University Of California , Santa Barbara Research Articles

Beyond the Barricades: The Sixties Generation Grows Up.

What happens to youthful idealism as people leave their youth behind? ...Where do young revolutionaries go when the revolution doesn't happen? Amid the social and political turmoil of the late 1960s, student demonstrations on college campuses and in nearby communities looked like a prelude to apocalypse. By 1970 radical students at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), were involved in burning the Bank of America branch in Isla Vista and a series of riots and demonstrations that culminated in hundreds of arrests, numerous injuries, and one student death. To some campus observers, the violence and property damage were nothing more than a meaningless rampage - privileged students running amok. To those actively involved in the student movement and the Radical Union, the second American revolution was at hand. The disparate views of these events persist some twenty years later. In Beyond the Barricades, Whalen and Flacks challenge the conventional wisdom, which holds that the Sixties Generation soon outgrew their political ideals and channeled their energies into building lucrative careers and accumulating material goods. For nine years, the authors have maintained contact with eighteen men and women who participated in the UCSB student movement, asking probing questions about the long-term significance of political commitment to individual lives. They have also tracked fourteen former students who were part of the sorority/fraternity subculture in an attempt to discern whether the paths of the two student groups tend to converge as they grow older. This study grows out of the student activists' own assessments of the events at UCSB and the lives they have shaped in subsequent years. It demonstrates that student activists did not abandon their beliefs or become disillusioned with the prospects for social change as they left the university and ventured into the adult world. Indeed, their present political convictions and vocational commitments are largely consistent with their past views - even as they have had to adapt to changes in their personal needs and in the social climate. In asking where the students are now, the authors illuminate something about how our society has been affected - culturally, institutionally, and psychologically - by the movements and conflicts of the sixties. Whalen and Flacks offer these stories in the same spirit that apparently guided [the] respondents: as contributions to the ongoing discourse on how we might live according to our dreams! Author note: Jack Whalen is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon. Richard Flacks, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is the author of Youth and Social Change and editor of Conformity, Resistance and Self-Determination: The Individual and Authority.

The new UCSB compact far-infrared FEL

A 2 MV electrostatic accelerator is being acquired by the FEL development group at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). This machine is being designed to provide an exceptionally low emittance electron beam suitable for a wide range of FEL related experiments. Foremost among these will be development of a compact submillimeter FEL employing “next generation”electrostatic accelerator FEL concepts. It is expected that this machine will serve as prototype for a new generation of FELs all based on commercially available electrostatic accelerators ranging in voltage from 0.5 to 25 MV. Generation of radiation from millimeter to visible wavelengths at power levels from kilowatts to megawatts from relatively cheap and compact machines is anticipated. Components for the 2 MV accelerator have been ordered and high-voltage tests are expected to begin early in 1988.

Sample introduction and pressure measuring system for chemical ionization mass spectrometers

One of the difficulties with using chemical ionization mass spectrometry (CIMS) in magnetic sector instruments has been that of electrical dischargers through the gaseous sample between the ion source, which may be at potentials at 10kV and ground. A sample introduction method is presented to offset this. It was first used at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln on a modified Atlas CH-4 mass spectrometer operated at ion source potentials up to 3 kV and pressures up to 3 torr. The same technique has been extended at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), for use with a VG-Micromass ZAB-2F mass spectrometer operated at source potentials as high as 10 kV and pressures up to 1 torr. The basic features of the design are presented. The sample leak valve which is at ground potential feeds into a glass tube which has been packed with approximately 4 in. of glass wool. The end of this glass tube is in contact with the ion source potential. The authors believe that the glass wool may prevent discharging by reducing the positive ion velocities below that required for the emission of secondary electrons and/or providing a very large surface area which may act as themore » third body in the ion-electron recombination reaction I/sup +/ + e/sup -/ + M ..-->.. I + M. At UCSB this sample introduction system is used for all gaseous and volatile liquid samples in both EI and CI modes. The only disadvantage with the sample introduction system involves the removal of very polar samples from the glass wool. However, overnight pumping has removed all samples we have used to date.« less

Microhardness tests for high energy neutron source experiments

In a development effort to extract mechanical property information from miniature specimens, standard diamond pyramid microhardness (DPH) tests have been conducted at Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory (HEDL) on specimens irradiated in the rotating target neutron target neutron source (RTNS-II); and techniques to extend the information available from microhardness tests have been developed at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). In tests at HEDL, radiation hardening has only been observed in pure metals irradiated to neutron fluences less than 4 × 10 21 n/m 2. In copper, specifically, a proprotional increase in the DPH with neutron fluence has been observed, and this microhardness increase has been correlated with an increase in the 0.2 percent offset yield strength. At UCSB it has been found that hardness and microhardness data obtained with spherical indenters can be used to determine the true stress-true plastic strain relationship of the test material; moreover, it has been found that features of the indentation lip geometry can be used to characterize localized flow phenomena like Lüders strain in steel. Consequently, microhardness test techniques appear attractive for small specimen test applications.

Laboratory Experiment in Semiconductor Surface-Field Effects

A laboratory instructional program involving metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) devices is described. At the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), this program has been used to teach the theory and applications of semiconductor surface field effects. A two-part laboratory experiment is described. In the first part, students become familiar with the important parameters of a simple MIS device and learn measurement techniques. In the second part, device fabrication procedures are learned and supported by measurement techniques mastered in the first part. As an upper-division or first-year graduate laboratory experiment, this program is found to be an excellent way of introducing students to independent experimentation.

On the use of an interactive computing system in engineering education

The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) On-Line System (OLS) provides a flexible and highly interactive vehicle for instruction in many engineering subjects, The system capabilities and instructional potential are discussed and illustrated by examples. Experience at UCSB over the past four years has shown that student motivation and comprehension are increased markedly by OLS use, and that this benefit extends to all class participants. The system is currently being used by sophomores and up, in subjects including complex variables, networks, controls, and hydrodynamics. The OLS is exportable to many IBM 360 systems, and the cost is within the means of most engineering departments.