From my sophomore to senior year of my undergraduate studies, I worked as a technician for the CLASS telescope array. I was lucky to enjoy the tutelage of Dr. Charles Bennett and Dr. Tobias Marriage. I spent most of my time soldering wires and fabricating material, including the assembly of a variable-delay polarizing modulator.

From January to April of 2020 I worked on-site at the telescope array in the Atacama desert. There, I was responsible for maintain the telescope and upgrading and swapping parts for various experiments. I replaced and installed a solar-powered backup battery system. I helped set up the fiber-optics internet system to communicate with other researchers at JHU. Using the machine shop on-site, I built a compressed air system to replace a Nitrogen gas system as well as designed and built filters for specialized experimentation. In April, the telescope had to be shut down for the first time in its history due to the pandemic. I was responsible for aiding in the development of and implementing the shut-down sequence.

Related Co-Authored Publications

R. Datta et al., “Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS): 90 GHz Telescope Pointing, Beam Profile, Window Function, and Polarization Performance,” ApJS, July 2024, doi: 10.3847/1538-4365/ad50a0

S. Dahal et al., “Microwave Observations of Venus with CLASS,” Planet. Sci. J., Aug. 2023, doi: 10.3847/PSJ/acee76.

Y. Li et al., “CLASS Data Pipeline and Maps for 40 GHz Observations through 2022,” ApJ, Oct. 2023, doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/acf293.

S. Dahal et al., “Four-year Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) Observations: On-sky Receiver Performance at 40, 90, 150, and 220 GHz Frequency Bands,” ApJ, Feb. 2022, doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac397c.

S. Dahal et al., “Venus Observations at 40 and 90 GHz with CLASS,” Planet. Sci. J., Apr. 2021, doi: 10.3847/PSJ/abedad.