Hello everyone, I’m Elena Manari, student of the Master of Theoretical Physics at the University of Parma. I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Parma on 24 February 2022 after having completed a curricular training with the University of Parma at Spin Applicazioni Magnetiche from October 2021 until January 2022.
Since my first interview with the Spin Team, in which I was offered various proposals as possible topics of thesis, I was immediately impressed by the many research and development activities conducted by the company. In particular, I was thrilled that within the same company I could deal with both the more “theoretical” part of physics, including the modelling of physical systems to the computer, both the experimental part, to be able to directly verify the theoretical results that I would have obtained from my mathematical models. As I am very passionate about both areas I was really happy to have found a place where I could take them both in a single thesis work. Moreover, the topics that the company proposed to me as possible developments for my thesis immediately attracted me a lot, since I was always interested in the field of electromagnetism and computer science, which I wanted to explore with pleasure. I immediately had the impression that I would come into contact with new and specific physical problems, treated by sophisticated computing environments, that I would have the opportunity to know and learn, as in fact happened. As a thesis work I created codes in the Compose computing environment, which uses a syntax similar to the one I used in university, to evaluate the magnetic field distribution produced by permanent magnets of various geometries (cylinder, hollow cylinder and parallelepiped) at any point in space: something new, therefore, compared to what is found on all physics books, where the field is usually calculated with respect to the axes of symmetry of the magnets.
The work, in fact, turned out to be not at all simple, but I really enjoyed putting myself in the game and succeed in this: Team Spin has given me an innovative spirit, in which every new physical problem to solve is actually seen as a challenge, that leads to new horizons. I felt constantly supported in times of difficulty: for this reason a big thanks goes to Jacopo, Simone and Umberto for the valuable advice, the constant comparison, the professionalism, respect and the particular attention they had in following my work. The first part of the thesis concerned a careful and precise reading of various scientific articles in the literature, from which I extracted the main information to implement the algorithms that calculate the field. After that, the results obtained both through the Flux 3D finite element software and through a series of experimental measurements carried out inside the company’s laboratory were verified.
I really enjoyed the experience at Spin: it allowed me to greatly expand my computer skills and provided me with a deeper and more specific view of electromagnetic phenomena with their countless applications. Also, I was given the great opportunity to go on to collaborate with Spin as part of the Swift package developer group by continuing the work I had started with the thesis.
Therefore, I recommend the company to anyone who wants to get involved and learn new things in an extremely fair and collaborative work environment.
Thesis title: “Analytical and numerical evaluation of the magnetic induction distribution produced by permanent magnets in air”
Elena Manari
