Author: mtrawick

Summary

There’s a lot of information below about how wait-lists are implemented in the physics department. The policies are the same as they have been for the past few semesters. Here’s a brief summary for those who already know how our wait-lists work:

If your desired section(s) of PHYS 131 or 132 are full when your registration slot comes, sign up for the wait-lists by filling out the forms at these sites:

• Wait-list for PHYS 131
• Wait-list for PHYS 132

You may not sign up for the wait-list until after your registration time has begun.

Details

Registration for Fall 2018 classes is starting. The physics department is offering four sections of PHYS 131 and one section of PHYS 132. As in the past, some seats in these courses will be reserved for students in each year. To be specific, the seating limits on each section will be

• 6 students during senior registration,
• 12 students during junior registration,
• 16 students during sophomore registration,
• 24 students during first-year registration.

The reason for this is that prospective physics majors need to be able to take these courses early, so we can’t let all the seats be taken by juniors and seniors.

As in past semesters, we will have wait-lists for these courses. If all the sections that fit your schedule are full when your registration time comes, you can sign up for the wait-list. (Do continue to try to add the sections you want for as long as your registration window is open. If a seat opens up, we can’t stop somebody else from beating you to it.) Then, after first-year registration is complete, any available seats will be filled off the wait-lists.

PHYS 131-132 Wait-list policies

• A student may only sign up for the wait-list after that student’s registration time has begun.
• A student who is enrolled in one section of the course may not sign up for the wait-list for other sections.
• The student must provide name, email address, ID number, registration group (e.g., “junior scholar / athlete” or “sophomore”), and desired section(s) of the course. Please check all sections that will fit your schedule.
• Students will be admitted off the wait-list beginning at the end of the registration period for incoming first-year students.
• Students will be offered admission off the wait-list in the order they signed up. To be specific,
  • • • If any seats are available in any sections listed by the first student on the list, then that student will be offered a seat in one of those sections.
      • If a student has listed multiple sections, and seats are available in more than one section, then the chair will choose which section to offer the student.
      • The same procedure will be applied to each student in order.
• When a student becomes eligible to be admitted off the wait-list, the chair of the physics department will notify him or her by email. The student will have 24 hours to accept this invitation by replying to the email. If the student does not reply within that time, he or she will be dropped from the wait-list, and the next eligible student will be admitted.
• • If you have any questions, ask Matt Trawick, the current physics department chair. Once again, here’s where you go to sign up for the wait-lists:
    • Wait-list for PHYS 131
    • Wait-list for PHYS 132

The UR physics department is trying to offer a section of physics 131 in summer 2017.  (Update: 12/20/2016: We’re definitely gonna do it!)  Here’s how it will work:

• The course will be offered during the regular six-week May term, May 8 – June 16.  Update 12/20/2016: Due to issues beyond our control, we need to run it May 15 – June 23.
• Update 12/20/2016: The class will meet five days a week, MTWRF, 4:30-7:15pm.  It needs to meet for 2.75 hours per day to match the number of hours in 131 during the regular semesters.
• It will be taught by Dr. Alina Cichocki, who has taught 131 here before and was well liked.  The class will use the same textbook and labs as our other 131 sections.
• It will cost about $1600.  Your financial aid could apply, but apparently only if you take two courses, not just the one.  (Sorry!  We wish we could make it free, but we don’t run this place!)
• It is generally discouraged to take credit courses at the same time as summer research, and you would need your research advisor’s permission to enroll.  (Consider the time commitment, which probably includes ~2+ hours of studying/homework per day beyond class time.)

This class will definitely be offered this summer, barring an instructor medical crisis, building fire, or an unforeseeable thing like that.  A quick survey showed about a dozen students who are at least somewhat interested, which is well above the minimum of four registered students that we would need to keep the course from being cancelled.  Registration will be open in March.

I will continue to use this post for major updates on this topic, and I will also append a FAQ if there are obvious questions that get asked.

Registration for Spring 2017 classes is happening now. The physics department is offering two sections of PHYS 131 and four sections of PHYS 132. As in the past, some seats in these courses will be reserved for students in each year. To be specific, the seating limits on each section will be

• 6 students during senior registration,
• 12 students during junior registration,
• 16 students during sophomore registration,
• 24 students during first-year registration.

The reason for this is that prospective physics majors need to be able to take these courses early, so we can’t let all the seats be taken by juniors and seniors.

As we did last semester, we will have wait-lists for these courses. If all the sections that fit your schedule are full when your registration time comes, you can sign up for the wait-list. (Do continue to try to add the sections you want for as long as your registration window is open.  If a seat opens up, we can’t stop somebody else from beating you to it.)  Then, after first-year registration is complete, any available seats will be filled off the wait-lists.

The rest of this post contains details about the wait-list policies. (They’re the same as last semester.) At the very bottom, you will find links to sign up for the wait-lists (but note that you can’t sign up until your registration time has arrived).

PHYS 131-132 Wait-list policies

1. A student may only sign up for the wait-list after that student’s registration time has begun.
2. A student who is enrolled in one section of the course may not sign up for the wait-list for other sections.
3. The student must provide name, email address, ID number, registration group (e.g., “rising junior scholar / athlete” or “rising sophomore”), and desired section(s) of the course. “Rising sophomore” means that you will be a sophomore in the coming semester. For PHYS 132, there is only one section, so you don’t have to provide the section.
4. Students will be admitted off the wait-list beginning at the end of the registration period for first-year students.
5. Students will be offered admission off the wait-list in the order they signed up. To be specific,
   • If any seats are available in any sections listed by the first student on the list, then that student will be offered a seat in one of those sections.
   • If a student has listed multiple sections, and seats are available in more than one section, then the chair will choose which section to offer the student.
   • The same procedure will be applied to each student in order.
6. When a student becomes eligible to be admitted off the wait-list, the chair of the physics department will notify him or her by email. The student will have 12 hours to accept this invitation by replying to the email. If the student does not reply within that time, he or she will be dropped from the wait-list, and the next eligible student will be admitted.

If you have any questions, ask Matt Trawick, the physics department chair.

Here’s where you go to sign up for the wait-lists for PHYS 131 and PHYS 132.

Special welcome to new UR students in the class of 2017!  Also, welcome back to all of our returning students!  For those of you interested in a first physics course, here’s a quick rundown of what you need to know.

Prospective physics majors and engineers typically start with Physics 131 in the fall and 132 in the spring.  (Physics 131 is mostly about mechanics; Physics 132 is mostly electricity and magnetism.)  This fall there are four sections of physics 131, and one section of physics 132 available.    Physics 131 requires Calc. 1 (Math 211) as a prerequisite, or co-requisite (taken at the same time).  Physics 132 requires Calc. 2 (Math 212) as a pre- or co-requisite.  It’s very important for physics majors and engineers to finish 131 and 132 during the first year, so they can take physics 301 in fall of sophomore year.  Physics 301 is only offered in the fall, and is a prerequisite for all of our upper level courses; missing 301 can mean basically falling a full year behind, making it very difficult (though not impossible) to complete the major.

Pre-med students and other science majors also take Physics 131 and 132, and these courses fulfill the science requirement for non-science majors, so even if you’re not sure what you’re majoring in, keep these courses in mind.

Students with strong high school physics backgrounds can skip Physics 131 and start right away with Physics 132.  In exceptional cases, very strong students can even skip Physics 132 and go straight into our sophomore level courses.  Usually, this is determined by AP tests; receiving actual course credit on your transcript for physics 131 or 132 is determined by official university policy, requiring a 4 or 5 on the Physics C Mechanics or E&M AP test, respectively.  However, the question of what course you should take is really separate from the question of AP credit; if you can demonstrate that you know the physics, we are happy to let you skip a course, whether or not you have taken a particular AP exam.  (This especially applies to international students who don’t have easy access to AP exams.)   If you have a strong physics background but didn’t take the right AP exam, email us or talk to one of the physics faculty when you arrive.  In general, we want you in the physics course that’s right for you, and check marks on official pieces of paper aren’t a big deal to us.

For students who aren’t planning to major in a science, we offer Physics 125, a survey of conceptual physics.  This course fulfills the general-education science requirement, but it does not fulfill prerequisites for more advanced science courses.

Finally, I’ll point out that there’s one physics-related first-year seminar this fall:

The Five (or Ten) Best (Physics) Experiments Ever!: This course will examine the people and stories behind some of the key experiments in physics.  We will focus on experiments which have radically altered our views of the world or universe around us or which have radically altered our civilization by the technology they enabled. Inspired by and loosely based on the text “The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments” by George Johnson the course will explore great physics experiments from history as well as some of the more amazing experiments underway.

Like all first-year seminars, this course is open to all first-year students, not just science majors. But I thought I’d mention it, because someone who’s read this far down into this post might be particularly interested in a topic like this.

Richmond physics professor Matt Trawick has just been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation in support of his ongoing research in developing new atomic force microscopy techniques.  The three-year, $140,201 grant will allow Trawick and his students to develop new techniques to correct common imaging artifacts, making nanometer-scale surface measurements more accurate.

Three University of Richmond students and their professor have recently published an article in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments.  Their article describes a new technique they invented for correcting certain kinds of imaging and measurement errors that are common in scanning probe microscopy.  The students, Nathan Follin ’13, Keefer Taylor ’13, and Chris Musalo ’12, all worked with physics professor Matt Trawick to both develop the new technique and test it on Richmond’s state-of-the-art atomic force microscope.  They expect their technique will find wide-scale use in nanotechnology, where accurate measurement and imaging of nanometer-scale features is routinely required.

This fall Richmond physics professor Con Beausang had his Department of Energy grant renewed for a further three years. This award, funded by the National Nuclear Security Administration funds Dr. Beausang’s non-classified research into nuclear stewardship science. In addition to providing travel and equipment funding the award provides salary support for a postdoctoral fellow and graduate student as well as summer stipends for Richmond undergraduates to enable them to participate in experiments and study nuclear physics under Dr. Beausang’s guidance.

Congratulations to all newly admitted prospective UR students!  Every year we are excited to meet the new group of admitted students interested in physics and and engineering.  We hope that exploring this blog and our website will give you a good feel for what the physics department is all about.  If you would like to know more, feel free to leave a comment here, or contact us directly.  And of course, please drop by and say hello if you are able to visit campus in person.

If you are visiting campus, we would be happy to let you sit in on a physics class!  To set up a classroom visit, please contact our department admin, Mary Ann Stewart.  During the fall, classroom visits are arranged centrally by the UR admissions office; they don’t do it during the spring, presumably to avoid unmanageably large numbers during that busy time.  But as usual, the physics department doesn’t play by the rules; we’re small enough that we can welcome visitors anytime if you contact us directly.

Looking forward to meeting you!

Congratulations to Junior physics major Sarah Scheurich for being chosen as first runner-up for the Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship!  The scholarship is funded by the Henry Luce Foundation and is named for Clare Booth Luce, a playwright, journalist, ambassador, and U.S. congresswoman.  In recognition for her achievement in science and mathematics Sarah will receive a  scholarship towards the remainder of her Richmond education.

Last weekend was the Richmond Physics Olympics.  Fifteen teams of high school students competed in various fun events, building towers, floating boats, and throwing bags of sand off the third floor balcony into the science building atrium.  Many thanks to the University of Richmond students who volunteered to help out with this event.  Several of our students also had some fun with a video camera, proving that our students can goof off just as hard as they work.

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