Research Spotlight: Parker Osborne

Parker Osborne, an electrical engineering major and Beginning Undergraduate Research Summer Training (BURST) recipient, works with mentor Maren Mossman, PhD, Clare Boothe Luce associate professor of physics in the Department of Physics and Biophysics. His project focuses on designing an ultralow-cost frequency generator for physics lab use. He is aiming for his generator to cost between $200 and $250, whereas new generator models cost upwards of $2000. Osborne hopes his frequency generator design will be comparable to the high-cost designs and to eventually publish his findings so that other labs may use the technology.

He got involved in Mossman’s lab by taking a physics class with her. Through that classroom experience, she quickly became a good mentor for Osborne. He would go to her for advice and when he wanted to pursue research, he consulted her. A typical day in the lab for Osborne begins with setting up his lab bench, testing circuit boards and using design programs on his computer to map out circuit boards. The majority of his day involves testing to verify his design works with the generator’s high operating frequency.

The most unexpected part of research for Osborne was that the hardware design was much more challenging  than he expected. He had to test, retest and make multiple models for the generator to function properly. He learned a lot from each model and incorporated that knowledge into improving future designs. Through the research experience as a whole, Osborne learned how to troubleshoot electronics and gained experience with the process of making circuit boards.

Osborne advises students wanting to get involved in research to take the leap and go for it. Students don’t need to know much before starting a project because they’ll learn a lot from their mentor and through the process of conducting research.