Click "Here" to view the flyer/advertisement along with some pictures from an organizational trip, May 2006 . . .

This trip was partially sponsored by a grant from Samford in Mission. Thanks! Click http://www.samford.edu/sim/  for more information on the SIM grant!

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The Class:

Back Row: Professor Beltran, Professor Menchaca, Zack L., John P., Oscar, Daniel M., Bart. M. Izquatl & Professor Saucedo

Front Row: LabVIEW on computer, Me, Daniel, Ricardo & Edgar

Groupo 1: Daniel, Bart, Edgar & Ahide

Groupo 2: Zack, John, Oscar & Izquatl

The Projects:

We completed four projects during our class in Zacatecas, all using LabVIEW . . .

Project 1: Calorimetry, in this experiment we used an electric calorimeter to determine the Joule equivalence of heat and electrical energy.

Project 2: Radioactive half-life, in this experiment students were give a Geiger-Mueller tube and an isogenerator kit that provided a nicely active source with a 2.6 minute half-life. They were asked to measure this halflife.

Project 3: Laser pulse delay, in this experiment a pulsed laser, driven by a TTL-compatible function generator, was measured with a photosensor. They were able to determine the frequency of the laser pulses, the frequency of the driver pulses and the time delay between the two to microsecond accuracy.

Project 4: Plank's constant, in this experiment students used a system that measured the stopping potential of a photo electric apparatus to determine the characteristic behavior of the photoelectric effect along with a measurement of Plank's constant.

If you want a copy of the final projects in LabVIEW, CLICK HERE.

Our Hostel:

We stayed at the Hostel Villa Colonial. [hostalvillacolonial@hotmail.com] We all agreed that it was a great place and an outstanding deal for the price. The owners are a family and the two main brothers, Ernesto and Guillermo were great hosts! We would recommend it to anyone going to Zacatecas or Mexico.

The view from the terrace:

Outside our rooms we were greeted with a trash-truck, ringing a cow-bell, and various gas companies loudly offering their services:

Below you can download a video of this great event!

El Gas.MPG, 59 Mbyte

Around Zacatecas:

On Sunday I was able to go to the "First Baptist Church of Zacatecas" There I met the pastor Jim and Laura Collins, from Tuscaloosa!

Christmas is a big deal in Mexico:

    La Bufa:

La Bufa is a church and former convent overlooking the city. Now it is a museum and visitors center. Very beautiful . . .

Daniel at the top:

Me at the tomb of outstanding citizens: 

The view from La Bufa:

Here is the original road to La Bufa:

   El Teleférico:

From La Bufa to the center of the city was a cable car called "El Teleférico" Spanish for the cable car . . .

    The Eden Mine:

Inside the city of Zacatecas is a non-working mine. Now it is a tourist attraction and on weekends they have a disco.

Here is our guide with the guys:

Some of the students just didn't want to give up their hair protectors . . .

    La Quemeda (Chicomostoc Ruins):

Near Zacatecas we took a day-trip to visit so great ruins, La Quemeda, or "the burning." They were fantastic, and on my free day I returned by myself:

At the entrance:

The lower section:

At the top was "the Citadel"

From the Citadel there were fantastic vistas . . .

    El Modelo Factory:

When asking around for an industrial place that used instrumentation, we found out that the most modern business around was the Modelo factory. In case you are unfamiliar, Modelo is tha brand that includes Corona beer. While it wasn't the best place from that perspective, it was a very modern facility, and a little surprising to be found in Mexico:

The entire factory was controlled by a a series of PLC's (programmable Logic Controllers) and run by a set of software written by Siemens.

They had their own Hotel, park, water system and power plant.

Here is a guard shack on the edge of the large campus:

They also had some beautiful gardens. I guess that beer is a good paying business:

Mexico City: 

This mural represents the love story of the two volcanoes between Mexico city and Puebla, Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. Look closely and you can see the personages painted above the peaks.

We connected through Mexico city and spent a few days there before and after:

They still had their Christmas light up when we arrived, they were beautiful!

I took a large video of all the lights:

Christmas in Mexico, 129 MBytes

Around Mexico:

El Cuadrilátero was a wrestling themed restaurant that had the largest sandwiches!

    Teotihuacán:

We had a day trip from Mexico to Teotihuacán, It was fantastic, but I still preferred the tranquil "la Quemeda."

The Temple of the moon:

The Temple of the Sun:

We had lunch at La Gruta. It was a little pricey, but worth it.

Then we went to one of the onsite museums. Don't you love the neclaces?

Guanajuato:

On the way back to Mexico we stopped and spent the night in Guanajuato. a beautiful city, but crazy to try to drive through. Most of the streets are too narrow for cars, so they built a network of underground tunnels. Boy, were we lost! Sorry that the tunnel shots were so poor . . .

We stayed at the Casa Del Tío Hostel (House of the uncle.) Not as good as the place in Zacatecas, but a good place, in any case.

The tunnels opened up right at out hoel.

Around the town:

We were near the Teatro Cervantes, nice statues:

On the way there . . .

On the way there we had a couple random shots. Do you know which city the cathedral is from?

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