Physics 5305 Announcement Page

1. Grades: I've finished grading your Final Exams & calculating your grades. As of Mon., May 12, 2:30pm, the grades have been put on the web, so you should be able to see them on the Student Web. Sorry it took me so long. I was very dsitracted for several days trying to finish up the grades for 165 students in my Physics 1403 course.

PLEASE!!! I don't want 8 emails/phone calls!! Once you see your grade, PLEASE try to understand why it is what it is by using the Syllabus. PLEASE!!! First try to use the syllabus to calculate your grade BEFORE emailing or calling me about it!!! Then, if you find a discrepancy or something that is wrong, BY ALL MEANS, call or email me about it! If I made a mistake, OF COURSE, I'll fix it. A grade can be changed anytime within 1 year after the end of a semester. Most of you did well. However, I was disappointed that, in a couple of cases, the overall performance was pretty poor, especially for a graduate course. I'm convinced that the couple of low grades in this course are more due to lack of effort than lack of ability. I think that EVERYONE in this class is capable of performing well. Also, I imagine that this is likely the "easiest" of the physics graduate core courses.

2. Final Exams: I've put your graded Final Exams, along with the last graded homeowrk, in your mailboxes in the Physics mailroom. Similar to my comment above, I was disappointed by the preformance of a couple of you on this. Those who didn't do well ARE capable of better performance!

3. Semester Project, Paper & Presentations: I've put your graded semester project papers in your mailbox also. Overall, I was pleased with the papers and the presentations. I've made a few comments in red on the returned papers. So far, only one of the 7 of you has sent me an electronic version of their paper. I will make one final request to all of you, which is a repeat of a previous request. I ask that you please send me electronic versions of both your paper & your presentation. I would like these so that I can post them on the course web page as examples for the sudents in this course next year. You each hold the copyright on these. So, by sending me these electronic versions, you are implicitly giving me permission to post them on the web. You agree that, by posting them, I am not violating your copyright. Thank you.

EMAIL: All are on my distribution list. Thanks! I've sent class emails. If you haven't received my message, something's wrong, See an important email announcement Here for some possibilties of why my message didn't go through. I make class announcements by email!! It is vital that I have your correct email address, that you tell me if it changes, & that you check your email DAILY!! If you aren't receiving my messages, you may have to change your "Junk Mail" settings!

Miscellaneous

Downloading Lectures & Homework/Exam Solutions: Some files are large! If you have a dial-up connection, this may mean long download times. So, it might be more efficient to SAVE the file & open it later, rather than open it directly. It also might be more efficient to go to the ATLC (library basement) & use a direct connection. I've tested all files using both Internet Explorer (IE) & Mozilla Firefox & all work well. Printing Solutions: If you use IE, there's a problem printing .jpg files. For some reason, these don't fit properly on the page when you "Print" from the screen, even though it looks ok on the screen. A way around this (cumbersome!) is to download the .jpg to a file & use a picture viewer to view & print it. Using Mozilla, this doesn't occur. I think its a defect in IE, not a problem with the .jpg files, which were always fine until the latest version of IE came out. Sorry!

Study Groups: Forming study groups to collaborate on homework, etc. is an EXCELLENT idea! Its easier to learn stuff with friends' help! If you don't have friends in class, maybe you should make some! I strongly encourage you to form such groups! This is how physicists work in real situations! However, NO CONSULTATION with people who had this course previously is allowed! Also, NO use of problem solutions posted in previous years is allowed! This is on the honor system! It will do you no good to merely copy old solutions! Copying solutions will NOT teach you physics!

My Research: I need students! I do computational materials (solid state) theory. See my Homepage, Research Page, Publications Page & Conference Presentations Page for details. My last PhD Student (Ken Kambour) graduated in December, 2003. See his Abstract & Dissertation for more details. NOTE: At present, I have no money to support an RA.