Students in Clair Sullivan’s class got to know radiation detectors from the inside out this past spring.
An assistant professor in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at Illinois, Sullivan taught NPRE 498 (Advanced Radiation Detector Concepts) to about a dozen students. She challenged them to use a Raspberry Pi – a credit card-sized, single-board computer available for about $35 at most electronics stores – to program and develop their own detectors from scratch. They were given little direction beyond that, and that was the point.
“Our students are not coming to the lab with the ability to futz with things,” Sullivan maintained. “Here, I gave them none of the steps. I said, ‘Your end goal is to take this (Pi) and take any detector (in the lab) and make it functional solely off the Pi.’”
Students were allowed to use any information they found, as long as they cited their sources. They were encouraged to share with one another as they made discoveries. In fact, they were given points for sharing, as well as for creating.
“If you stated that you used something, you got points, and the inventor got points as well,” Sullivan said.
As an example, graduate student Andrew Groll shared his discovery when he hacked the communication interface of the USB-controlled high-voltage power supplies to make it work on the Pi. Once he figured it out, he posted it to a wiki content management system so other students could use the technique as well.
“I didn’t know whether it could be done,” Sullivan acknowledged.
She knew the class was hitting its mark when the students taught themselves Python, a programming language common for use with the Pi. “That made my little professor heart go pitter-patter!” she said, smiling.
Twenty-five percent of the grades for the course were based on the steps the students used in pursuit of their goal. “Not being able to make (the detector) work was okay; it was about the process,” Sullivan said, adding, “I was blown away by their results.”
The students’ responses also were positive.
“It’s really a learning process,” said undergraduate Nick Bridge. “It’s difficult, but definitely worthwhile. You can’t learn this stuff from just reading it.”
While graduate student Groll thought his previous experience gave him an advantage over others in the class, he appreciated Sullivan’s approach. “This is one of the most useful classes I’ve ever taken in this department,” he said. “Being able to work with the other students makes it one of the more enjoyable classes, because we’re trying to figure out the problem together. It’s collaborative learning, and it’s more hands-on.”
Sullivan was pleased with how the students took charge. “My job in this class was to light a spark and get out of their way,” she said.