Looking Forward

In the coming year, we will focus on several interrelated areas of our undergraduate program. We will work with our majors’ program to improve the sophomore year course and infuse computing into the sophomore curriculum, offer a new interdisciplinary course in biological physics and continue the expansion of undergraduate research opportunities. We will also continue to revamp our introductory physics courses for non-majors (PY105/106 and PY211/212) with the support of a RULE grant and in collaboration with other departments in CAS and ENG. Our intent is to continue our strong support for the Core program, increase our new, interdisciplinary course offerings for non-science majors, couple our service courses to subsequent classes in other majors, and design a specialized physics class for the new neuroscience program. We also intend to continue and expand the highly successful Geneva study abroad program for physics majors which was inaugurated in the spring of 2010 under the leadership of Professor Sulak. Finally, we will follow up the first ever Undergraduate Alumni Reunion with related events and development activities. Here are the details:

We are in the process of redesigning the curriculum for undergraduate physics majors. We have modified the sophomore sequence of courses such that it provides an up to date introduction to modern physics topics. Our plan turns Modern Physics (PY354) into a two semester class (PY351/352) with greatly expanded modern topics, and an emphasis on a serious lab component. We have taught the new course sequence for the first time in 2009/2010 and plan to refine the curriculum for the two semester sequence during 2010/2011.
We are currently engaged in a multi-year effort to infuse computing and computational approaches into the major’s curriculum. Computing is a critical component to solving modern physics problems, and has been effectively used as a tool for visualization and teaching of physics concepts. Professor Anders Sandvik is spearheading a program to develop new laboratories for the new sequence PY351/352 over the next several years. The goal is to train all majors in sufficient depth that computing becomes a ready tool, part of the lexicon of every student, to be used in situations from coursework to laboratory research. Two laboratories will initially be developed to introduce students to computational concepts as well as techniques. In later laboratories, visualization and computational problem solving will be developed.
We plan to complete the design of a new undergraduate course in biological physics to be accessible to juniors in physics and other departments. As we build up in biological physics, and work with the University’s program in Integrated/Quantitative/Systems Biology, as well as the Biology Department’s new Quantitative Biology program, it is important to offer a solid introduction to biological physics at the junior level.
We are also concerned about the large number of students who apply for transfer credits for introductory physics courses taken at other institutions and whether those courses really give students a basic foundation in physics that corresponds in quality to the courses that we teach. We will evaluate how we can more efficiently ensure they are receiving an equivalent education.
Undergraduate research is a cornerstone of our program. Data demonstrate that students who have a year of intensive research are far more likely to get into top graduate schools and have an accelerated career path than those who don’t. Currently, more than half of all physics majors have at least one year of undergraduate research experience. We hope to increase this number to two-thirds of all majors. We are aggressively pursuing REU programs, and are funding eight additional women and underrepresented minorities in summer research from an NSF STEP grant. We are also planning to help support UROP applications that receive only partial funding.
On the infrastructure side, we intend to normalize the delivery and support of our large service courses. We have a server and database system dedicated to storing and making available all past syllabi, class notes, homework, exams and conceptual exercises. We are developing more active learning techniques in the classroom, and supporting the demonstrations and radio controlled response systems from the educational staff. Physics will work closely with CAS and Space Planning on the renovation of the SCI lecture space. We are also enhancing the training of teaching fellows, adding pedagogical workshops, and encouraging our graduate student informal teaching seminar series – all to be better focused on support of students.
In the coming year, we plan to expand the Geneva program to a maximum of 15 students, possibly opening the application to exceptional students from other universities. We also intend to streamline teaching and mentoring on location in Geneva to make the program sustainable with limited resources. Finally, an effort is under way to secure funding from the NSF for teachers and mentors in Geneva as well as partial support for students.

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