PHY4802L - LABORATORY ELECTRONICS - FALL 2012

Grading

  • Lab Reports and Performance: 60%
  • Weekly In-Class quiz: 15%
  • Final Project: 20%
  • Class Participation: 5%
Please check with your instructor if you have questions about the grading scale.

Class Grading Scheme

On the day of the final, once all presentations are complete, you must clean up your project and bench area. Anyone not doing so will receive an Incomplete in this course.

Weekly Quizzes

In-class quizzes will be given in the first 15 minutes of class on the first Thursday of each lab. The quiz starts promptly on time. These are closed book quizzes. No make-up in-class quizzes will be offered. The quizzes cover the reading material assigned for the lab you are about to start. This includes the texbook AND the lab manual. The first quiz will only cover material assigned from the textbook. We will drop your lowest quiz score.

Lab Reports

Lab reports are due by the start of class on the dates listed on the schedule. Late lab reports will incur a severe penalty of 15% off per day late. After 4 days late the maximum grade for the assignment (assuming perfect work) will be 40%.

Assignment due dates will be strictly followed.

A hard-copy of the lab reports is due in person, on the dates shown on the Class Schedule. We will not accept electronic versions. Late labs will only be accepted if they are submitted in our offices/slipped under the door. While you will work in teams of 2 for building the circuits and recording data, the lab reports are to be individual efforts. Discussion with and help from your peers is encouraged, but copying of work is not. Both of the members in a group should participate in taking data and analyses. Exclusively sharing the duty of lab work is not allowed. Lab partners will be rotated based on the instructor's preference.


Final Project

The final project will consist of a circuit devised, or selected from the literature, by each team of two students, that will be built and demonstrated for the class (including a description of its operation). It will be judged on a combination of complexity, execution, and comprehension. Students are responsible for ordering and purchasing any parts needed for their project that are not already in the lab. Students wishing to keep their final project are required to purchase their own breadboard. Students will choose their own partner for the final project.

Laboratory Access

If you wish to put in more time, the laboratory (Room 1249) is accessible during off-hours. A combination locked box on the door contains the key to the room. You will be given the combination in class. Be sure that the box with the key and the room are locked when you leave. This access is intended for make-up and for when simply more time is needed. For safety reasons, no student should be working in the lab alone at any time. If you are found working alone in the lab you will be given an automatic failure for that week's lab. This does not mean you with a friend. You should always be evenly splitting the lab work with your partner. Any after hours work must be done with your partner.