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PX452 Astrophysics Project

Organiser: tba
Weighting: 45 CATS

You will work, normally in pairs, on an extended project in astrophysics. Through discussions with your supervisor and partner you will establish a plan of work which you will frequently review as you progress. In general, the project will not be closely prescribed and will contain an investigative element. The project will provide you an experience of working on an extended 'research-like' project in collaboration with a supervisor and partner.

Aims:
To provide experience of working on an extended project in an astrophysics research environment in collaboration with a supervisor and partner

Objectives:
At the end of the project you should

    • studied in depth around some area of research
    • completed a piece of physics research
    • written a scientific report on their work and defended the work at a poster session

    Syllabus:

    Students work, normally in pairs, on an extended astrophysics project, which may be observational, computational or theoretical (or indeed a combination of these). Through discussions with their supervisor, they establish a plan of work which they review frequently as they progress. The project in general will not be closely prescribed and will contain an investigative element. Over the Christmas vacation students write independently an interim report which is marked by their supervisor, who returns it with feedback. After a further term's work students, again independently, write a final report, which is assessed by two independent members of academic staff.

    Commitment: Approximate: Preliminary reading before start of term1, 2 days per week for 20 weeks (terms 1 and 2), preparation of interim report (term 1 + vacation), preparation and defence of poster (term 3).

    Assessment: 100% assessed: an interim report, a final report, and a poster presentation; work done is assessed primarily by the project supervisor. You should discuss the written reports and the poster presentation with your supervisor prior to starting work on them. Full details of the assessment/feedback will be published on the module website.

    Leads from: all earlier laboratory and possibly computational work.