CCRMA Colloquium - Matt Bellis - Particle Physics Windchime: an exercise in the sonficiation of high energy physics data
Date:
Wed, 04/20/2011 - 5:15pm - 7:15pm
Location:
CCRMA Classroom, The Knoll 2nd floor, Rm 217
Event Type:
Colloquium 
http://www.stanford.edu/group/burchat/cgi-bin/bellis_mediawiki/index.php/Particle_Physics_Windchim
Please join Matt Bellis in a discussion on Particle Physics Windchime: an exercise in the sonficiation of high energy physics data at the CCRMA Colloquium.
Abstract:
I have been exploring the sonification of particle physics data for use in education and outreach efforts, as well as for training new physicists. In this talk, I will discuss the Particle Physics Windchime project, and its inception at a Science Hack Day event where amateur enthusiasts had the opportunity to play with high-level particle physics data and develop new ways interfacing with those data. The data come from the BaBar experiment, which ran at SLAC from 1999-2008 and collided electrons and positrons, in part to understand the matter/anti-matter asymmetry of our universe. The Particle Physics Windchime is an embryonic effort to take data from multiple high-energy physics experiments and put them in the hands of the general public and so that they may create their own sounds out of those data. The hope is that people are able to interface with the data that engages them and excites them about our efforts to understand the universe. We also hope that this project inspires people to delve deeper into the science to learn more and perhaps make their own art based on these physics concepts. The current status of the project will be discussed, along with the Processing (processing.org) language in which it is written.
Matt's Bio:
I graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, NY in 1992 with my BS in Physics. During my time there, I took the Electronic Music and Music Composition courses offered with Neil Rolnick and Richard Povall. When I graduated, I worked in a music store selling guitars and playing guitar in bands in the upstate-NY region. In 1996, I took a job with GE working on natural gas turbines. In 1998, I returned to RPI to pursue graduate studies in Nuclear and Particle Physics with Jim Napolitano and I received my PhD in 2003. From 2004-2008, I was a post-doc with the Medium Energy Experimental Physics group at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) doing research using data collected at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, VA. In 2008, I took a research associate position at Stanford University working with Pat Burchat in the Physics department. Since that time, I have been analyzing data from the BaBar experiment, which ran at SLAC from 1999-2008, in a search for signatures of new physics processes beyond the Standard Model. I have also been very involved in data preservation efforts, as well as the question of open access to the data and how we can use this data in education and outreach efforts.
**For more information on CCRMA Colloquiums, please contact tricia@ccrma.stanford.edu**
FREE
Open to the Public
