Todd C E Moore

Biography

Todd Moore is the Physics Teaching Lab Coordinator for the Department of Physics at the University of Illinois. He is responsible for the management & coordination of all of the labs in the Department of Physics. This includes undergraduate & advanced Physics labs. His job is to make sure that all of the labs in the Department of Physics run without any problems.

Todd attended Danville Area Community College (DACC) to get his Associate of Science Degree in Electronics, with a minor in Information Processing. He transferred to Southern Illinois University (SIU) after he got his Associate Degree at DACC. He studied The Advanced Technical Studies Of Microprocessor Theory program at SIU. This program was the precursor to the Electrical Computer Engineering programs of today. He got his Bachelor of Science Degree in the fall of 1995. The Bachelor’s Degree was in Advanced Technical Studies Of Microprocessor Theory, with a minor in Computer Science.

Todd was hired as an Electronic Technician for the High Energy Physics Group (HEPG) in June of 1996. He helped support the engineer's & professors' research projects at Fermilab National Acellorater, which included the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) experiment.

His responsibilities included:

• electronics & engineering support to the engineers working on projects.
• assembled, repaired, & tested electronics designed by the engineers.
• designed, fabricated, & assembled testing jigs to help facilitate testing the electronics we designed.
• purchased & procured electronic parts for the electronics designed by the engineers.
• maintained databases for bill of materials, purchasing information, and project information.
• maintained, designed, and built lab equipment used to take data analysis.
• trained professors, students, & engineers on safety procedures using various equipment and power tools.
• trained students on how to properly solder & de-solder electronic components onto printed circuit boards.
• supervised an army of student workers and an electronics technician.
• assisted & supported PIs & research engineers with their electronics projects.
• assembled, modified & repaired electronics related to the research in High Energy Physics projects.

Todd was promoted from an Electronics Technician to the Research Engineering position in 2004. He became one of the primary design engineers for the HEPG. His responsibilities increased to supervising 2 employees, students, & designing electronics for various HEPG projects.

His responsibilities included:

• supervised the newly hired person that took over his previous position.
• supervised an additional electonic technician.
• designed, built, and fabricated electronics for more than 5 HEPG research projects.
• wrote programs/code for the electronics he designed.
• travelled the world working on engineering projects for HEPG at CERN, Fermilab, Argon, and facilities in Chile.
• supervised graduate students hired by the professor to help work on the projects. This included training, providing work to do, and project management.
• collaborated with other U of I departments and various university service units to get projects done.

Some of the exciting research projects that Todd designed or was involved with in some way include:

• assembled, tested, installed, & repaired the Amplifier Shaper Discriminator (ASD2) Board for CDF at Fermilab. This board shaped the signals coming from particle detectors at CDF and sent the signal to the counting room.
• designed, assembled, tested, installed, & repaired transition cards for the ASD2 boards.
• designed, assembled, tested, installed, & repaired the Central Muon Unit (CMU) multiplexing boards (CMUMUX) for the CDF project at Fermilab. This board multiplexed the signals coming from the ASD2 boards and allowed diagnostic work to be done when the detector was running.
• designed, assembled, tested, installed, & repaired transition cards for the CMUMUX boards.
• designed, assembled, tested, & installed the power supplies for the Dark Energy Survey (DES) telescope upgrade project in Chile.
• designed, assembled, tested, & installed the Dark Energy Survey, Internal Crate Controller (ICC) into the DES telescope. The ICC board powered on the power supplies in a sequential order that protected the expensive silicon detectors from being damaged during power-up. It also monitored the power supplies for any anomalies, like over-voltage, over-current, being too hot, or having too much humidity. The ICC would safely turn the power supplies off & post alarms if any anomaly occurred.
• designed, assembled, & tested the PHENIX C-Link Receiver Transition card. This board passed signals from one system to another.
• designed, assembled, & tested the Muon to Electron (Mu2e) printed circuit board. This board digitized analog signals, serialized them, then sent the signals out via optical transceivers to another board.

Todd was promoted in 2016 to the Physics Teaching Lab Specialist position. The department valued his work & offered him a new position managing the undergraduate labs in the Department of Physics. He replaced a person who retired after many years of service.

Todd was promoted, and continues to work, as the Physics Teaching Lab Coordinator in 2021. He replaced the former Advanced Labs Specialist. His responsibilities grew to supervise all of the Department of Physics’ undergraduate & advanced Physics labs.

His responsibilities include:

• supervise student workers.
• work with faculty, staff, and students.
• ensure the daily set-up of equipment for the scheduled teaching laboratory experiments in both the undergraduate & advanced physics labs.
• provide guidance and technical assistance to the teaching faculty and staff in the proper use of instructional resources and the operation of the laboratory areas' Physics equipment, audio-visual equipment, and computer hardware/software.
• hire, interview, and make the final selection and supervise student hourly employees (task assignment, provide direction) that will assist in the set-up of labs for 110 and 200 level courses.
• maintain, upgrade, organize, and select &purchase equipment and other furnishings for existing laboratory experiments.
• develop, construct, test, and implement new laboratory experiments in collaboration with the teaching faculty and the Physics Education Research Group.
• maintain computer files for the printing of the General Physics Laboratory manuals. Edit and implement changes independently when equipment and software are upgraded and when suggested by the teaching faculty.
• maintain, upgrade, and select & purchase computer infrastructure used in laboratory experiments. Maintain, upgrade, and select & purchase computer infrastructure used in laboratory experiments.
• provide support, and loan equipment to students involved in physics projects.
• author/revise and implement General Physics laboratory activities/experiments in collaboration with the Physics Education Research Group.
• operate and maintain shop equipment and tools for manufacturing and repairing lecture and laboratory equipment. Train staff on how to operate shop equipment safely.
• maintain, upgrade, and select & purchase audio-visual equipment for the Physics lecture halls and classrooms.
• maintain a comprehensive web-accessible database for all laboratory experiments.
• provide technical assistance and support for the introduction and implementation of new technologies used in labs.
• coordinate with large course instructional team which will include 2 or 3 faculty members
• instruct, oversee and coordinate the activities of graduate teaching assistants
• develop and produce new course and lab materials.
• coordinate with the instructional support team to ensure that materials are available for students as needed.
• perform electronics support work for the Department of Physics as needed. Circuit debugging and repair. Replacing broken components. Repairing and manufacturing cable assemblies.