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Stage 3 (2026-2027)

All lectures and labs are in Beech Hill.

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 8 September 14:00-14:50 B106-BH Slides
Data Acquisition in Python Prof. John Quinn Wednesday 9 September 14:00-14:50 B106-BH Slides
Report Writing Dr. Tom McCormack Tuesday 15 September 14:00-14:50 B106-BH Example Manual, Example Report, Report Guidelines, Plagiarism statement
Data Analysis 1 Prof. John Quinn Wednesday 16 September 14:00-14:50 B106-BH Slides
Data analysis 2 Prof. John Quinn Wednesday 23 September 14:00-14:50 B106-BH Slides
Trimester 2 Dr. Tom McCormack Wednesday 20 January 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 8 September 2026 to Thursday 26 November 2026.

  • Trimester 2: Tuesday, 19 January 2026 to Thursday 25 March 2027.

Attention!

The Physics and PASS laboratories run during the two-week field-work break (8 - 19 March 2027) 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 8 September 2026 to Thursday 29 October 2026.

Trimester 2: Tuesday 19 January 2027 to Friday 12 March 2027.

Attention!

The TP laboratories run during the first week of the two-week field-work break (8 - 12 March 2027) 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 27 October 2026
  • Report 4 due by 5pm on Monday 18 January 2027
  • Report 6 due by 5pm on Monday 8 March 2027
  • Report 8 due by 5pm on Monday 5 April 2027

Theoretical Physics:

  • Report 1 due by 5pm on Monday 5 October 2026
  • Report 2 due by 5pm on Monday 9 November 2026
  • Report 3 due by 5pm on Monday 15 February 2027
  • Report 4 due by 5pm on Tuesday 30 March 2027

Late Submission of Laboratory Reports

Effective September 2026, UCD has introduced the Additional Considerations for Assessment Policy, for more information see: here and here.

For the labs, year-long modules will have two permitted self-certified five-working-day extensions (each with an additional five-day one-grade penalty permitted). One-trimester modules there will have one permitted self-certified extension.

However, in all cases, you will not be assigned your next laboratory until the report for the previous one has been submitted.