(Last updated Nov 13, 2019)
Academic Session: 2019W terms 1 +2
Description: A research project, undertaken under the direction of a
faculty member culminating in a thesis.
Credits: 6
Prerequisites: none
Required Text none.
Possible Meeting Times: T, Th 13:00-14:00 --
HENN 304
Instructor: Rob Kiefl
email:
kiefl@triumf.ca
Office: Hennings
407
Phone 604 822-3037
This course involves a research project, undertaken under the direction of a faculty member culminating in a thesis. The course will include two oral presentations: the proposal in mid November and a final presentation in the last week of March. Students are required to attend half of all oral presentations from other students to critique those presentations. This aspect of the course is intended to enhance your general background in physics and to improve your ability to communicate and think critically. You will learn to become a good speaker but also an interactive member of the audience.
Your mark in this course will be determined on the basis of the proposal, a written progress report/thesis outline, final oral presentation, class participation and the thesis itself. The marking scheme is
Choosing a Supervisor
The following is a list of some potential supervisors who are actively looking for a student. However be proactive and seek out the person who you want to work with. Just because they are not on this list does not imply they do not have a project which might be perfect for you. If you show a genuine interest in someone’s research it is quite possible they will take you as a student.
1. Ke Zou (kzou@phas.ubc.ca ), Monolayer superconductors grown by chemical vapor deposition.
2. Ludovic Van Waerbeke (waerbeke@phas.ubc.ca) astronomy.
3. Chris Hearty (hearty@physics.ubc.ca) Searching for axion-like particles with the Belle II experiment General field: experiment high energy, (details).
4. Kolind, Shannon shannon.kolind@ubc.ca Magnetic Resonance Imaging.
5. Todd S. Woodward toddswoodward@gmail.com Detection of BOLD signal changes under a range of cognitive tasks using fMRI.
6. Doug Bryman doug@triumf.ca Rare PION and KAON Decay Measurements. Details
7. Douglas Scott dscott@phas.ubc.ca Astrophysics.
8. Steven Plotkin steve@phas.ubc.ca
A. Genetic manipulation of a novel, early-branching organism to investigate animal origins (details)
B. Do proteins compensate energetically for the destabilizing effects of disordered segments? (details)
9. Ingrid Stairs stairs@astro.ubc.ca CHIME pulsars or Fast Radio Bursts.
10. Aaron Boley acboley@phas.ubc.ca Astronomy
11. Ludovic Van Waerbeke waerbeke@phas.ubc.ca (details)
12. Rahmim, Arman arman.rahmim@ubc.ca , anthropomorphic phantom studies and/or AI-based image processing and modelling in medical imaging
13. Michael Hasinoff hasinoff@physics.ubc.ca Data Analysis for the TREK Lepton Flavour Violation Experiment at J-PARC.
14. Sarah Dunsiger dunsiger@triumf.ca Evolution of the Skyrmion lattice with dimensionality in FeGe epitaxial films (details)
Important Notices
for 2019
Our first meeting will on Th, Sept. 12
at 1:00-2:00 pm in Hennings 304. If you have not found a
supervisor please take a look at the list of potential supervisors (see above).
You are encouraged to talk with faculty who you might be interested in working
with. Once you find a supervisor please send by email -- a summary of the project, affiliation and email of the
supervisor. Also include some statement of agreement between you and the
supervisor regarding about how many hours of work per week you will put
into the project on average and how often you will meet. I realize the work
load and frequency of meetings may be very uneven so this is just a rough
indication. Please cc a copy of
this email to the supervisor when you email it to me.
Proposals:
Written
Part: The instructions for preparing the written proposal are given in
the following LATEX input file and corresponding pdf
output file . Use the input file as template. It includes one figure
given here which you need to compile the latex input file. Make sure you can compile the template
first before filling it in. I will soon post some examples from previous years. This will be due before
the oral presentations. The basis for evaluating the written
reports are described here. Please
send a pdf file of
your written proposal to me by midnight this coming Friday Nov 15, meaning before 11:59pm.
Here are a few example written proposals. They are not perfect so try to make yours better.
Oral Part: Here is the schedule of talks for
the oral presentations next week. All talks are in Hennings
318 and begin at 12:15 pm on Tuesday Nov 19, Wed Nov 20 and Friday Nov 22. Note
the time slot for each presentation is 30 minutes long. This means your talk
should be as close to 20 minutes as possible. This allows for about 5
minutes for questions and 5 minutes to change speakers and allow people to
enter/leave the room.
You
must send me a pdf file of your presentation the evening before you are
scheduled to speak. For example if your talk is on Tuesday Nov 19th
then you have to send me the pdf file by 9 pm on Monday Nov 18th. We will use my laptop to show all the
presentations.
Please
look carefully at this evaluation form as you prepare your
presentation. Here are a few
example presentations from last year. Which one do you think is best based on
the evaluation form? Try to make
yours better still.
Please note you are required to evaluate at least 10 other student presentations. These should be handed in before you leave the room on the day the presentations took place. This is the basis for your participation grade worth 10% of your final grade.
Here are a guideline and helpful tips to help you prepare the slides and give the talk.
Here are the notes from Jan 30
Here are the notes from Feb 6
In regard to the thesis. It is
never too early to start writing especially the science motivation section. For
examples of
previous 449 theses
that have been submitted to
the library go to:
Here is a UBC thesis template.