PHYSICS 190

Frontiers of Physics and Engineering

Lectures, Upham Hall Room 141 - Friday 12:05- 12:55 pm

Instructor: Dr. Jalal Nawash Lecturer: Department of Physics, UWW

Office: Upham Hall 161 Phone: (262) 472-5116

E-mail: nawashj@uww.edu

Office Hours: Monday: 10:00 - 11:00, 3:10 - 4:10

Wednesday and Friday: 3:10 - 4:10

Objectives

The course is designed to help you understand your physics and engineering major. It provides you with a broad introduction to the study and the profession of engineering with all its several career paths that comes with it. It also helps physics majors to have a better look into their classes, major paths, and physics careers.

This course will provide some answers to questions that college students may have, such as areas of specialization, the demands from the industries related with specific fields.

The third objective of the course is to emphasize that engineers apply physical and chemical laws and principles and mathematics to design, develop, test and provide solutions to real problems in our everyday life.

Required text: Engineering your future - an introduction to engineering, by William C. Oakes, Les L. Leone, Craig J. Gunn, Great lakes press, Inc.

Available in textbook rental

Additional material for reading will be handed out in class or via D2L.

This class will:

1. Provide information about physics and engineering careers that you will need to become a professional engineer or a physicist in today’s society.

2. Help you learn the required personal and teamwork skills, methods of analysis and problem solving tactics, the introduction to design process, safety and professional responsibility, ethics problem, and branches of engineering.

3. You will have a chance to meet with professional engineers and physicists who will provide insight about their professions and specific problems they encounter during their work.

The Road Map of the Class

This class includes a floating plan. We have about 13 - 14 meetings this semester. In some of these meetings, we will discuss some parts of your textbook and other related subjects. In other meetings, Dr. Benjamin will join us to talk about advising issues. He will help you plan your course work, whether you are physics or an engineering major. He might talk about advising in general, internships, study abroad, and various other issues that might be important to you. Dr. Benjamin may take 3 to 4 of our classes.

Now between these meetings, invited speakers from academic and industrial fields will come and give talks. You might have preflight questions that you will answer on D2L before some of these talks. However, you are always required to submit a one page (double space) written report about the talk. This report should include the speaker’s name, the title of his talk, and some biography about him/her. Then there should be at least 5 lines about the talk itself. This should include the objective of the project or research the speaker is involved in, what the speaker is trying to do, and at the end, did he/she fulfill the objective. At the end of this one page report, you should put some comments or question (3-4) that come to your mind about the talk. Or if you have suggestions to the speaker, please include these. The one page report is always due the following Monday in my office at noon.

Your one page report should be neat and organized.

FINAL PROJECT

v On the fourth week of class, A small team of students (three - four) will receive a list of topics. You need to find sources of information, magazines, articles as well as web sources and write a paper related to the topic you have selected.

v The project has two parts:

1. A written paper (3 - 6 pages, double space, 12 font) with at least 5 references at the end. This paper should be of a similar format of some prestige journals in science and engineering (Applied Physics, Journal of Crystal Growth). (Due to Friday November 6^th)

2. A poster that your team will stand beside, in the physics lounge, and present to their peers/faculty. (Dec 4^th, during the final exam week, 3:00 – 5:00 pm)

Note: When you prepare your project you should always have your audience in mind. REMEMBER, YOU ARE WRITING SO SOMEONE ELSE CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. Everybody should learn something new from your project.

Your grade will be determined this way

Pre/Post flight questions/1 page report 35%

Attendance/participation 15%

Final project presentation/paper 35%

Class discussion/participation 15%

GRADE SCAL:

86% < A < 100%; 76% < B <86%; 66% < C < 76%; 56% < D < 66%; F<55%

Attendance Policy and Defined Excuses

Attendance is expected. Students are expected to participate fully in class discussions and in-group assignments. In case you miss a class to attend a university-sponsored event, you have to show documentation as soon as possible, whether in advance, or soon after. Arrangements may be made for a makeup. In case of illness or other unavoidable reason for missing, it is the responsibility of the student to contact the instructor within 24 hours and be able to document the reason for being absent.

Special Needs Statement

Students with special needs should contact me to make appropriate arrangements.

Religious Beliefs Accommodation

Board of Regents policy states that students' sincerely held religious beliefs shall be reasonably accommodated with respect to scheduling all examinations and other academic requirements. Students must notify the instructor, within the first three weeks of the beginning of classes (within the first week of summer session and short courses) of the specific days or dates on which they will request accommodation from an examination or academic requirement. For additional information, please refer to the section of the University Bulletin and the Timetable titled, Accommodation of Religious Beliefs.

Academic Misconduct

The University believes that academic honesty and integrity are fundamental to the mission of higher education and of the University of Wisconsin System. The University has a responsibility to promote academic honesty and integrity and to develop procedures to deal effectively with instances of academic dishonesty. Students are responsible for the honest completion and representation of their work, for the appropriate citation of sources, and for respect of others' academic endeavors. Students who violate these standards are subject to disciplinary action. URS Chapter 14 identifies procedures to be followed when a student is accused of academic misconduct. For additional information, please refer to the section in the Student Handbook titled, Student Academic Disciplinary Procedures.

Cellular phone

· Cell phones should be turned off before class starts.

· You are NOT allowed to use the phone as a calculator.

· If you were caught texting during class, your final grade will be lowered by one letter-grade. If you were caught texting again, you will fail the class.

· If you have an emergency, you should inform me before the class, have your cell in vibrate, get out of the class and take the call, without disturbing the class.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION YOU SHOULD KNOW

The University of Wisconsin – Whitewater is dedicated to a safe, supportive and non-discriminatory learning environment. It is the responsibility of all undergraduate and graduate students to familiarize themselves with University policies regarding Special Accommodations, Misconduct, Religious Beliefs Accommodation, Discrimination and Absence for University Sponsored Events. (For details please refer to the Undergraduate and Graduate Timetables; the “Rights and Responsibilities” section of the Undergraduate Bulletin; the Academic Requirements and Policies and the Facilities and Services sections of the Graduate Bulletin; and the “Student Academic Disciplinary Procedures” [UWS Chapter 14]; and the “Student Nonacademic Disciplinary Procedures” [UWS Chapter 17]).

This syllabus conforms to the "Common Syllabus" resolution S 95-96: 09 of the Whitewater Student Government.

See schedule next page

Planned Schedule (time and date may change to accommodate all guests speakers)

Day	TOPIC	Notes
Sept. 4^th	Introduction to Department
Sept 11^th	Guest Speaker: Mike Westphahl (UWW graduate) "Post UW-Whitewater Physics Degree, 25 Years of Exploring the Next Step"	1-page report
Sept 18^th	Guest Speaker: William Dougan College of Business – management department. “entrepreneurship”
Sept 25^th	Paper and poster topics – selecting and procedure information.
Oct. 2^nd	REU- Dr. Benjamin
Oct 9^th	Succeeding in Classroom	Chapter 5 1- page paper
Oct 16^th	Ethics and engineering career
Oct 23^rd	Dr. Benjamin: Advising Information- Session 1	Ask questions
Oct 30^th	Guest Speaker: Steve Maran	1-page report
Nov. 6^th	Dr. Benjamin: Advising information- session 2	Ask questions
Nov. 13^th	Communication Skills	Ch 10 1-page paper
Nov. 20^th	Guest
Nov 27^th	Eat Turkey
Dec 4^th	Senior Seminar presentation
Dec 11^th	Final Project – Students’ Posters