Announcements 2012

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Feb 06: Lab Prep/Write-up Instructions

We had a pretty good first day in the lab. Working out the kinks. I wanted to make a couple comments on the lab reports

1) Pre-write ups: Generally these were good, but we'll be looking for more in the future -- in particular we'll want both an introduction and an experiment section.

2) Collaboration and experiment section: while you're expected to make your own figures etc (and this applies to schematics of the instrument), I realized yesterday that there are a few labs (e.g., Zeeman or Brownian Motion) where a picture of the data (line splitting, dots in a fluid) is useful -- since this comes from the same data taken by the group, it's okay to have these figures duplicated between reports in the group.

3) Schematics of the instrument: most the time it's better to keep this simple and to draw your own schematic with clear labels. The schematics from the manuals tend to be over complicated, showing every little component (because it's a user manual!). You're trying to give the essence of the lab. So you should use the schematic to distill the essential parts to the procedure etc. You should also label the schematics and you should include important effects. For instance, if there is an important magnetic field, or current etc, draw it and it's direction into the schematic. Label the field/current/etc with a letter that you will then use in your model in the analysis section. (and that you might have already used in the intro when describing the theory. I'm planning to put some examples up on the wiki later today of what to do/what not to do.

Feb 05: Lab Locations

In case you forgot since the lab tour, here is a page showing where all the labs are located. Note the PE lab has moved to the SL lab since those are coupled.

https://wiki.pha.jhu.edu/advlab_wiki/index.php/Locations_2012

And here is the skinny:

Rm 478E: BM, ZE, RS

Main Room: HE, NMR, ML, FH

478B: MOD

478G: PE/SL

If, after trying out the lab, you feel that a lab would be better if moved to a separate room or even out into the main hall, let us know.

Feb 02: SPS / ACM Python Workshop

Good news! Paul O'Neil and colleagues are organizing a Python workshop that should help with the analysis part of the course (as well as plotting figures etc). Paul can provide more info. The tentative date for your calendars is Feb 11 in the afternoon -- just in time for analyzing your own data -- and I've suggested the PUC Lab as we a laptop farm there. I'll also post some python analysis examples next week to the wiki (sorry for the slow tutorial feed this week -- mainly making sure everything looks good with experiments b/f you start taking data).

As usually please send any questions that you have.

Feb 01: PUC Accounts and LaTeX

1) PUC Lab accounts. During the first lecture I said that these would be optional -- this was incorrect. You need a PUC lab account to log into many of the computers associated with the labs. If you do not have an account, email Steve Wonnell <wonnell@pha.jhu.edu>.

2) LaTeX. I've posted an initial take on a basic latex tutorial that should get you started on the required intro/experiment write-up for Monday. This will probably evolve a bit, but it's there if you want to start now.

Remember there will be tutorials offered in LaTeX from your TAs on the third week of the course.

Jan 31: Groups and Labs

Most of you now have lab groups and a sequence of labs chosen, with some variation, based on the your preferences.

The labs have also been divided among the instructors as follows:

Tobias Marriage: PE/SL, HE, ZE, NMR
Christopher Brust: BM, RS, NS
Sean Cantrell: MOD, ML, FH

If your first lab is run by a TA, please contact them to schedule a time to meet during class times on Monday. I'll be around the whole time.

Finally, after further consideration, I've decided that it will be more straightforward to have reports submitted/returned by email instead of dropbox. The wiki has been updated to reflect this change (see text at end of email).