You might say it’s “Intern Season” at Gemini South where a total of 4 students are currently kicking off their 2015 internships. Watch this blog from more updates.
Marcel Dussert
Marcel Dussert is a student of Information Systems and Management Control Engineering from the Universidad Católica del Norte in Coquimbo, Chile. Marcel is working to organize documentation on the Gemini Multi-conjugate adaptive optics System (GeMS). His efforts will provide easier access to the documentation necessary for GeMS’ operational support and development. Marcel is at Gemini South until mid-March, under the mentorship of Gemini engineer Vanessa Montes.
Gemini Sur se transforma en el hogar de varios estudiantes en práctica durante estos meses de verano. Marcel Dussert, estudiante de último año de Ingeniería en Sistemas de Información y Control de Gestión de la Universidad Católica del Norte, trabajará organizando la documentación de GeMS en el Documentation Management Tool (DMT), para facilitar el acceso a la documentación que se ocupa para el soporte operacional de GeMS y el desarrollo del mismo. Marcel, estará en Gemini hasta mediados de Marzo bajo la supervisión directa de Vanessa Montes.
Gemini South Intern Marcel Dussert
Check back here for more information about each of the Gemini South interns in the coming weeks. Are you interested in an internship at either Gemini site? Find out now if there is an internship that is right for you, and don’t forget to subscribe for notification as new internships become available!
It’s all hands on deck for Journey Through the Universe (Journey) 2015! This year is shaping up as another incredible year as astronomy educators from Hawai‘i (and around the world) prepare to share their enthusiasm and energy in East Hawai‘i classrooms.
Master Educators Workshop
2015 Journey Through the Universe Master Educators
A major component of the “Journey” program is supporting eduction in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. In preparation for the intense week of Journey classroom programming (in early March), Gemini recently lead a Master Educator workshop for our Big Island community classroom teachers.
During the workshop, Gemini’s Peter Michaud led the educators (as students) in the building of a simple spectroscope. to, “dissect light,” as he described spectroscopy to the teachers. The activity challenged the teachers to use their creativity, imagination, and even some engineering skills in order to construct a working spectroscope. As an “open-ended” lab, the teachers applied many Next Generation Science Standards in the activity and eventually everyone succeeded and took home a working spectroscope. The teachers also walked away with enough materials to share this activity with their classes and help celebrate the International Year of Light!
Enjoy (and share) this slideshow of the day’s activities produced by the Hawai‘i Department of Education.
Project Manager, Cristian Silva, is checking the recent deployment of the computers installed at the La Serena, Chile Base Facility Computer Room.
Racks and Heat
Tim Minick, ISG Manager
“High-availability networks are key in ensuring that Gemini’s daytime and nighttime operations run dependably and efficiently. Quite simply, the fault of a single network device should never impact Gemini’s exploration of the universe! The same holds true for planned maintenance cycles. The new fault-tolerant core network infrastructure now provides us flexibility when responding to network device failures, and other repair and maintenance tasks that used to create interruptions in service. These can now be performed when convenient and with zero impact on operations.”
Like great filmmakers who are never seen, Gemini’s Information Systems Group (ISG) is more than two years into an “invisible” re-engineering of Gemini’s Data Center. This multi-year project includes complete upgrades of all the computer rooms in both Chile and Hawai’i and even features a short time-lapse video that makes behind-the-scenes activities visible.
For most staff and users, this work is (and should be) completely transparent. However, this enormous project includes a wide variety of tasks, from the replacement of numerous computer racks and a complete re-work of air conditioning systems, to a Core Switch Network upgrade.
A key improvement is the complete replacement of computer racks in the four computer server rooms at Gemini North and South. Not only are servers and computers better protected, and cables more organized, but there is more space for the growing data network. It is estimated that these new racks will serve Gemini for about 10-15 years.
The problem of cooling the computer rooms provided a central motivation for this initiative. To solve this critical issue, the airflow was better defined into cool and hot environments and air extractors installed to provide more efficient airflow. In the process, this work even produced an energy savings of about 30%.
The Core
Another critical upgrade brought the Core Switch Network up-to-date. The result is that maintenance can be performed at any level, while minimizing impact to normal operations.
In the End…
ISG estimates that the entire project will be essentially complete by the end of February 2015, with a few more details to follow, like the installation of a camera and intercom system, upgrades to software/hardware security, and integration of temperature/humidity sensors and alarms.
Gemini’s Administration Facilities Group is also chipping-in and has improved the computer room environment with a coat of fresh paint, installation of new ceiling tiles, and upgraded lighting.
Time-lapse video of a day’s work installing (and rewiring) new server racks at the Gemini North Base Facility. The seemingly frantic activity features two Gemini interns, Kenny Bombino, and Christopher Johnson (in the back row at far left in the shot of the team at the end). Look for the ISG mascot who makes two cameo appearances!
The Near Infrared Spectrograph (NIFS) joined the suite of four instruments mounted on Gemini North last week. NIFS is available for nighttime operations through March 4th, after which the Near-Infrared Imager (NIRI) takes over the Instrument Support Structure’s up-looking port.
Congratulations to the winners from early contributions to the User Data Reduction Forum! The Users’ Committee for Gemini (UCG) evaluated the submissions and recommend that David Rupke be recognized for his large effort, and Andrew Stephens for his smaller submission.
The contributions are IDL-based routines to work with data from integral field spectrographs, including NIFS and GMOS (IFSRED and IFSFIT, from David) and dynamic sky generation for NIRI (SKYNAMIC, from Andrew).
Both winners now have an opportunity to obtain new observations using Director’s Discretionary Time. Many of the other submissions were also excellent, and we encourage your continued involvement (trading ideas, scripts, and best practices, allowing you to particiapte in open discussions of data reduction processes and strategies) in our user forum.
There will be another contest announced soon and thanks again to all the participants in this first round!
