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Week 8-10 �Final Project and Presentation

UCLA Physics Department

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University of California, Los Angeles

Department of Physics and Astronomy

Physics 4AL

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Learning Outcomes

  • Learn how to design and conduct your own experiment as a group.
    • Collaborate closely (but potentially remotely)
    • Follow curiously, and complete the project in 3 weeks.
  • Learn how to apply your working knowledge:
    • Arduino-based data taking
    • Data analysis by Python
    • Related physics topics from Physics 1A/1B/1C
  • Learn how to make oral presentation.
    • Preparation of clean google slides
    • Presentation in front of other students in the lab

UCLA Physics Department

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Possible 4AL Projects

  • Projectile motion based projects
  • Conservation of momentum/energy
  • Biomechanics / Human body motion projects
  • Oscillation based projects
  • Friction
  • Rotation based projects
  • Any other project related to mechanics
  • Reaction Time Study (Only for Virtual Session)

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Weekly Operation

  • All of students are supposed to work together
    • at the assigned section times
    • plus extra convenient times (together or individually)
  • Each team is supposed to distribute tasks so that
    • Some members setup the experiments and collect data
    • Some members analyze the data
    • All members contribute to presentation slides and report
  • But welcome to have well-defined separate tasks per member
    • Hardware specialist
    • Analysis specialist

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Project guidelines

  • Teams can use equipment in the lab for their projects only during the official lab hours/office hours

  • The projects should have a good scope for the work of all group members over the next few weeks. Each group member should plan on working for 3 labs of 2 hours each = 6 hours on the project. The work required for the project should reflect this

  • The projects must be related to mechanics, and they must include:
    • Predictive hypothesis based on physics background
    • Data taking with the Arduino
    • Data analysis and plotting with Python (including curve fitting and error analysis)
    • Using error to properly compare results with hypothesis

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Timeline

  • Week 6 Tuesday
    • Project Presentation Proposal Due
  • Week 7,8,9 Design and setup experiments
    • Preliminary data taking and analysis
    • Final data taking and analysis
    • Write project presentations
  • Week 10
    • Project presentations
    • Deliverables: Presentation Slides, Peer Review
  • Week 11
    • Deliverables: Project report, Participation Report

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Project Submissions

You will need to submit the following items for your project:

Item

Submission Location

Submission Time

Project proposal

Gradescope

Week 6 Thursday

Project abstract

Google Drive

Sunday of Week 10

Project presentation slides

Google Drive

Sunday of Week 10

Peer Review

Gradescope

Sunday of Week 10

Project report

Gradescope

Sunday of Week 11

Project report team participation

Gradescope

Sunday of Week 11

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Project Presentation (~10 slides)

  1. Title, Authors (with majors)
  2. Introduction: Motivation, Hypothesis
  3. Methods
    1. Experimental setup (with a picture)
    2. Data taking protocols
    3. Data Analysis
  4. Discussion and Conclusions
    • Evaluation of significance
    • Conclusions
    • Future prospects
  5. Acknowledgements
  6. References

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Final assignments

There are 4 final assignments to be submitted:

  • Week 10 Wednesday/Thursday After Presentation
    • Project presentation PDF - Convert your presentation slides to a PDF and upload to Gradescope (only one member per team), in addition, add the your google slides to your google drive folder.
  • Week 10 Sunday, 11:59 pm:
    • Project Abstract - Add it to your google drive folder
    • Peer Review - Use this template to provide your thoughts on the presentations of other teams (submitted by each student)
  • Week 11 Sunday, 11:59 pm:
    • Final report - Write a final report on your project (only one member per team)
    • Final report team participation - Talk about the performance and contributions of your teammates (submitted by each student)