Virginia Tech QuarkNET Center - Annual Report 2023

The Virginia Tech QuarkNET center hosted a summer workshop from August 2^nd till August 4^th, with the last day lead by Ken Cecire and be a Virginia Tech and Virtual Center New Questions workshop. At this workshop we had the participation of the Virginia Tech and William and Mary QuarkNET centers together with the Virtual QuarkNET Center. Prof. Mariani gave an introductory talk on neutrino physics and then we followed the agenda at this link.

Aug. 2^nd and August 3^rd were dedicated to the assembly, commissioning and data taking with a QuarkNET muon detector. The assembly went very smoothly as well as the commissioning and data taking. Rebecca and Julie worked also on how to integrate the muon experiment in their classrooms.

All the sessions were also available on zoom for remote participants, we took advantage of the VT Physics Department’s Zoom Room, and some teachers came to campus while others were able to Zoom in from home, or while on vacation in different locations!

The VT QuarkNet mentor professors Camillo Mariani contributed to the neutrino workshop with talks about their past, ongoing, and future neutrino experiments.

We also discussed strategy to recruit new teachers, Rebecca will lead the effort from end of 2023. We will try to move the next summer workshop back in June.

We look forward to a great 2024, hopefully recruiting more teachers and maybe, finally, holding our next workshop in-person!