On Monday I visited the TRIUMF site and pitched the AR mural project to Bill, the engineer who had originally requested a commemoration piece to thank all those who contributed to the making of ARIEL. ARIEL, the Advanced Rare Isotope Laboratory, has been in the works since 2010. This new facility is the only one of its kind— in the whole world —and is still under construction. The aim of this mural project is to celebrate TRIUMF’s community and all those who played a role in bringing ARIEL together. Currently, I have a growing list of 400 names that need to be put on display. Due to space limitations and the ever-expanding roster of contributors, we settled on a web-based AR solution that can be edited over time. The mural will serve as an “anchor” of sorts to put the AR components into context.
After this lovely (and productive) meeting, I was given a tour of the TRIUMF facilities with Diana and Sean, another member of the communications team. We explored the ARIEL building, as well as the areas where TRIUMF’s three cyclotrons are housed. Currently, these are not operating but are in an annual three-month “rest” phase, when repairs can safely be made without suffering, well, severe radiation poisoning. Diana and I spent some time taking measurements of mural candidate walls on the ARIEL building, then I got to work on building out a project timeline before going out to late lunch (linner?) at Virtuous Pie. Oh, in case you were wondering, the dosimeter did not beep at me in a freaky robotic voice upon perimeter exit. Was really worried about that one.
The rest of my week was spent setting the stage for the mural portion of the project. By Thursday, we had determined the style of the piece, colour palette, and three compositions to choose from. A key thing I learned was that presenting sketches in a cleaner digital format usually makes the concepts I’m trying to convey more comprehensible, and better helps viewers place them into context (like on a wall as a mural).
The latest TRIUMF intern restaurant location was Hot Pot on 16th and Cambie. Check out this nerdle made by one of the Physics co-op students from Waterloo University. Math is hard.