Research projects
In the final year of the BSc or MPhys course (except on some Maths/Physics courses) you carry out project work under the supervision of a member of staff.
A list of projects from which you choose is made available prior to the final year. The MPhys project is a more substantial 3-term project than the 2-term BSc one, and may be in a research group. Depending on the course you take the project will be experimental, computational, or theoretical.
This activity, students widely acknowledge, is one of the most satisfying and rewarding parts of the course. You can experience working much more independently than in the teaching laboratory. It can be an opportunity to design, build and evaluate equipment for a specific experimental purpose; to investigate some new aspect of a theoretical problem, or to apply computational methods to problems of real importance in an industrial context. In addition to its educational value the final year project has the important role of orientating you towards the 'real world' after your degree, be that in industry or some form of further study.
The choice of projects is large and reflects the variety of research and other interests of the academic staff, allowing all students to find a project which closely matches their own interests, and almost all derive considerable value from the experience it provides.
Examples of final-year projects
Some examples of recent projects are:
- Self organisation of nano-structured magnetic materials
- Relativistic self focussing of ultra intense laser beams
- Microscopy of nanomaterials
- Observations and studies of asteroids
- Laser cooling and trapping
- Characterisation of edge filaments in a fusion plasma
- Calculating motion of a third body near binary astronomical systems
- Fractal properties of foam
