-2010

  • President: Nathan Nesbitt
  • Vice-President: Elizabeth Gould
  • Treasurer: Kyle Murdock
  • Secretary: Tingting Liu
  • Webmaster: Austin Noto-Moniz


2008-2009

  • President: Dante Amoroso
  • Vice-President: Nicholas LeCompte
  • Treasurer: Nathan Nesbitt
  • Secretary: Vineet Barot
  • Webmaster: David Coit
  • Wonderful Speaker Coordinators: Elizabeth Gould, Nathan Nesbitt, Nicholas LeCompte


2007-2008

  • President: Ergys Subashie

Links

Videos and Podcasts

YouTube Must-See's for Physicists

Online Science Videos and Podcasts

Reference Material for Course Work

Other

Conferences

Professional Societies

Scholarship Applications

Either a summary statement or multiple individual reviews provided by the external merit review panel will be
provided to each student with an award or declination letter. If selected to receive a fellowship, you will 
be contacted no later than May 30, 2009 and should subsequently receive your official notification of 
award by July 31, 2009, for the fall term. Please note that this schedule may be changed without 
notification due to factors that were not anticipated at the time of announcement. The earliest 
anticipated start date for these awards is September 1, 2009.
You are advised to retain this announcement for future reference.
The official notification of an award will be made by the EPA’s Grants and Interagency Management Division. 
Selected applicants will be required to provide the following information to complete the application process:
* EPA Form 5770-2, "Fellowship Application" This form is available on the NCER web page (www.epa.gov/ncer/fellow/).
* Additional information and documentation about your educational status and tuition/other costs. 
* Sealed official transcripts from all institutions.
Retrieved from "http://physics.wpi.edu/wiki/index.php/Society_of_Physics_Students"
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