Apprentices contribute to international neutrino science project
10 Jan 2023
Technical apprentices from the Faculty of Science and Engineering have been given a rare opportunity to work on a £1billion international particle physics project
The pair are providing essential quality control for the main readout elements of the DUNE detector.
DUNE is the US’s flagship particle physics project which, when complete, will allow us to study the neutrino with a precision never before possible, and this will enable us to find out more about the nature of matter and the evolution of the universe.
Internationally, there are more than 1,000 scientists from 30 countries working together to build the DUNE experiment.
Justin Evans, Professor of Professor of Particle Physics, explains: “Mustapha and Joe are part of the £20m UK-wide project to make the main readout elements of the DUNE detector. They have to ensure that these electronics boards are of the necessary quality - mechanically and electrically robust - to successfully take data at cryogenic temperatures for more than a decade in the detector.
“The electronics boards which pass the tests are then shipped on, but there are always several failures, which is where it gets interesting. Mustapha and Joe will work with other Technical Operations colleagues and PDRAs to determine why they have failed, are there any trends in parts failing which will need feeding back to the manufacturer.”
Over the next 4 – 6 years our University will be responsible for supplying 40,000 electronics boards for the DUNE particle detector.
- Find out more about our work with CERN and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and our other international particle physics collaborations via our Faculty of Science and Engineering’s blog.
Image: Mustapha Pathan and Joe Hargreaves, first year technical apprentices studying a Level 3 Engineering Technician (Electrical Electronics) qualification.