The Technical Services Facility (TSF) is made up of the Machine Shop, Electronics Shop, and the Computer Facility. Services are billed to UVa accounts at a common $42.00 per hour rate. The TSF primarily serves the Physics and Chemistry Departments and their tasks have precedence, but other UVa programs are invited to take advantage of some of the unique abilities of the facility.

Machine Shop

The machine shop has a staff of three full time machinists and spans eight rooms (3,760 sq. ft.), including a “Student” or “User” shop available to Physics and Chemistry researchers who have completed our shop course. The machine shop equipment suite includes nine mills (some with digital readout and CNC), eleven lathes (one CNC), numerous drill presses, grinders, shapers, and wood working tools. Of special note is the welding shop (featuring Oxy-Acetylene, MIG, and TIG welding systems) and its demonstrated expertise in the welding of high vacuum systems.

In addition to making instruments for Physics and Chemistry research, the machine shop is often called upon to build equipment for other University programs. Such jobs range from making devices for medical research to crafting hardware for Facilities Management to building the frame for a solar race car designed by Engineering School students.

For a nice write up about our machine shop, see the InsideUVa story.

Electronics Shop

The electronics shop has one full time electronics technician skilled in laboratory instrument construction and repair.

Computer Support

The computer support team includes a full time Computer Systems Senior Engineer and a full time Programmer/Analyst. In addition to providing support for standard workstations, they develop and manage our computer and network infrastructure. They can also help develop and manage research systems (data acquisition and analysis).

We maintain a semi-public microcomputer lab, containing PCs and X-Terminals, available to Physics students, staff and faculty. We also use computers for data acquisition and analysis in many of our teaching labs. Other departmental computer resources include a Beowulf-class supercomputing cluster and various other Linux and Windows servers (including this web server). Individual research groups own a wide variety of systems including other Beowulf clusters, Linux, UNIX and Mac OS workstations and servers, as well as many PCs, X-Terminals and Macintoshes.

For more information, please contact the Physics Department's Director of Laboratories, Rick Marshall.