Saint Vincent College

11/01/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/01/2024 13:46

Student spotlight: Coty Walters

by Public Relations | November 01, 2024

LATROBE, PA - This past summer, Saint Vincent College senior Coty Walters participated in the U.S. National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Notre Dame.

The REU program is a summer research internship for students studying science, engineering or mathematics. Each REU site consists of 10 students who are granted stipends to work in mentored research programs of the host institution. The program enables students to develop their research skills, network with peers and prepare for graduate school.

Walters, a physics major from Jennerstown, was awestruck the first time he walked into the lab at Notre Dame's Institute for Structure and Nuclear Astrophysics.

"It's such a big nuclear lab," Walters said. "They have multiple particle accelerators and tons of physicists running around doing a bunch of stuff. I knew I'd be working there with a lot of the leading physicists, and I wanted to perform well. So, yeah, it was a little intimidating."

Yet, Walters soon made a realization that put his mind at ease.

At Saint Vincent, Walters is part of the cosmic ray shower detector project and studies subatomic particles called muons with a homemade detector that fits in the palm of his hand. Walters chose to do his REU at Notre Dame so he could use its massive high efficiency total absorption spectrometer (HECTOR).

"I was excited to see some of the bigger research being done with these large-scale detectors and then share my experience with our group at Saint Vincent," Walters said. "I was surprised and excited when I realized that the knowledge I had gained using the little detectors and the data analysis that goes along with them helped me out a lot [when using the HECTOR]. I felt like I had an upper hand, knowing the work I'd done over the past three years at Saint Vincent really paid off."

Walters' first task was to calibrate the HECTOR, a complex process that took about a month to complete. For the second half of his internship, Walters devised an experiment to evaluate the efficiency of the detector and was given permission to work on it.

"It was another example of knowledge that I gained here at Saint Vincent allowing me to ask my own questions and run my own experiments at Notre Dame," he said. "It turned out great."

At the urging of his REU mentor, Dr. Anna Simon-Robertson, associate professor of physics at Notre Dame, Walters presented the data from his experiment during the Conference Experience for Undergraduates, which was part of the annual Division of Nuclear Physics last month in Boston.

Back at Saint Vincent, the fall semester is getting off to a hectic start for Walters. He presented his research at the freshman physics seminar and will talk about his work again on Nov. 4 at the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing's annual summer research showcase. On Nov. 8, Walters will make another presentation to a group of visiting high school students.

Whenever he speaks to groups, Walters lobbies for other Saint Vincent students to apply for REU internships. The program's value goes beyond what happens in the lab. At Notre Dame, Walters sharpened his programming skills and took a course to improve his scientific writing skills-something that will come in handy when he applies to grad schools (and, yes, Walters said Notre Dame is in the mix).

"I couldn't have imagined it would work out as perfectly as it did, especially with the way my knowledge from here correlated so beautifully with the knowledge I gained [at Notre Dame]," he said. "It was a fantastic opportunity. My only regret is that I didn't apply [for an REU] between my sophomore and junior years."

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Coty Walters with the poster explaining the outcomes of his experiment, which he presented in October 2024 at the annual Division of Nuclear Physics