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Take the collaboration between Strang and Assistant Professor Michael Hatridge in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The two have been especially close partners in the Hatridge labs years-long effort to create more efficient quantum computers.

A lot of the things we need are weird enough that they dont exist as commercial objects, said Hatridge. Instead, he works with Strang to experiment with materials, finishings, machining techniques and binding substances to meet the exacting needs of the labs quantum computer. Those details have a direct influence on the final product, where temperatures are measured in nanokelvin and the computers operation in microseconds.

This is a collaboration. Its a conversation back and forth between us and the machine shop, said Hatridge.

And as the Hatridge lab breaks new ground in quantum computing, the shops machinists are alongside them learning about new materials and techniques to help those advances happen.

The shops portfolio also reaches far beyond the campuss physics labs. Artman once helped assemble an entire pontoon raft for geology researchers, and the groups past projects also include a skeleton key for the Allegheny Observatory and camera-filter mounts for volcano photography.

The flexibility and creativity required of the shops machinists means that Artman has his work cut out for him when trying to hire new machinists. Speaking of Strang and Tomaszewski, It takes a special person to do this, he said. Both of these guys could go out into industry and run entire businesses themselves.

But the same traits are what allow the team to contribute to cutting-edge Pitt research.

When Artmans work is part of a scientific breakthrough, he gets to tell his kids that he and his team are doing things that have never been done before. Now, his own daughter is a Pitt psychology major. And, after years of reading physics books his dad brought home, his 14-year-old son aspires to be a physicist.

No idea where he got that from, said Artman.

Patrick Monahan

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Behind the scenes at the Dietrich School's machine shop - University of Pittsburgh