Neutrinos or Hadrons?

Technology and Gaming
#1

Okay, I have a real life problem, but you’re going to think I’m making this up.

I have recently enrolled as an undergraduate physics student at the University of Maryland. I have interviewed some professors, and have narrowed down some research internship offers to two: one is with a group that is analyzing data from the Compact Muon Solenoid at the Large Hadron Collider, and another is designing devices for the Enriched Xenon Detector, a device whose purpose is to measure the relative mass of the neutrino, something that has never been done with much accuracy. Which one of those sounds cooler?

Now, before you impulsively say Large Hadron Collider, it seems there is a lot of crap that has to be dealt with when working on that. First of all, my job wouldn’t entail actually working on the collider or getting anywhere near it (they don’t even let most professors working on it go underground to see it up close), I would only be working on analyzing the data from the experiments, mostly using libraries that have already been constructed, poorly, by scientists who do not have a formal or complete background in computer programming. Which means sifting through a lot of poorly-designed code with little documentation. Add to that the fact that this is an international collaboration, and so getting help from the authors of some of the code I’ll be editing or using may not be possible. On the other hand, HOLY CRAP LARGE HADRON COLLIDER.

Now the enriched xenon thing is also an attempt to experimentally prove hypotheses concerning fundamental physics, just as the LHC is. But it seems to be a much smaller project, and they wouldn’t pay me (the pay for the other one would be $7 an hour). But with the enriched xenon experiment, I might have a chance to build actual devices in addition to performing data analysis.

So which one of these jobs sounds more badass?

P.S.
The “skills” I would learn from working on the Large Hadron Collider seem to only be relevant to this one project. I’m not advanced enough to learn the science behind it with any real detail. And even if I was, the it’s not like working on a particle accelerator like that is a very universal skill anyway: there is no other device like that, the experiment will end in 20 years, and once it ends the world does not have enough resources to build anything better, unless some new way of increasing accelerator efficiency is discovered.

1 Like
#2

2nd one because then you can build a fucking xenon ray gun to fight aliens or something

p.s don’t expect many intelligent answers on this forum, but there will be a few

#3

I didn’t expect intelligent answers. I came here for a consensus as to which job sounds more badass.

#4

I’d work with the Enriched Xenon Detector. It seems to me that that work would end up being more beneficial both to your hands on data collection and experimentation skills and as a resume builder down the line. Data analysis, even of data from the LHC, just doesn’t sound as impressive. Plus if you can find the mass of a neutrino then you’ll be famous whereas for the LHC you may only help identify the Higgs Boson and no-one cares about that :stuck_out_tongue:

All kidding the Xenon Detector sounds more interesting to me because it’d be a bit more hands on (from your description at least)

#5

I impulsively say Enriched Xenon Detector, because everyone and their grandmother’s heard of the LHC. If you ever mention your research internship, people will start talking to you like they honestly understand what you’re talking about.

I really can’t think of a reason to work with the LHC other than because it’s popular & the $7 per hour.

#6

I would be the first to say the Large Hadron Collider. Mainly because if, as you say, there won’t be another one then its your one chance to work with something on that scale.

Also, to be part of the team that found the Higg’s Boson would be a once in a lifetime experience.

But I reckon you’re looking in the wrong place for advice. You have two paths that these projects will take you down. Perhaps putting yourself in the position of someone who’s just completed an internship at each project, and seeing what opportunities are available will help?

#7

LHC. It pays, it has the “holy crap lhc” effect to it, but most importantly, you can write it in your bio when you try to apply for a real job and the would-be-boss might have the same “holy crap lhc” feeling to it, significantly raising your chances of getting the job.

#8

Personally I’d be another ‘Enriched Xenon Detector’ vote. The work on the LHC (beside the OMFG LHC angle) sounds rather tedious and frankly unfulfilling and as you say won’t really contribute to your skillset in any way. Hopefully after completing your degree the places that you’ll be applying to won’t be swayed merely by the words Large Hadron Collider and will actually care about the work you did.

Off-Topic: Why ARE all US lecturers at university called professors? A professorship in the UK is a highly prized (and paid) job and only given to people who either run a department or a sufficiently large research group. I’m not criticising, just curious as to how it’s come about.

#9

Because American college students are mostly idiots and they call every instructor a “professor”. It’s the same way here as in Britain but most undergrads don’t know the difference between a TA or an instructor and a professor, so they just call everyone “professor”. It bugs the shit out of me too.

Anyway, thank you for your replies, but I’ve gone and chosen the LHC job. My rationale is as follows:

While I may get hands on experience from the Enriched Xenon Detector job, it doesn’t seem like it’s something I want to do. The professor described it as “plumbing”. And I already have some experience building stuff. And the LHC group said I might have a chance to use neural networks to analyze some data, which is good because I wouldn’t mind having a job in machine learning (I don’t really understand how neural nets come into play in all this but they said that’s what they’re doing). And the LHC has more than a few projects associated with it; the xenon detector seems to be designed observe just one phenomenon. Well, I feel like I made the right choice. Both groups said I would be doing useful work. The LHC group seems to want me to start out doing something simple to get a feel for working with the broken code, but after a few months it gets interesting apparently. The post-docs and other students working on it seem to be happy with what they’re doing, at least.

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