Prospectus

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Experimental Projects

Course
2020-2021

Admission Requirements

  • Enthusiasm for experimental research.

  • Due to the nature of this course, taking part in this course requires (i) building a student team of around 6 people, and (ii) discussion of the project with the lecturer several weeks before it starts! Please contact loeffler@physics.leidenuniv.nl as soon as possible.

Description

During the elective course Experimental Projects you will learn how to independently plan and conduct a scientific research project, from generating the first idea until presenting and reporting the final results. The required time is 6 EC * 28 h/EC = 168 hours, about 140 hours for the project itself and some time for report & presentation. This means that the course is not about just a small experiment but gives you the opportunity to realise a real project of an appropriate size that requires project planning and management. Note, however, that we will carefully help you choosing or propose a project that has a very high success probability, if you bring the necessary motivation (and time!). A skilled teaching assistant (PhD) will help you in the project phase. Next to learning essential skills in physics, team work and project management, enrolling in this course will prepare you nicely for an experimental BSc Project.

You will choose the team, have a lot of freedom but also responsibility. A reasonable budget is available, and you can work together with the fine-mechanical department (FMD) and electronics department (ELD). One of the goals of this course is to develop problem mitigation strategies, what to do if things don't work out, and how to realistically design projects.

At certain intervals you will present or report the status and results to the lecturer and your fellow student teams. The course will be finalized by a presentation and a written report. The team grade will be assessed using similar rubrics as for BSc research projects.

To give you an idea, here some successful projects from the past:

  • 2018/2019: A Gauss Gun

  • 2019/2020: A low-cost LIDAR system

  • 2019/2020: A SONAR system

For 2020/2021, there are still some uncertainties, of course, please contact loeffler@physics.leidenuniv.nl if you have questions.

Course objectives

We hope that this course will improve your teamwork and project management skills, teach how to conduct a research project largely independently, and by this increase your scientific self-confidence! Rigorous and critical thinking, reporting and presenting are also important goals.

This means you will be able to

  • Formulate relevant scientific questions, based on prior research results and literature study

  • Write a project proposal, which describes the measurement technique, the data analysis, the expected results, and their relation to the research question(s)

  • Independently obtain reliable results from the experiments

  • Critically and correctly analyze the results of the experiment

  • Project and team management: plan and design a project realistically and write a short project proposal, distribute and manage the work within the team, continuously monitor the progress and re-evaluate decisions

Transferable skills

This means that you will also learn how to

  • Professionally respond to feedback: incorporate feedback into the research by adapting your practices

  • Collaborate as a proactive team player

  • Plan your research activities realistically and deliver expected products before the deadlines

  • Communicate the conclusions of your research in an engaging and structured way, both verbally and orally

  • Work in a larger team of up to 10 students

  • Hold and contribute to effective meetings

  • Interact with people from electronics and machine shop

Timetable

See timetable in Brightspace

Mode of instruction

See Brightspace

Assessment method

Project work (with continuous feedback, also on performance) ; presentation and project report.

Reading list

Will be discussed.

Registration

Registration for Brightspace occurs via uSis
How to sign up for classes click here

Contact

Wolfgang Löffler

Paul Logman

Remarks