Craig McNeile's Physics Research

Introduction

This document contains information about my research interests and teaching experience.

I am theoretical Physicist with research interests in theoretical particle physics, High Performance Computing, and Data Science.

I am working on solving QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) via numerical simulations of lattice QCD. QCD is a well defined theory, but it is extremely difficult to solve. One set of the fundamental building blocks of matter are called quarks. We would like to study the masses and decay properties of quarks to find evidence for some more profound theory of particle physics than we have now. Unfortunately the quarks interact with each other and other particles via QCD. To study quarks, we need to tame QCD

Numerical simulations of lattice QCD offer the prospect of "solving" QCD from first principles (see my user profile on Wikipedia).

For a general introduction to lattice QCD, I recommend reading the review article written by Rajan Gupta. I have written a review article on hadron spectrscopy that had a target audience of nuclear theorists. (This article is available as part of a book on lattice QCD that is available for a modest price. The HPQCD collaboration maintain a list of reviews of their work in the popular press.

Specifically, I am interested in:

My research interests in nuclear/hadronic physics QCD contains both quarks and gluons. Quarks and gluons combine to form bound states called meson and baryons. In principle the gluons can produce novel bound states, such as glueballs or hybrid mesons. However, currently, there is no conclusive evidence for QCD bound states where the gluons play a dynamical role. Perhaps, this is because QCD is difficult to solve.

The goals of my research in this area are:

The determination of the masses of light J^PC = 0++ and 2++ flavour singlet mesons, because glueball degrees of freedom may be hidden in these states (Recent papers, 2010 , 2006 , 2000 and a review) .
One of my medium term goals is to determine the mass spectrum of exotic mesons in the charmonium system.
Validation of lattice QCD techniques against basic light meson spectroscopy, such as the masses of the a0 and b1 mesons. To understand novel bound states, we must also understand standard hadrons.
Application of techniques to deal with resonances using lattice QCD.

There are new experimental facilities such as the 12 GeV upgrade of the Jefferson lab, and the PANDA experiment at GSI, whose main goal is to search for the effects of non-perturbative gluons. These experiments will start taking data after 2015. The BES experiment in China is already taking data and plans to look for glueball degrees of freedom.

My research interests in particle physics

My main focus is on computing the hadronic corrections to g-2. See this report from the New York Times about the latest experimental results.
Precision determination of the basic parameters of the standard model of particle phyics, such as the strong coupling (alpha_s) and the quark masses. (Papers on quark masses: bottom-2004, charm-2005, charm-2008, bottom-charm-2010 , strange-2010) (Papers on alpha_s: 2008 2010).

Research Interests in Data Science

At the University of Plymouth I have started a program of research into Data Science.

Use of Natural Language Programming to improve churn prediction in machine learning models. See my first NLP paper in a refereed conference proceedings. And the journal article on topic modelling.
Geometric modelling of the eye. I am working on the data analysis and Machine Learning aspects of the project.
The use of machine learning to predict customer churn.

Quantum Computing

Investigating techniques to optimise the layout of turbines in a windfarm using a quantum computer uploaded Dec 2023

High Performance Computing

Computer tools to take the pain out of numerical simulations. (See my talk on Data storage issues in lattice qcd calculations).
I am working with a PhD student on developing the Variational Quantum Eigensolver to run on Quantum Computers.
I was part of the QCDgrid project run by the UKQCD collaboration.
I have written some information about using ganga to submit jobs to compute grids . I made a presentation on using compute grids at the hacklatt09 workshop.

Recent Talks

I was on the local organizing committee for extreme qcd 2016 conference.

Education and work history

I am currently a member of the HPQCD collaboration.

I am a member of the Centre for Mathematical Science (CMS) at Plymouth University.

I was a member of the SFB Hadron Physics from lattice QCD.

I was a member of the UKQCD (new web page), ETM, and MILC, Budapest-Marseille- Wuppertal . collaborations.

The view from my office window in Wuppertal

- September 2013 -- University of Plymouth
- August 2009 - August 2013 University of Wuppertal.
- 2006 - 2009, an advanced SUPA research fellowship based in the department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow.
- 2004 - 2006 fixed term lecturer at the University of Liverpool in the department of mathematical sciences.
- 2002 - 2004 software manager for the UKQCD collaboration, based at the University of Liverpool.
- 2001 - 2002 physicist programmer at the University of Liverpool working for Prof. Chris Michael and Prof. Alan Irving
- 1998 - 2001 postdoc at the University of Liverpool working for Prof. Chris Michael and Prof. Alan Irving
- 1995 - 1998, postdoc at the University of Utah, working for Professor Carleton DeTar
- 1992 - 1995, postdoc at the University of Kentucky, working for Professor Terry Draper.
- 1989 - 1992, Graduate studies for PhD at The University of Edinburgh. My supervisors were Dr. Ken Bowler and Dr. Brian Pendleton

Teaching

For a full list of my experience of teaching please see my CV. See the courses I have been on to improve my teaching. I am in charge of the blog for the department.

My blog on teaching methods.

2013-2014 Plymouth University

stat353 (Engineering Statistics).
MATH2504

This year I also had to take the infamous PGCAP course.

2014-2015 University of Plymouth

STAT353 (Engineering Statistics).
MATH2504
- PHYS051 A foundation year course in basic physics.

2015-2016 University of Plymouth

- PHYS051 A foundation year course in basic physics.
- MATH1607PP , The Quantum Universe. A first year immersive course, in which a module is taught over 1 month.
- MATH1606, I teach in the computer lab with Maple and Matlab.

2016-2017 University of Plymouth

- Monte Carlo and Operational Research
- MATH1607PP , The Quantum Universe. A first year immersive course, in which a module is taught over 1 month.
- MATH1606, I will teach in the computer lab with Maple and Matlab and I am lecturing on numerical algorithms.
- I am running the Physics labs for PHYS05.
- I am teaching and developing the new module: Mathematical Programming

2017-2018 University of Plymouth

- PHYS050 A foundation year course in basic physics.
- MATH1607PP , The Quantum Universe. A first year immersive course, in which a module is taught over 1 month.
- I am running the Physics labs for PHYS05.
- Monte Carlo and Operational Research
- HPC projects in context

2018-2019 University of Plymouth

- PHYS050 A foundation year course in basic physics.
- I am running the Physics labs for PHYS05.
- Monte Carlo and Operational Research
- HPC projects in context. Two groups working on graphene simulations with Kwant and Pybinding.
- Professional Experience in Mathematics Education / Education Project (Third year)

2019-2020 University of Plymouth

- PHYS050 A foundation year course in basic physics (Foundation 0-th year).
- I am running the Physics labs for PHYS05 (Foundation 0-th year).
- Monte Carlo and Operational Research (Second Year)
- Theoretical Physics and HPC projects in context (Third Year).

2021-2022 University of Plymouth

- PHYS050 A foundation year course in basic physics (Foundation 0-th year). See this video I made for the induction session, with an overview of the module.
- I am running the Physics labs for PHYS05 (Foundation 0-th year).
- Monte Carlo and Operational Research (Second Year)
- Theoretical Physics and HPC projects in context (Third Year).
- I am coordinating the final year projects.
- COMP5000 Software Development and Databases. (On a MSc program Data Science and Business Analytics)

2022-2023 University of Plymouth

- Monte Carlo and Operational Research (Second Year)
- I am coordinating the final year projects.
- COMP5000 Software Development and Databases. (On a MSc program Data Science and Business Analytics)

2023-2024 University of Plymouth

COMP5000 Software Development and Databases. (On a MSc program Data Science and Business Analytics)
Operational Research (Second Year)
New module on Quantum Computing

The use of technology in teaching.

- Some information about MapleTA at Plymouth.
- MapleTA hosted by Maplesoft.

I have starting to look at socrative. Mentimeter See my talk on clickerless clickers
I am uisng the PHET simulations from Colorado
- I am using the Ipad app explain everything to create podcasts.
- In the Quantum Universe course I used a planetarium as part of the teaching about astronomy. See my talk to the department.
Itunes U course creation
- Lecture capture: Panopto local-course
- Adding questions to videos
- App to make whiteboard (because I often have to teach in a room with no white board).
- Public dropbox socrative
OR society
Ziggi Document camera
ivt-community
- phone app to access the sensors
material for students to learn python
material on databases for students
tools for online group work for students
graphics tablet
- Use of open education resources, such as openstax
- Some information on scanning documents using a phone.
- Creating interactive courses with h5p.

Using Microsoft onenote for student's to develop a.portfolio

I am starting to work with a local company on a competition for the second year students.

Teaching in Germany (Wuppertal)

In 2010 I taught in the computer lab for undergraduate (masters projects) Computer simulation 2 as part of the CSIS masters degree.

Postgraduate student teaching

Current PhD students 2023

I am the second supervisor for the PhD student Hesham Abdelmotaleb with the project: Machine learning methods for next generation customer service in cooperation with BT research.
I am the Director of Studies for James Hancock. James is investigating algorithms on Quantum Computers
I am the second supervisor for Annabelle Gorham on a project on modelling the eye.
I am the third supervisor of Ivan Ahumada Hernandez who is working on a project on the world line quantum formalism.
I am the 4th supervisor of Poonam Sharma who is studying for Doctor of Medicine

Graduated PhD students

PhD student Gaurav Sinha Ray. graduated in early 2023.

Masters projects as part of MSc Data Science and Business Analytics.

- 2017-2018, The relationship between the life satisfaction of the citizen in European countries and their academic level
- 2018-2019, Using machine learning models to classify and detect avian wildlife around wind farms using time-lapse images.
- 2018-2019, The use of machine learning to study the performance of wind farms.
- 2019-2020, Machine learning applied to Optometry/Cataracts
- 2019-2020, Machine learning on a large data set using a High Performance Cluster
- 2019-2020, A comparison of machine learning methods for the prediction of locational crime rates

In April 2019, I taught "Introduction to Big Data" and "Introduction to Neural Networks" as part of a week long course on machine learning (see this review.) This event was also used as evidence in a REF impact case.

External examiner for PhD students

- 2006, I was an external examiner for a PhD student at Trinity College Dublin.
- 2013, I was an external examiner for a PhD student at Trinity College Dublin.
- Sept 2018, I was an external examiner for a PhD student at the University of Cambridge.
- July 2019, I was an external examiner for a PhD student at the University of Adelaide.
- Nov 2022, I was an external examiner for a PhD student at the University of Swansea
- Oct 2023 I was an external examiner for a PhD student at the University of Swansea

Additional information

My CV is online. Mein Lebenslauf.

You can look at my publications from google scholar. Also see my inspire record of publications. You can also look at my Orcid record.

See my profile at University of Plymouth. and my linkedin profile.

I was on the local organizing committee for the Extreme QCD conference to held in Plymouth 2016.

Outreach activities

Main pages for Physics outreach at the University of Plymouth.
I am starting to develop some outreach applications.
Some notes on using the clusters at Plymouth.
- During summer of 2016 I am supervised two students on a Nuffield Placement.
- There is information about the two projects I am offering
We organized a Particle Physics Master Class during April 2017
During the summer of 2017, I hosted a student for work experience. on Quantum mechanics
We are organizing a particle physics masterclass 25th March 2019
See my talk about big data and particle physics at the data science Cornwall meetup.
Analysis of X-rays (1 hour outreach activity.) I will further develop this activity after the feedback from the first session
I organized the Festival of Physics in Plymouth on Saturday 23rd November 2019.
23rd March 2022, I helped out at a particle physics masterclass.
July 2022 I ran an outreach event with Vincent Drach on data analysis and x-rays.
June 2022, I co-organized the meeting: Involving employers in the development of the mathematical sciences curriculum
June 2022, I organized a visit of local Physics teachers to the University of Plymouth.
I am co-organising a data science meeting in May 2024.