Escaramujo - La Paz

Group picture of the Escaramujo - La Paz, Bolivia, taken at the Observatorio Chacaltaya

The Escaramujo workshop in La Paz developed in the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (UMSA), between the 19th y 23rd Jan-2016. The sessions were organized by Hugo Rivera and Martín Subieta, with the support of Pedro Miranda, director of the Instituto de Investigaciones Físicas of the UMSA, and of the electronic experts Carlos Nina and Juan Salinas. We also had the honorable presence of Mario Rodriguez, professor of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP), México, and one of his undergraduate students.

Thanks to the opportunism of the traveling teacher, the course developed on the university holidays. Nevertheless, the students participated in the sessions with an unprecedented enthusiasm. They were:

Carla Calle
Naomi Guachalla
Kevin Cordero
Erick Berazain 
Maricela Flores (México)
Ronald Condori
Javier Rios

The last session of the course took place in the Observatorio de Astrofísica Chacaltaya. Following Pedro Miranda's advice, the group decided to measure the cosmic rays flux as a function of the altitude, given that La Paz is at 3700 m.a.s.l. and the Observatorio is at 5200 m.a.s.l.. To succeed, the detector was accommodated in one of the UMSA vehicles, and data was taken during the climb.

Students characterizing one of the scintillator plates, using the cell phone as a stopwatch).

Reporting the experiments on the logbook.

The Institute director, Pedro Miranda, explaining the functionality of the RapsberryPI.

Part of the group of students and professors, at the Astrophysics lab of the UMSA.

Preparing the equipment to climb to the Obervatorio Chacaltaya

Double checking the setup.

Students, with the joy of the job completed on their faces.

With Martín Subieta (UMSA) and Mario Rodríguez (BUAP).