THE TEAM
Few universities let undergraduates near an accelerator. At the UPV, the accelerator elective our tutor teaches at ETSIT began as our proposal. We are students from different degrees who design, simulate and build an accelerator, and we aim to publish every step so other teams can build their own.
50 STUDENTS IN 2026-27 · 4 DEPARTMENTS
OUR STORY · ALOHA · SINCE 2026
Read it like an accelerator, from the source to the target: every step adds an element to the line.
2026 · ALOHA
In 2026 the new coordination put a real proposal on the table: an accelerator designed and built by undergraduate students, to be published as open hardware so others can build it too. We called it ALOHA, A Linear Open-Hardware Accelerator.
What about undergraduates?
2026 · MODEL-0
Our first device is a demonstrator for science communication: a glass bottle, a vacuum pump and a high-voltage supply. Pump most of the air out, switch on the voltage, and the thin gas glows where the electrons pass. Proposed the season before and finished as the coordination changed hands, it brought Edwards Vacuum on board as our first sponsor.
JULY 2026 · CERN
We took ALOHA to CERN, with Model-0 and the first design of our electron source, on two posters: one on our case for teaching accelerators by building them, one on the source. We presented them at the accelECR poster session for early-career researchers, and visited IdeaSquare.
2026 · ALOHA-0
Our first accelerator starts where every accelerator does, with a source. ALOHA-0 is a thermionic triode in telefocus configuration: a hot tungsten cathode emits, a Wehnelt cylinder shapes the emission, and the anode pulls the beam out. Simulated in COMSOL at 30 kV, it gave 1.5 mA in a spot under a millimetre; the build aims at 20 kV and under 1 mA.
IP3 · 2026-27 · NOW
This semester we build the vacuum system and its control, the bench ALOHA-0 will be tested on, and then, if time and funding allow, the cathode supply. We aim to end the season with the vacuum system pumped down and measured, and its electronics tested.
NEXT · ALOHA-2
Next, ALOHA-0 becomes the source of an X-ray instrument for conservation: its beam makes X-rays, and each pigment in a painting answers with its own lines, read without taking a sample. The 20 keV ceiling protects the paintings.
Every pigment has its own lines.
THE TARGET · AN AIM
Above the line, energy: every pigment answers the beam with its own X-ray lines. Below it, depth: the layers a painter laid, and the ones they covered. We aim to make ALOHA a tool for conservation, one that reads pigments without taking a sample.
PROBE ON · VERMILION
Cinnabar, mercury sulfide. Under the ultramarine, it says the robe was red first.
LINE · Hg Lα · 9.99 keV · mercury, in vermilion
A panel painting in section. Schematic, layers not to scale; energy from 1 to 15 keV, lines tabulated.Select a layer to read it, or point at a line to name it.
JOIN · 2026-27
Students from different degrees design, simulate and build ALOHA together: you learn by building, in one of four departments. Applications closed on 16 October. Write to us to apply late, as an exception, or to hear when the next round opens. We aim to open it in February.
We handle your application as our privacy notice explains.
