Projects
All students have ample opportunities to engage in research together
with a faculty mentor. For students seeking the BS or BA degree research is
a requirement, and it culminates with a presentation at a local,
state, or national professional conference. Physics majors are also
strongly encouraged to take advantage of opportunities for intensive
summer research experiences at locations like national laboratories.
Recent and current student projects include:
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Ultrasonic studies of tissue
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Construction of a numerical action minimizer
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Modal characteristics of clarinet reeds
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Magnetic damping by eddy currents
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Diode laser atom trap
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Nonlinear dynamics and chaos
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Propagation of surface elastic waves
A brief description of the research projects each faculty member is
engaged in follows; interested students can join the work in progress.
Please click on "Information" to find out more about each faculty
member's projects.
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Matthew Beaky:
Experimental projects using radio, microwave, and
millimeter-wave radiation, with applications in
spectroscopy and astronomy.
Nuclear spin isomer conversion in polyatomic molecules;
Building an optically-pumped submillimeter-wave laser;
Experimental and computational studies of photonic bandgap
crystals; Design and construction of a radio telescope;
Radio detection of meteors; The practice of astronomy in
early human cultures.
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Taner Edis:
Mainly computational projects, plus some in physics
education and the history and philosophy of physics.
Developing a computer model used for atmospheric physics;
Exploring how randomness arises in physical theories;
Chaos in mesoscopic Josephson junction arrays; Dynamics on
a random/discrete spacetime; Statistical inference and
marginal effect sizes; How creationism affects physics
education.
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Michael Goggin:
Experimental, theoretical and computational projects
involving quantum optics, nonlinear dynamics, and the
classical-quantum transition.
Laser cooling and trapping of atoms; The interaction of
light with atoms; Distributions of short-time Lyapunov
exponents of chaotic systems; Calculation of level curves
of the Wigner distribution function for the square barrier
potential.
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Ian Lindevald:
Research involving the physics of sound production and
radiation in musical instruments.
Characterizing
woodwind reeds -- asking whether variations in the
vibrational modes of woodwind reeds are correlated with
variations in the quality (timbre, "playability") of the
reeds as perceived by players. Experimental component:
using holographic interferometry to image reed
vibrational modes as well as other acoustical
techniques. Theoretical component: modeling
reed vibrations using finite element techniques.
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Peter Rolnick:
Physics education research projects for students at any
level; Nuclear theory work concerning applications of
relativistic hamiltonian dynamics to electron-deuteron
scattering for advanced students.
A numerical action minimizer; A study of pedagogical
methods used in introductory physics courses; An
electrolytic battery for an electric car; The effect of
acceleration on the Twin Paradox; Solutions to the Skyrme
Model with cylindrical symmetry.
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Mohammad Samiullah:
Theoretical and experimental projects, plus research on
physics education.
Ultrasonic study of the elastic properties of heart tissue
and other biological materials; Investigating the effectiveness of active
learning methods in physics education; Examining the dark
matter hypothesis; Wannier functions in semi-conducting
quantum wells; Dissipative quantum systems; Skyrme model
of nucleon-nucleon interactions; Alpha expansion; Bound
states in quantum field theory.
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Eduardo Sanchez Velasco:
Mainly theoretical and computational projects.
Wave propagation, surface elastic waves; Ray theory and caustic formation; Physics of imaging, seismic and X-ray imaging; Mathematical physics, differential geometry; Foundations of quantum mechanics; Quantum optics and quantum electronics; Computational fluid dynamics; Numerical simulations in statistical mechanics; Phase transitions and critical phenomena.
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