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Stage 3 (2025-2026)

Please note: some of the links to slides etc. are not all live yet and will be updated as the trimester progresses.

Introductory Talks

Topic Presenter Date Time Location Slides
Welcome and Introduction to the Advanced Laboratories Prof. John Quinn Tuesday 9 September 14:00-14:50 B106-BH Slides
Data Acquisition in Python Prof. John Quinn Wednesday 10 September 14:00-14:50 B106-BH Slides
Data Analysis 1 Prof. John Quinn Wednesday 17 September 14:00-14:50 B106-BH Slides
Report Writing Dr. Tom McCormack Tuesday 16 September 14:00-14:50 B106-BH Example Manual, Example Report, Report Guidelines, Plagiarism statement
Data analysis 2 Prof. John Quinn Wednesday 24 September 14:00-14:50 B106-BH Slides

Advanced Laboratory Hours and Dates

Attention!

All students are required to sign in and out of the lab using the Google form accessed via the QR code posted in the labs.

The laboratories are open with demonstrator and staff support from 2 pm to 6 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.

You should attend during all time-tabled hours.

Physics and Physics with Astronomy and Space Science (PASS)

  • Trimester 1: Tuesday 9 September 2025 to Thursday 27 November 2025.

  • Trimester 2: Tuesday, 20 January 2026 to Thursday 26 March 2026.

Attention!

The Physics and PASS laboratories run during the two-week field-work break (9 - 20 March 2026) and close four weeks before the end of the trimester to enable all assessment to be complete before written examinations start.

Theoretical Physics:

Trimester 1: Tuesday 9 September 2025 to Thursday 30 October 2025.

Trimester 2: Tuesday 20 January 2026 to Friday 13 March 2026.

Attention!

The TP laboratories run during the first week of the two-week field-work break (9 - 13 March 2025) to enable all assessment to be complete before written examinations start.

Advanced Laboratory Number of Experiments

Each laboratory experiment (including Computational Physics exercise) counts as 2.5 credits.

Students in 20 credit lab modules (Physics and PASS) will undertake 8 labs in total (4 per trimester).

Students in 10 credit lab modules will undetake 4 labs in total (2 per trimester).

One-trimester study-abroad students will undertake the appropriate number of labs in the relevant trimester.

Advanced Laboratory Aims

Amongst the main aims of the laboratory are the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills. Therefore, the labs are just not about the written report but also demonstrated understanding of the problem being investigated and appropriate experimental planning, execution and analysis. It is important to give sufficient time to doing the experiment and not to put all the emphasis on writing the report.

Laboratory Reports

Each experiment including write up should take approximately three weeks for those doing four labs per trimester (Physics and PASS) and approxiately 4.5 weeks for those doing two labs per trimester (TP).

It is essential to plan and utilise your time well.

As a rough guide, the time spent doing a main lab experiment should be split into roughly three equal duration parts:

  • becoming familiar with the experiment, writing statement of intent, setting up and writing data acquisition code if relevant,

  • carrying out and refining the experiment including preliminary data analysis

  • final analysis and report writing.

Report Submission Deadlines

Each report should be submitted after approximately three weeks.

Please note!

You will not be given a new experiment until the report from the previous one has been submitted.

The hard deadlines for submission of laboratory reports are: Physics and Physics with Astronomy and Space Science:

  • Report 2 due by 5pm on Tuesday 28 October 2025
  • Report 4 due by 5pm on Monday 19 January 2026
  • Report 6 due by 5pm on Monday 9 March 2026
  • Report 8 due by 5pm on Tuesday 7 April 2026

Theoretical Physics:

  • Report 2 due by 5pm on Monday 10 November 2025
  • Report 4 due by 5pm on Monday 30 March 2026

Late Submission of Laboratory Reports

The UCD Late Submission of Coursework policy applies.

In particular, from section 5:

5.1. Coursework submitted up to 10 working days past the due date will be graded but a grade penalty will be applied.

5.1.1. Coursework submitted at any time up to and including 5 working days after the due date will have the grade awarded reduced by one grade point (for example, from B- to C+).

5.1.2. Coursework submitted more than 5 working days but up to and including 10 working days after the due date will have the grade reduced by two grade points (for example, from B- to C).

5.2. Coursework received more than 10 working days after the due date will not be accepted or graded.