Three students from the Achievement First Amistad High School in New Haven, Connecticut experienced working in the Wright Lab Advanced Prototyping Center (APC) on August 6, 2019 as part of a week-long internship program with the Yale University Department of Physics. The summer internship was part of the curriculum for their school and the program for the week was designed and led by Stephen Irons, a lecturer in physics and the manager of instructional support for the department.
James Nikkel, research scientist and associate director for instrumentation and education at Wright Lab, and Arina Telles, graduate student, led the afternoon activities for Shaniah Artis, Lyzet Campos (both rising seniors) and Juan Olivar (a rising junior).
The afternoon began with a brief tour of the Wright Lab facilities, but most of it was spent working in the APC. The students were first guided through the design of a simple box in a computer-aided design (CAD) program. They then used the APC laser cutter to cut the pieces of the box and finally assembled the pieces to complete the project. One of the students had an idea to laser cut a small item for her robotics team, and she was able to do so.
The students also observed some regular APC activities when researchers came in to use the water jet and the laser cutter for their projects.
A few photographs of the afternoon can be found on the Wright Lab Flickr site.