SPS Zone 11 Meeting

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SPS Zone Meeting

February 28, 2025 to March 1, 2025

Coe College, Cedar Rapid, IA

Meeting host:

Society of Physics Students

By:

Steve Feller

SPS Chapter:
Coe College

Zone 11 Meeting attendees with SPS President Piper Boggs in front

Zone 11 SPS Conference attendees.  Coe SPS President Piper Boggs is out front.

Coe College hosted the SPS Zone 11 Meeting with over 35 in attendance. We had participants from five colleges including Wheaton College in Illinois, South Dakota School of Mines, Ursinus College in PA, Alfred University (NY), and Coe College.  Also, the zone 11 and associate zone 11 councilors (Caio Bragatto and Katie Ameku) were in attendance.

The two-day meeting included several activities:

Friday, February 28 commencing at 6 pm:

  1. "Break the ice” multi game mixer.
  2. Jimmy John’s sub dinner with fruit, chips, water, lemonade, soda, and cookies
  3. Star-gazing with a Coe College telescope. This was led by Coe physics major Amit Sharma.

Saturday, March 1 9 AM to 4 PM:

  1. Bagel and lox breakfast. This included fruit, juice, water, and coffee.
  2. Lab and campus tours given by Coe College physics students and faculty.
  3. Prof. Ed Neuenschwander of Southern Nazarene University spoke, by zoom, on the Life of Albert Einstein.
  4. Pizza lunch at a “good” downtown Cedar Rapids New Haven style pizza restaurant. This allowed for social interactions.
  5. Presentation by Prof. Casey Schwarz of Ursinus College (PA) on her research as well on her physics outreach efforts with her students.
  6. A poster session highlighting student research was held. Four posters involving  six students were presented. 
  7. Presentation by the zone 11 (Caio Bragatto) and associate zone 11 (Katie Ameku) councilors  on  the upcoming 2025 Sigma Pi Sigma Congress and SPS funding opportunities.
  8. Coe faculty Ugur Akgun and Fidevs Duru hosted Caio for two nights while Steve and Barbara Feller accompanied Casey Schwarz for lunch on Friday and dinner on Saturday night.

Throughout the two-day event there was ample time for all to get to know each other.  We appreciate the financial support of SPS.  In addition, we had a similar level of financial support from Coe College SPS through the resources of the Coe College Student Sentate.

Student research poster of Zack Pearlman and Luci Green on sodium germanate glass structure and properties