Department of Physics & Physical Oceanography
Computer Competency Requirement: Advanced Lab
Current Course Description
PHY 400. Advanced Laboratory (1) (May be repeated for up to three hours credit)
Prerequisite: Consent of instructor. Designed to acquaint students with the various
laboratory techniques, error analysis and reduction of data by digital computer.
Description of assignment(s) that involve basic computer skills including knowledge of
campus use policies, facility with standard applications, and awareness of legal and
ethical issues:
Students will be expected to analyze experimental data with a standard mathematical
analysis software program, viz. Mathematica, Matlab, Kaleidegraph, etc. They will be
expected to be able to prepare lab reports using standard word-processing software. They
must be capable of conducting online research. Some facility with a high-level
programming language (Fortran, C, C++, etc.) will be expected. Students will be
expected to familiarize themselves with and abide by campus use policies, as well as
contemporary ethical standards regarding the use of copyrighted material.
How will computer competency be evaluated?
The skillful use of appropriate analytic software and/or programming languages is
intrinsic to the data analysis and reduction task. Lab reports requiring computer-assisted
analysis will not be regarded as complete unless the computer-assisted analytic tasks are
correctly performed.
Estimated percentage of the final grade assigned to computer competency?
Between 10–20%, depending on the material being covered in a particular semester.
Adopted 10/30/2000