FAQ

Q : How will I be graded?

A : There are several activities you must complete. Please see the guidelines page.

Q : Do I have to complete all the activities? Can I pass with a lower grade even if I do not complete them partially?

A : YES, you MUST complete everything. Otherwise you will get an Incomplete, which will convert itself to an FF at the end of the semester.

Q : Can I submit my work late?

A : Unless there is a health problem, no. Late work will be penalized rather severely.

Q : How do I find an advisor? When should I start searching?

A : Most students start searching for advisors before they officially take PHYS400. We recommend you do this, however, this doesn't mean that you cannot still find advisors at the beginning of the semester. It is your duty to search for and find an advisor and not the coordinator's job. That being said, you can, by all means, ask for his/her help. You can also visit our Available Advisors page here to see a list of faculty members that are offering specific projects. If you have not found an advisor by the end of the add/drop period, you will be asked to drop the course. Therefore, we encourage you to act in a timely manner.

Q : I am not familiar with the research lines of our faculty members. How do I find out?

A : As happens to be the case with most problems in life that you are seeking answers for ... just Google It! Simply type the name of the faculty member you are curious about and see if their group web page pops up. Reading through the group pages will give you a good idea. If the faculty member does not have a group page, go to an academic database and search for their published research. Our university has access to all the most popular databases such as Web of Science and Scopus. If you are on campus, you can access these databases and download most research papers for free. You will usually not be able to understand the details of the research but it will give you an idea. Once you narrow down the faculty members you are interested in, you should contact them to schedule an appointment and ask them to give you more information on their research line.

Q : How should I choose the topic of the project? Are all project topics acceptable?

A : The choice of the project often happens in one of two ways. The student either has a particular topic in mind and that defines which advisor they will work with or they first identify the general area of research and the relevant advisor suggests a topic. In either case, when you identify the topic, you should be proactive in doing the research rather than expecting your advisor to tell you every step.

Not all projects are acceptable. At the beginning of the semester, the coordinator will review and approve the project. He/she will ask you about the details of the project if necessary. Some projects are very challenging and come close to actual research. Others are simpler. While we obviously do not expect ground-breaking original work from each project, your project should be one which requires some serious, actual contribution from you. In other words, you should produce something. As a rule of thumb, you should be spending a minimum of approximately 6 hours/week on your project.

Most acceptable projects fall in one of the following categories :

i. Conducting an experiment in a lab, preparing samples, gathering data and analyzing them.

ii. Analyzing and interpreting data that your advisor has obtained from large collaborations in such fields as high-energy, particle, astronomy etc.

iii. Reproducing complex theoretical calculations beyond the scope of undergraduate courses, understanding the inbetween steps. In this kind of project, the student may not actually produce anything, but as understanding the basics first is the usual MO in theoretical research, this definitely is acceptable.

iv. Writing or running scientific software to produce simulations.

Of course, a lot of the projects are combinations of these.

IMPORTANT!!! Simply reading about and summarizing a topic or just repeating calculations from undergraduate classwork are not acceptable project topics. Your projects should be a step beyond undergraduate classes.

Q : Can I choose an advisor from another department?

A : Yes. While we still have to register you officially under a faculty member from the Physics department, you can work with faculty members from other related departments (and in a limited set of circumstances from other universities) as long as the research topic is acceptable by the Department of Physics. Please first talk to the advisor that you are interested in and get their consent. Then find a faculty member from the Physics department that is willing to act as a substitute advisor. Finally talk to the coordinator and make sure that the topic is acceptable.

Q : How often should I see my advisor?

A : This depends on you and your advisor. At least once a week on most weeks appears to be a good frequency in most cases. This, of course, depends on your particular project. You may be working in a lab and therefore interact more with the members of your advisor's group more than your advisor. Or your advisor may ask to see you more or less frequently depending on their schedule. As you are the only person responsible for your project, you are also responsible for contacting your advisor without taking too much of their very limited time.

Q : How will I turn in my work?

A : All the work will be turned in and all the grading will be handled via ODTUClass. Make sure you are registered to this course on ODTUClass by the end of the add/drop period.

Q : What format am I expected to use for preparing the reports/presentations/posters?

A : For the preparation of presentations , you have the freedom to choose your format in line with the content of your project topic and your sense of aesthetic. However, there are some qualities that make a poster/presentation more or less effective in communicating what you would like to get across. The posters must be printed on an A2 sheet in portrait orientation. We have several examples and videos on how to prepare posters here and on how to prepare presentations here. We will also spend a lot of time in class discussing these points.

We have somewhat more strict guidelines for preparing reports. As a general rule we believe that LaTex produces better looking reports and is therefore recommended for this course. Of course it is entirely possible to produce a good report using Microsoft Office as well. You will be provided with the necessary templates.

Q : Will I receive enough feedback and guidance? From whom? My advisor? The coordinator?

A : Access to feedback is one of the concerns most commonly raised by the students. The most important fact to realize is that YOU are the main person that is responsible for this project -- it is your project and your advisor should not do your work for you. However, you are of course entitled to receiving enough guidance. You should expect two kinds of feedback : scientific and technical. The scientific feedback, concerning the topic of your project, the content, your work load, and your roadmap should come from the advisor. Technical feedback on such issues as formatting, presentation, grammar, style etc. will be provided by the coordinator. In fact, you will be asked to pre-upload your reports, your presentation and your poster for structural feedback from the coordinator before other faculty members see it. Of course, the border is not clear-cut and there will be crossover. Your advisor is more than welcome to comment on the format, structure etc. as well.

Q : Is plagiarism going to be penalized?

A : Absolutely! Good science relies not on extraordinary results every time a publication comes out but on the honesty of the scientist. We, in the Department of Physics, therefore, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES tolerate plagiarism. Your reports will be run through the plagiarism software Turnitin and you will get serious deductions in your grades if plagiarism is detected.

Q : I am afraid of committing plagiarism in my report when I use common phrases, concepts, description of experimental procedures and formulae. What counts as plagiarism?

A : The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word plagiarize as : "to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source". This definition is fairly clear in everyday life. In the context of scientific writing, copying and pasting entire sentences and paragraphs even when you give proper reference still counts as plagiarism. Obviously, very few of us come up with formulae and compeletely new experimental procedures ourselves -- to a certain extent, everybody uses someone else's work. It is clearly not plagiarism if you state Newton's Second Law, however, there are instances where it is not clear what does and does not count as plagiarism. The most fool-proof way to make sure you are not committing plagiarism is to read several resources on the topic you are presenting, put them away and start writing the text in your own words only consulting the material occasionally. Since English is (for the most part) not your native language, this may be tough. But it will get easier with practice. We will cover plagiarism in more detail during the course.

Q : Is attendance to classes mandatory?

A : Yes. A small but nonnegligible portion of your total grade will be awarded based on your attendance to in-class lectures. If you cannot make it to one or a few classes for medical reasons or emergencies, talk to your coordinator. Otherwise, it is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with material covered in classes.

Q : I have already started conducting research with a faculty member. Can I use that work in this class?

A : If the work is still ongoing, yes. You will still have to do the classwork, however, you can continue to work on your project and use results from it under the supervision of your advisor. On the other hand, if this was work that you did a long time ago and has been concluded already, you will probably be asked to do a new project. This is because, doing research with the background of a sophomore is not the same as that of a senior. Please contact your coordinator for a case-by-case evaluation if you are in this position.

Q : My advisor is too busy to spend time with me. What do I do?

A : First, try communicating your concern to your advisor. At the end of the semester, faculty members tend to get extremely busy. Therefore, it is a good idea to not leave everything to the last moment. If you have done everything in a timely manner in addition to reaching out to your advisor and it still has not worked, contact your coordinator.

Please keep in mind that the unavailability of the advisor is not a reason for turning in late or incomplete work!

Q : What is the #1 reason why students fail to produce good work in this class?

A : Two words : time management. Most students taking this course are in their final year of college. They are therefore very busy with job searching, grad school applications, courses and suffer a lot of anxiety. Under these circumstances, it is very easy to let things slide and leave everything to the last minute. This not only causes unnecessary stress but severely decreases the quality of your output. Other common pitfalls are plagiarism, not putting effort into the presentation of the work in addition to choosing a topic that does not align with your interests.