Course overview
This course will extend student knowledge and understanding of some of the laws, principles, theories and systems of physics, chemistry and biology in materials science, and to develop an appreciation of how these laws, principles and theories operate in experimental and applied science. Computational Science: Computational investigations of physical systems using a variety of numerical techniques. This course willpics covered include; chaos, thermodynamics, data analysis and presentation, Fourier analysis, partial differential equations, interpolation and approximation, numerical integration, signal processing, statistics, monte-carlo methods, introduction to image processing, convolutions, simulations. Measurement and Instrument Control: programming in LabView or Basic for instrument control, passive electronics, signal conditioning, transducers and their application to measurement of physical systems, microprocessor basics, protocols, introduction to control theory, commercial control systems. Practical Component: The practical component emphasises the computational modelling of the physical systems covered in the lecture modules and the analysis of the measured data. This course willpics covered include basic electronics, transducers, control systems and LabView based project to control an instrument or make a series of measurements on a physical system.
Course learning outcomes
- Describe clearly in writing and discuss orally, the laws, principles and theories covered in the syllabus
- Reduce well-defined relationships to formulae
- Investigate the response of physical systems via computer modelling and simulation
- Be selective in their choice of computer applications and techniques which they would use in their professional scientific career
- Describe and explain applications of theory developed in lectures and tutorials
- Apply the techniques and theory to research real world problems