Topic outline

  • General

    Passing the course

    The course can be passed by a combination (as mentioned in the syllabus) of a pre-test in thermodynamics (6 points max), exercises (50 points max per 10 exercises), take-home tasks (20 points max per 10), article presentation (10 points), computational project (16 points), and if so desired an exam (3 problems, 18 points) for a maximum of 120 points. The course can be passed without the last one if enough tasks are completed.

    Course material is covered in the book of Sethna (syllabus), and the additional lecture notes (to be available here).

    Practicalities

    This fall the course is organized in class room, in a "flipped" setting. On Tuesdays, the teaching assistant provides additional help and hints for the home exercises. The exercise sessions will be organized face-to-face (mostly Y346, except the last week of October). On Fridays, we have a short summary of the material to be studied, a student research paper presentation, and a brief introduction to the next topic in the programme (take-home material, important points). Fridays are also mostly in M240.

    The initial pre-test is provided by Tue 13th via email and you have one week to complete it. Questions can be asked at the session (see below).

    Each week a set of exercises is published, out of which one problem is to be returned via MyCourses. The exercises will be based on the lecture notes. Also, the students are to do a take-home task (study the material for the week, reply to a question or two). An example goes like this: on Friday, you get the take-home for next week and the home and demonstration problems. On Tuesday, you get hints for the home problem and the demo problems are discussed. The home problem solutions are then expected by next Tuesday (so you have 1.5 weeks to do them). The take-home tasks have deadline on Thursday noon, so that we are able to collect your best solutions for discussion for the lecture on Friday.

    The exercise sessions will cover the home problem and additional demo problems. You can also ask questions via email.

    The students are formed into groups to prepare the article presentations and the computational projects. The presentation and project topics are announced during the first lecture on Friday, September 16. You are expected to provide us your preferences from the topics (and eventual group partners) as replies to a designated MC announcement by September 24 noon so that we are able to form the groups. If you forget, we assign you. The presentations are scheduled once we have assigned them to groups.  The computational projects are finished towards the end of the course.  We will have one session to discuss these and you have to report your (group's) one by a joint presentation.

    The first pre-lecture is on Friday 16th, at 11.00 due to a PhD thesis defense. We will shortly go through the organization. Note the time has been slightly anticipated. The usual lecture time will be 13.15.

    The first exercise session will be on Tuesday, September 20..

    Lecturer: Mikko Alava

    Assistant: Juha Savolainen