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Get the most interesting and important stories from the 51精品视频.An aluminum chassis for a quantum computer. A pontoon raft for collecting geologic core samples. A skeleton key for an observatory鈥檚 130-year-old locks.
These odds and ends have something in common: They鈥檙e all products of a secret weapon of 51精品视频鈥檚 research enterprise,听 where staff members combine a technician鈥檚 knowledge with a tinkerer鈥檚 creativity to create custom tools and parts for scientists. 听
鈥淲e do consulting, engineering, designing and research. In industry shops, each of those is a separate position,鈥 said Shawn Artman, supervisor of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences鈥 machine shop 鈥 one of three on the 51精品视频sburgh campus (the others are housed in the School of Medicine and the Swanson School of Engineering).
Doing science requires real nuts-and-bolts infrastructure. And when you鈥檙e creating a next-generation quantum computer or testing the characteristics of a never-before-created substance, there鈥檚 no 鈥渂uy it now鈥 button. Instead, researchers in the Dietrich School look to Artman鈥檚 shop听in Old Engineering Hall, which is equipped with milling machines, 3D printers and other tools in the hands of senior machinists Bill Strang and Jeff Tomaszewski.
The shop stands apart from those in industry for a number of reasons, Artman said. Over the past few years, the team has moved from a model where scientists simply provide the measurements for parts to one where the team collaborates with researchers, learning their needs and figuring out the most efficient and cost-effective way to meet them.
鈥淲e spend almost 50% of the time at our computers, designing and talking and doing our own research,鈥 Artman said. And the team bills by the material cost rather by the hour. In most machine shops, these are rare practices 鈥 but they听let the team take creative risks and take the time to do the job right.
That doesn鈥檛 mean it鈥檚 easy to get used to. New Dietrich School听machinists invariably get to a point where a scientist hacks apart something they lovingly created to figure out what wasn鈥檛 working, Artman said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e usually speechless. In industry, any time you鈥檙e scrapping something, it鈥檚 a waste of money. Whereas here, it鈥檚 what you have to do.鈥
Take the collaboration between Strang and Assistant Professor Michael Hatridge in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The two have been especially close partners in the Hatridge lab鈥檚 years-long effort to create more efficient quantum computers.
鈥淎 lot of the things we need are weird enough that they don鈥檛 exist as commercial objects,鈥 said Hatridge. Instead, he works with Strang to experiment with materials, finishings, machining techniques and binding substances to meet the exacting needs of the lab鈥檚 quantum computer. Those details have a direct influence on the final product, where temperatures are measured in nanokelvin and the computer鈥檚 operation in microseconds.
鈥淭his is a collaboration. It鈥檚 a conversation back and forth between us and the machine shop,鈥 said Hatridge.听
And as the Hatridge lab breaks new ground in quantum computing, the shop鈥檚 machinists are alongside them learning about new materials and techniques to help those advances happen.
The shop鈥檚 portfolio also reaches far beyond the campus鈥檚 physics labs. Artman once helped assemble an entire pontoon raft for geology researchers, and the group鈥檚 past projects also include a skeleton key for the Allegheny Observatory and camera-filter mounts for volcano photography.
The flexibility and creativity required of the shop鈥檚 machinists means that Artman has his work cut out for him when trying to hire new machinists. Speaking of Strang and Tomaszewski, 鈥淚t takes a special person to do this,鈥 he said. 鈥淏oth of these guys could go out into industry and run entire businesses themselves.鈥
But the same traits are what allow the team to contribute to cutting-edge 51精品视频 research.
When Artman鈥檚 work is part of a scientific breakthrough, he gets to tell his kids that he and his team are doing things that have never been done before. Now, his own daughter is a 51精品视频 psychology major. And, after years of reading physics books his dad brought home, his 14-year-old son aspires to be a physicist.
鈥淣o idea where he got that from,鈥 said Artman.
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Photography by Aimee Obidzinski