Third Year Lab and Projects Head of Lab Prof Ralf Toumi Head of Projects, Dr John Tisch

What is 3 rd year lab for ? Third year lab is designed to teach you how to work on difficult, poorly structured problems with limited guidance – for some this will be a painful experience. What the professionals do. The Brief - Do new and exciting science & publish work in leading journals. How - Identify unsolved problem, acquire funding and resources, invent new techniques, design, build and debug new experiments, analyse and interpret data, write up and defend from referees.

What are 3 rd year lab experiments like ? approx. 80% of time making things work before taking some “good” data. manuscript may be patchy and contain errors (you will make suggestions to fix this) need to go beyond the manuscript to get a very good mark. time management is your problem, not ours.

What Lab Options Must You Take ? BSc and BSc Year in Europe. (< 3 Theory Options)  1 unit of lab, 2 terms (term 1 & 2) including a 1 term long project. BSc and BSc Year in Europe. (3 Theory Options),  1 term long project organised by 3 rd year lab. MSci and MSci Year in Europe.  ½ unit of lab, 1 term in either term 1 or term 2. No project in 3 rd year. BSc Theory Students.  No lab, Theory project BSc Physics with Music.  1 term project. Occasional Students.  Projects or short experiments as required by your home institute. You may do 1 term or 2 term long projects as required. Plenty of flexibility.

What to do this week. Be Aware Of What Lab Option You Need To Take. Make Sure You Are Doing Lab In The Right Term. Find a Lab Partner. Projects and short experiments are done in pairs. Choose The Experiments Or Projects You Want To Start With. Starting Experiments. Sign up in 3rd year lab, level 4 Blackett (outside lifts) 9-10 am tomorrow. First come, first served. Starting A Project. List of projects on web. Approach prospective supervisors. Complete the relevant paperwork within 2 weeks

How Is Lab Structured. Standard experiments and many projects covering a very broad range of physics. A short course and experimental work on microprocessors A half lab unit typically = 3 short experiments, a full unit = 3 short experiments + 1 long project.

Lab Projects Lab projects compulsory for BSc & BSc Year in Europe students. MSci and MSci Year in Europe students do not do 3 rd year projects. You have the opportunity to do extended projects in the 4 th year. Assessment by progress report (10%) viva (10%) report (30+30%) & demonstrator feedback form (20%) Students generally work in pairs for projects for one full term. If you are doing a project this term, find a partner and start looking at available projects now. The web site will be continuously updated over the next week or so with new projects. To book a project you must have the agreement of the supervisor and get a project registration form signed by them and an assessor.

Types of Project Available. 3 rd Year Lab based Projects (recommended) Projects in the research groups Computational Projects. Theoretical Projects (priority give to BSc Theory students). Projects Proposed by students 2 Term Projects : only allowed for Occasional or Erasmus students

Project Supervision. Projects are marked by the supervisor and an assessor identified by the supervisor. Many of the project supervisors are not lab demonstrators. They are professional academics and you will be using up their time and resources.

Standard Experiments Procedure no time limit for each experiment - manage your own time and effort. finish one experiment, sign on to a new one chosen from all free experiments at that time, then two weeks to write the report. no need for more time than the timetabled lab hours to complete the experiment and report.

The Microprocessor Course. A mix of short lectures held in lab along with extensive practical work (worth 2 standard expts) This runs twice only, in October and January. Sign on tomorrow 9-10 for this lab, limited numbers (28) Waiting list for 2 nd term BSc: Project option only in 1 st term, must then do standrd expt. in 2 nd term More information available on line or from the course organiser Prof Sumner

Demonstrators. They are there to help – do make use of them if you have a problem. Some will still be “learning on the job”. The technicians also know the experiments very well. Demonstrators will expect you to try to solve problems for yourself rather more than in 2 nd year lab. Requests such as “make it work for me” will not be well received.

Demonstrators. Contact details on the web and on the notice board. You may try to contact demonstrators outside lab hours. However they have many other commitments, don’t expect them to be sitting in their offices waiting for you. All reports are 2 nd marked by Academic Staff

Feedback on Reports. Markers have been asked to return reports within two weeks. They must give you feedback. If you don’t have your last report back at the end of the next experiment, go and visit the demonstrator to get some feedback before staring to write.

Writing Reports. No joint reports. Aim for words. Maximum length 3000 words (6000 for projects). Over-length reports will be penalised. Any plagiarism will be dealt with severely. Make sure you have treated errors properly – there will be a talk on errors later on this term. Fill in cover sheet and hand report in at the lab office There are extensive guidelines on report writing, plagiarism etc on line. Failing to read them will lose you marks. Lecture on this to follow

Occasional Students. You can do a mix of projects and short experiments as required by your xhome institute. You are encouraged to get your IC tutor to read through a draft of your first report x before handing it in. If you have special requirements see Prof Toumi ASAP.

Safety in the Lab. Act sensibly at all times. Report any chemical spills. Report any electrical faults. Report any accidents, even if minor. No eating or drinking in the lab. Turn off unused equipment. NEVER look directly into a laser beam. If you are carrying out a project in a research lab, ensure that you fully understand the dangers associated with both your own and other peoples work.