Judge senior interns at University of Utah engineering department

JMCHS

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Courtesy of JMCHS

Judge Memorial Catholic High School senior Alec Walker served a research internship this summer with Dr. Brian McPhearson in the University of Utah’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Walker worked in the Carbon Science Engineering Research (CSER) group. He operated a sophisticated instrument called the Picarro, a cavity ring-down spectrometer, taking gas diffusion and gas flux measurements. The Picarro enables gases to be monitored in seconds at the parts per billion level. The CSER group is analyzing the level of methane and carbon dioxide leaks from the University’s sewer systems to determine if the leaks contribute to global warming. Walker collected the data with the Picarro, downloaded and entered the data, performed matrix calculations and posted the information to a geographic information system for analysis. The calculations and data are being used by two separate master’s degree candidates in their graduate theses, and depending on the findings, perhaps will be used in other practical applications.

"The fact that Alec has been able to perform so well is a credit to him as well as the fine science and math teachers he has had at Judge Memorial," said his mother, Vickey Walker.