And now for something completely different.
I made a sharp change of direction when I took a graduate research position at Montana State University in their EE department with Prof. Kevin Repasky. Some of the current research by those associated with Dr. Repasky and Dr. Carlsten may be found at the group website.
Together we built a system to measure concentrations of carbon dioxide in the air. The system is to be deployed above an oil field where carbon dioxide may be injected for long term storage. This is known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). The instrument we built, known as officially as CODDA (CO2 Detection by Differential Absorption) and unofficially as the DAM (Differential Absorption Measurement) Instrument, is based on a tunable laser diode operating at a center wavelength of 2004 nm. We have deployed this instrument in the summer of 2007 & 2008, at the field site managed by ZERT. In the hay field, the instrument withstood various weather conditions from inch sized hail, up to 60MPH wind gusts, and to nearly 100 degree Fahrenheit temperatures. It also withstood conditions that my allergies could not handle.