Media

Both print and online media are vital avenues for our department’s communication with the greater physics community. Our media is comprised of our website, undergraduate, graduate and research brochures, Alumni Newsletter and Annual Report. This year, we continued to build upon our media, and to find ways to address the needs of our many constituencies.

The department website is our most critical medium, as the information on it can be instantly updated, and holds a large audience. Since March of 2009, we have had more than 10,000 visits per month, with up to 45,000 page views in a single 30 day period.

Our alumni website currently has a media archive comprised of 20 videos totaling 13 hours of footage. Two of these videos have also been made available on iTunesU under the College of Arts and Sciences. Our current graduate students are also able to access our alumni portal, which provides the ability to watch all of this content.

We have also produced and mailed out graduation DVDs containing video and photos of our convocation ceremonies. We have also produced more than 6 hours of quality footage from the 2009 Boston Area CarbOn Nanoscience Day and our Dean S. Edmonds, Sr. Memorial Lectures.

The department has also continued to update its existing database and web infrastructure. We have our own WordPress installations which allow for groups or individuals to easily manage their own web presence within the BU Brand. In addition to our existing web interfaces, we have made strides in making our applications more user friendly by the use of modern web technologies and refined user interface design.

In keeping up with current trends in the global online community, the Physics Department has a continued presence on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. While our LinkedIn presence is modest at 6 members, we currently have close to 100 Facebook connections and more than 200 Twitter followers. These avenues allow for richer communications among current and former affiliates, and provide a platform to further broadcast our events and intentions to a wider portion of the web community.

In the coming year, we hope to improve and build upon our existing media in ways that allow us to be more relevant and savvy with our communication.

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