Denny Chimes is now synced to atomic clock precision, making the clock tower more accurate than ever.
Thejesh Bandi, an associate professor in the department of physics and principal investigator of the Precision Navigation, Time and Frequency group at the University of Alabama, has spearheaded the Denny Chimes project.
Bandi oversees the training of students building atomic clocks in the QuanTime lab. Bandi and the students in the lab built the atomic clock ensemble, a combination of multiple types of atomic clocks, to correct the precision of Denny Chimes’ timing.
“We have distributed our timing from the lab using our satellite signals as well as using our atomic clocks,” Bandi said.
Bandi said the idea for synchronizing Denny Chimes to the atomic clock began with him and UA President Peter Mohler noticing that its clock was off in timing by 40 seconds to a couple of minutes. That same day, he decided to work on fixing it.
Bandi said Denny Chimes is now accurate to within a few microseconds in timing, and within his lab, the timescale reaches tens of nanoseconds.
Alongside Bandi, the Denny Chimes project includes three students who have participated in building the atomic clock ensemble in the QuanTime lab and synchronizing it to Denny Chimes.
The project included Jahnvi Verma, a fourth-year graduate student majoring in physics, August Connors, a senior majoring in mathematics, and Prajwal Halalae, a freshman majoring in computer science.
“Denny Chimes is the icon of the university, and to have the feeling of being inside there, actually working with Denny Chimes, it still brings me goosebumps,” Halalae said.
