LUMS

The following are the goals of the SSE Physics Lab:

1. Preparing an institutional and national platform for student-driven experimental research in physics.

2. Indigenous development of experiments for the laboratory and demonstrations for the classroom environment.

3. Training SSE students in world class experimental physics through required and optional lab courses.

4. Sharing expertise, resources and training in physics education with sister institutions and organizations in the country and the region.



Publications

"Simple circuit for investigating noise in the undergraduate laboratory", Umer Hassan, Sohaib Shamim and Muhammad Sabieh Anwar, European Journal of Physics, 30, 1143-51 (2009).

"Investigating viscous damping using a webcam", Sohaib Shamim, Wasif Zia and Muhammad Sabieh Anwar, submitted to American Journal of Physics (2009).



Important News

The Physlab article on [investigating properties of white noise] has now been published in the European Journal of Physics. (20 Aug 2009.)


The Physlab receives accreditation from the [Pakistan Nuclear Regulatory Authority] to setup undergraduate experiments on medical physics and radiation. (Aug 2009)
The final report on GEM4, the summer school at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign has been published in the HEC Newsletter, News and Views, July 2009 edition. (Written by Umer Hassan) (July 2009)


With the help of the Engineering and Safety Department, the Physlab has purchased a Lathe Machine for in-house manufacturing of various equipment for the lab. (23 June 2009)

The Physlab perfects the art of making cartridge heaters (10 June 2009). These heaters can be made to custom size and can be used in spot, strip and bulk heating applications.


The lab can now safely handle cryogenics including liquid nitrogen. Storage facilities for dry ice and liquid nitrogen are now available (May 2009).


A report of the Physlab is published in Newsnet, LUMS's quarterly periodical.
The Physlab borrows an indigenously developed setup for determining the Curie point of a ferromagnetic alloy to the freshmen physics lab at the GIKI. Here is Dr. Jamil's response:


Thanks for sending the manual and handing us one complete set of experiment of determination of Curie point. FES would soon be officially acknowledging this generous assistance from SSE. The experiment have been set on display in our PH102 lab. I totally agree that we both can share our expertise in freshmen physics lab. The end beneficiary would be students of both schools. Perhaps an official visit of lab personnel on reciprocal basis in future would be more advantageous. At GIKI we are laying more emphasis on improving the exisitng lab facilities for freshmen.




Visits

Umer Hassan Siddiqui travels to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to participate in the Summer School: Cellular and Molecular Mechanics with a focus on Enabling Technologies (June 8 to June 19, 2009).


A delegation from the Institute of Space Technology (IST) comprising the Vice Chancellor, Dean of Materials Science and other faculty members visits the Physlab and expresses overwhelming interest in reproducing these experiments in the undergraduate curriculum at the IST. IST is the educational face of the country's space agency, SUPARCO.


Abdul Mannan successfully completes the practical course titled Computer Aided Drawing and Drafting offered by the National Institute of Design and Analysis, Lahore (April 2009).


Dr Jameel Nabi from GIKI visited the Physics Lab on 27 February 2009. This visit can further enhance the co-operation between the two institutes.
24 A-level students from the Lahore Grammar School (LGS) visit the lab on 26 February 2009 and keenly perform our freshmen experiments.


A group of teachers and Ph.D. students visited the lab on 26 November 2008. The visitors came from various departments of the Punjab University, COMSATS Lahore and UET, Lahore. They saw the lab in session and observed the performance of students. They returned highly inspired!


Dr. Shaukat Hameed Khan, Rector GIKI and Member Planning Commission, Pakistan visits the Physlab and offers valuable suggestions on improving the experiments and offers ideas for new experiments in the forthcoming years



Experiments

List of Experiments

Lab I (first year)
Simple harmonic motion is observed through webcam

Rotational dynamics, moment of inertia, torque and rotational friction

Heat transfer and Newton’s law of cooling

Latent heat of vaporization of liquid nitrogen and low temperature heat capacities

Laws of thermodynamics and thermodynamic cycles using glass syringes

Magnetic phase transitions of a ferromagnetic alloy

Optical activity of chiral solutions

Sampling, data acquisition and frequency filtering

Resonance and quality factor in electric circuits

Radioactivity statistics

Electromagnetic induction and working of read-write operations in magnetic media





Lab II (third year, first semester)

Faraday's effect and Berry's phase

Noise and autocorrelation

Applications of a lock-in amplifier

Biomedical signal acquisition and processing

Selected experiments on quantum optics

Cyclone physics, weather fronts and air circulation

Cosmic rays and lifetimes of muons, time dilation

Thermal standing waves in a toroid and measurement of thermal diffusivity

Making a high-temperature superconductor and measuring its properties

Fabricating a nitrogen laser

more to come

Lab III (third year, second semester)
more to come




R&D

Research and Development

Currently physlab is doing several things in the lab and all is related to R&D. They are as follows:


1.Heaters and Refractory Materials: We are developing disk, cartridge and ring heaters of variable dimensions to fit our requirements in the lab. We make our own thermal cement and raisin. We are also working on making ceramic sheets (perforated) with different raisins for making shelves and walls of our lab furnaces.

2.Cryogens and Cryostats: We have made our own dry ice containers. These are glass wool lagged copper containers with a thermopore reservoir. The containers were argon welded to prevent damage due to thermal shock. The reservoir loses of dry ice are 2.14kg/day. The container losses in turn are negligible.


3.Thermal Paper for Compatible Modes of Heat Transfer: This is one of our freshman experiments which has the potential to be published. A comparison is done between radiation, convection and conduction under conditions of forced convection and 'closed lid' states. We interrogate heat exchange from different geometries such as cones and fins as well. Currently we have 16 thermocouples attached to the heating cylinder to find out the heat gradient as a function of length.



4.EM Experiment for Susceptibility Measurement: Our freshman experiment curie temperature measurement went very well and we want to add susceptibility measurement to it also. This will help us strengthen our paper.


5.Hunerkada Sessions: In these short, hands-on sessions we demonstrate how to use power tools, make common gadgets, and develop specialised tools to fit a particular purpose. This is an exercise to help our lab assistants, technicians and students to have the freedom to develop everything in the lab and workshop.


6.Video Lectures for Freshman: These are short demonstrations of the freshman experiments. These will help prospective students and will help institutes who we sell our experiments to.



7.Quantum Optics: We are also developing experiments to test the theoretical results proposed by a quantum optics group in Islamabad.




http://physlab.lums.edu.pk/index.php/Welcome_to_Experimental _Physics

Dr.Sabieh Anwar Dr.Sabieh Anwar Laser Experiment

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