Physics instruction at Cal Poly is conducted in a variety of formats by skilled professionals who focus on building an inclusive and welcoming learning community so that all students achieve proficiency. Learn by Doing is a guiding principle that permeates the physics curriculum. A major emphasis on laboratory investigations, especially at the upper division, complements students' theoretical and computational grounding. At the lower division level, several sections of courses are taught in a studio environment using materials developed on the basis of research on the learning and teaching of physics.
Modified from physics.calpoly.edu
Senior Projects from 2015
Critical point pairs for smectic-A* - smectic-C* phase transitions., Ted Cassirer
An Extremum Principle for Charged Black Holes, Shaker Von Price Funkhouser
Electromagnetic Calorimeter Calibration: Getting Rid of the Trash, Jacob P. Gamble
Determining the Relationship Between the [OIII] 5007 Å Emission Line Profile and the Stellar Velocity Dispersion in Active Galaxies, Nathaniel Milgram
Simulation of light scattering from Brownian particles, Raymond Mullen
Transition Orbits of Walking Droplets, Joshua Parker
Low Intensity Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy of the Lake Labyrinth Meteorite, Tristan C. Paul
Thermodynamic Effects of a Local Bell State Projection Interaction in a One-Dimensional Dynamic Spin System, Nickolas H. Pilgram
Characterizing Double and Triple Laser Beam Interference Patterns in the Context of Trapping Atoms for Quantum Computing, Ian E. Powell
CUORE Image Analysis and CUORE-0 Shifting: A Contribution to the Search for Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay, Dakota Christopher Rose
Frequency of Seyfert Type Transitions in a Sample of 102 Local Active Galactic Nuclei, Jordan Runco
Simulations of HL-LHC Crab Cavity Noise using HEADTAIL, Stanley Steeper
Saddle Force Mapping, Molly Totten
Correlations in Intensity Fluctuations From a Quasi-Thermal Light Source: An Application of Hanbury Brown & Twiss, Christopher Watanabe
Senior Projects from 2014
Investigation of the Supercritical Bifurcation in a Simple Magneto-Mechanical System, Bo Baker
Design and Implementation of Anti-Ballistic Missile System Using Video Motion Detection and a Nerf Gun, Steven Bowman
Conception, Design and Construction of a Remote Wifi Vehicle using Arduino, Clayton Broman
Detection of an Ultra Low Velocity Zone beneath Central Mexico with PcP Waveform Modeling, David James Buckley
A Boxer's Punch, Jacob A. Ekegren
Optical Properties of De Vries Liquid Crystals and a Look at Ultra Thin Freely Suspended Smectic Films, Joshua P. Fankhauser
Static Interaction of Black Holes in 1+1 Dimensions, Philip Greenwood
Developing A Diffraction Pattern Projection System for Neutral Atom Quantum Computation, Sanjay Khatri
Laser Doppler Velocimetry: Flow Measurement Using a Digital Micromirror Device, Dawei Kuo
Rubidium-based Atomic Clock, Kate Miles