1 00:00:05,539 --> 00:00:07,080 SEAN ROBINSON: So the technical staff 2 00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:10,050 consists of myself and two more people. 3 00:00:10,050 --> 00:00:12,340 Our job is to maintain all the equipment, 4 00:00:12,340 --> 00:00:14,730 develop new experiments. 5 00:00:14,730 --> 00:00:18,810 In practice, we also end up teaching a lot. 6 00:00:18,810 --> 00:00:20,700 Something that's very common is a student 7 00:00:20,700 --> 00:00:22,209 is struggling with an experiment. 8 00:00:22,209 --> 00:00:24,750 They don't quite understand how their measurement is working. 9 00:00:24,750 --> 00:00:27,240 They've worked with the section leader. 10 00:00:27,240 --> 00:00:29,960 They've worked with the grad TA in trying to figure it out. 11 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:31,751 And at some point, they really just believe 12 00:00:31,751 --> 00:00:33,160 the experiment is just broken. 13 00:00:33,160 --> 00:00:35,970 That's the point in which we call in the technical staff, 14 00:00:35,970 --> 00:00:36,900 and we figure out. 15 00:00:36,900 --> 00:00:39,580 And more often than not, it's not broken. 16 00:00:39,580 --> 00:00:41,730 It's just working with the apparatus is actually 17 00:00:41,730 --> 00:00:42,970 just very confusing. 18 00:00:42,970 --> 00:00:46,140 There are lots of degrees of freedom in operating any given 19 00:00:46,140 --> 00:00:48,330 piece of apparatus. 20 00:00:48,330 --> 00:00:50,550 And it's oftentimes the technical staff 21 00:00:50,550 --> 00:00:54,390 who know more about what's happening in the apparatus 22 00:00:54,390 --> 00:00:57,937 and getting them to give good data than sometimes some 23 00:00:57,937 --> 00:00:58,770 of the other people. 24 00:00:58,770 --> 00:01:02,460 Just because we're here in every single section.