MPhys Project

PHYS40182 MPhys Project 20 Semester 2 Undergraduate Level 4 Peter Millington Unit coordinator Department of Physics & Astronomy 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Masters/Integrated Masters P4 ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 10.0 MPhys Projects FormatStudents are assigned (in pairs or individually) each semester to a project drawn from a list of their choices. If you don't sign up for projects together with a lab partner, a partner may be assigned to you by the course unit lead. However, there is a good chance this is not possible. Students are encouraged to contact other students to find out who has similar preferences, so they can sign up as a pair. Signing up as a pair may improve your chances of getting one of your top-choice projects.Each project takes 24 days (two days per week) in the appropriate teaching or research laboratory, which will be open from 9am to 5pm on those days. Further attendance outside these times may be possible by arrangement. Although suitable instrumentation and demonstrator guidance will be available from the start, such projects are open-ended, and students will be expected to formulate and agree a plan of action with the project supervisor and to carry it through by whatever means of design, construction, interfacing and analysis prove necessary.Full-year projects will also be offered. These take 48 days to complete and have a credit rating of 40. Full year projects only continue after the first semester if both supervisor and the students agree.Projects and Project types Different types of projects are available. These include: experimental (E), involving some or all of design, construction and use of apparatus, and analysis of experimental data; computing with experimental input (CE), involving data analysis, programming or running simulations to compare with data; computing with theoretical input (CT), involving mathematical modelling, programming and running simulations to model the behaviour of complex physical systems; and theory (T), involving formal developments in a variety of areas of theoretical physics.Projects are designed and proposed by potential supervisors and the list will be made available on blackboard before the start of the session. A link to available projects will become available over the summer (although it will not be finalised until registration week). This will be communicated to you via email.Assessment At the end of the semester students are required to submit an individual report.  The report must be detailed, well laid out and word-processed.  It should summarise the tasks agreed, the steps taken to achieve them, the failures and successes encountered, the extent to which goals have been achieved, and which makes recommendations for future action.  The total length of the report, including figures and references, should not exceed 20 A4 pages.At a subsequent interview (15 minute presentation followed by a 30-45 minute question and answer session) with the project supervisor and a further staff member, you will be expected to explain and justify the steps you took, to supply any missing items of detail, to show familiarity with related work published in the scientific literature, and to account for any discrepancy between this and your own results. This interview takes place during the exam periodYou are required to pass the projects in order to be awarded an MPhys degree. The final mark is a sum of the marks for :<ul><li style="color:rgb(60, 60, 60);font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">Implementation of project (25% of the mark), awarded for the quality of the lab book, effort, initiative, critical thinking, originality, extend and quality of the work</li><li style="color:rgb(60, 60, 60);font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">Report (50% of the mark), awarded for structure and presentation, style and grammar, clarity and conciseness, figures and tables, references, physics and technical content and critical evaluation.</li><li style="color:rgb(60, 60, 60);font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">Interview (25% of the mark), awarded for the presentation and the understanding of the results and background physics.</li></ul>Detailed grade descriptors are available via Blackboard. To obtain good grades you are expected to show logical thinking, a broad ranging grasp of physics, good organization, application and ingenuity, and to present a critical analysis of the conduct of the project and its results.The standard penalties for late submission, as detailed in Section "Penalty for Late Submission of Continuous Assessment" of the undergraduate handbook will apply. Those on full-year projects write reports and have presentations/interviews at the end of both semesters. The first (interim) report might focus on an introduction into the subject, the methods that will be used and possibly some initial results, while the second (final) report covers the overall results and conclusions obtained. The final report may refer to the first report (e.g. a detailed description of a method), but no material can be repeated from the first report (which would be self-plagiarism, see section "Plagiarism and Collusion" of the Undergraduate Handbook).Penalty for not attending the mandatory safety inductionA mandatory safety induction will be organised 3 times per year: once during welcome week, and once in the first few weeks of each semester. All students who do project work are expected to either attend the induction during welcome week or the induction during the relevant semester. Failure to attend the safety induction implies that the student cannot start their project work. The resulting delay, and the resulting negative impact on the work, will be considered in the assessment of the project work. Depending on the nature of the project, it can be decided to not offer a further opportunity for a safety induction, while allowing the project work to start. In those cases a penalty equivalent to a report handed in 1 day late (see above) will be applied.Ethical Approval and Risk Assessments – Students undertaking independent research work with human subjectsThis process applies to any student undertaking independent (independent means outside of a laboratory, lecture or seminar and that is not directly supervised in person by a member of staff) Research work with human subjects as part of their taught programme requires ethical approval. This is a two-stage process: 1) Risk Assessment 2) Ethics approval.If this applies to your MPhys project, please contact the course unit lead for further details. Philosophy The main purpose of these projects, in addition to illustrating particular aspects of physics, is to represent tasks that might well be expected of physics graduates in the real world of research, technology and commerce. You will seek to attain a goal agreed with the project supervisor (your 'line manager') by deploying all the skills and physical background you have accumulated during the past three years. <ol><li style="margin-top:0cm;" start="1" type="1">Design an appropriate research methodology for a physics research problem.</li><li style="margin-top:0cm;" start="1" type="1">Implement a research methodology to address a physics research problem.</li><li style="margin-top:0cm;" start="1" type="1">Demonstrate research good practice in terms of time and project management, and record keeping.</li><li style="margin-top:0cm;" start="1" type="1">Describe results and underlying physics concepts orally and in written form.</li><li style="margin-top:0cm;" start="1" type="1">Assess the limitations of results by evaluating the methodology and quantifying errors, as appropriate.</li><li style="margin-top:0cm;" start="1" type="1">Compare results with the existing literature through critical analysis.</li><li style="margin-top:0cm;" start="1" type="1">Discuss methodology and conclusions through presentation and interview.</li></ol> 2 Written assignment (inc essay) 25% 3 Report 50% 8 Practical skills assessment 25% Students will receive regular oral feedback through their meetings with their supervisor(s).  Feedback will also be provided by supervisors on a written draft outline of the report.  Detailed feedback will be provided on all elements of the assessment. N Assessment practical exam 1 Project supervision 24 0 175