1. EE 625 Computational Electromagnetics II
2. EE 699 Finite Difference Time Domain
3. EE 611 Deterministic Systems
4. EE 672 Molecular Properties of Electronic Devices
5. EE 650 Electro-Optics
6. MA 433G Introduction to Complex Variables
7. STA 570 Basic Statistical Analysis
8. STA 671 Regression and Correlation
9. STA 672 Design and Analysis of Experiments
10. EE 630 Digital Signal Processing
11. FR 011 French for Reading Knowledge
If all goes well, I should complete these class requirements in May 1997. The committee also stated that I could take my qualifying exam as early as Fall 1996.
Unfortunately, although this past month has been extremely busy, as far as research is concerned, it has not been very productive. The reason for this is because we have been moving into our new lab and office in the ASTECC facility. Not only has this move required me to actually move equipment and supplies but I have also been responsible for implementing our electronic door locks as well as the ethernet wiring to the 10-Base T hub. At this point, most of the major equipment has been moved into the lab including the KTP/OPO laser. The office has been wired for ethernet and all the computers seem to be on the net and working well. Furthermore, the electronic door locks have been installed in a temporary radio-controlled setup. The final door lock setup involving the card readers and computer verification system will be installed as time allows.
Although the majority of my time has been spent on moving and classes, I did manage to write new software to collect data from the new near-IR camera. Because the new array is larger than our old setup, it may be necessary to install more memory on the frame-grabber card in order to collect enough frames quick enough in surgery in order to maintain the signal-to-noise ratio of the old system. In general, the new camera is produces much higher resolution images as can be seen in the Mathematica file in Figure 1. Besides the camera, I have also been reading some papers involving laser-feedback systems as well as scanning systems that I hope to incorporate into my NSOM design.
Figure 1: Near-IR Camera Image of Test Lamp.
Hopefully with the moving process and the semester coming closer to completion I will be able to spend more time on my research. My most pressing goals include completing my Pittcon abstract for the December 7 deadline, enhancing my current NSOM model to incorporate wire grids as well as a closer probe/sample separation distance, and to perform a simple approximate study of the tapered waveguide used for the NSOM probe. In addition to these goals, I also need to get the optical table's air supply hooked up and working. Once this is complete, I will then be able clean the cooling system and replace the gaskets in the KTP/OPO laser so that it will finally be able to be hooked up as the source for the NSOM.