Agathe’s research experience with RRG

Agathe performing experiments with the PPS

Hello everyone,

I am from the Ecole Polytechnique de l’Université de Nantes in France, and 4 weeks ago I crossed the Atlantic ocean to join the ALOX team for a 3-month internship. I want to become an engineer in the field of aeronautics or aerospace, so this is a huge opportunity for me to increase my knowledge and skills in this field. After days of research and discussion with the team, I was able to understand their work and the importance of it. The goal is to design a coating with enhanced sensing capability from the photoluminescence characteristics of alumina while maintaining the capacity of improving mechanical properties, namely fracture toughness. The team is also developing systems using piezospectroscopy to observe the dispersion of alumina, which is essential. In the future, the coating will be used to check the state of structures in order to make planes even safer. The ALOX team trained me on the calibration of the Portable Piezospectroscopy System (PPS), developed in-house, the positioning of the laser beam on the samples and the control of the data collected. They also taught me how to use MATLAB to create intensity maps of the studied samples. So now I am able to help them in every step of the PLPS experiment and the analysis of the results. I also have the chance to help Remelisa, Alex, and Ryan in the development of the Photoluminescent Hyperspectral Imaging system (PHI). Each day we try new things for the system, and the team shares ideas to improve the system. I particularly like this project because it is the first time I feel like I am a part of something never done before. I already learned a lot thanks to the team, and I am sure that this is just the beginning.

Article Written by Agathe Demay