Class requirements and grading

MAS.450 is an undergraduate course that satisfies MIT's Institute Lab Requirement. This course requires demonstration of the following skills:

• demonstration of laboratory proficiency,
• an understanding of the underlying physical concepts,
• the ability to analyze and predict physical behavior,
• the ability to work both as an individual and as part of a group,
• the ability to document research - for yourself and for others,
• the ability to formulate a hypothesis, construct a laboratory experiment to test it, and present the results in written and verbal form.

The graduate version of MAS.450, course MAS.854, follows the basic curriculum of MAS.450, but demands a more mature and independent approach to satisfying the above requirements.

Towards these goals, MAS.450/854 has several grading components, each measuring a different group of the above skills.

Problem sets (25%)

Problem sets are handed out every one to two weeks. Some questions will involve calculations that predict behavior you see in lab or otherwise in holography. Others will test your intuition of holography as you've learned it in lab or from a computer simulation. Still others may require that you think about an upcoming lab and, for instance, design an optical setup or anticipate a problem. Problem sets aren't just for grade points: they are supposed to guide the development of your understanding and intuition.

Exams (25%)

There are two exams in the class. The first, near the middle of the semester, tests your knowledge of the basic and underlying concepts of holography. The second exam, near the end of the the semester, concentrates more on "higher level" ideas of holography, as well as on more advanced concepts.

Lab participation and practicum (20%)

This course centers on its laboratory component. Without the labs, MAS.450/854 is just another physical optics course. Your lab is taught by a lab TA on one day a week for four hours.

You must attend the labs. Only with the permission of an instructor and only under the direst of circumstances may you miss a lab. (You should speak to your lab TA if you need to move to another lab section for a session.) You should read the lab writeups before your lab session: they will help get your lab group in and out much faster, and you'll learn more.

Your TA will provide considerable input to your in-lab grade. In addition, we will test your ability to perform basic laboratory skills during an in-lab practicum to be held about two-thirds of the way through the semester. This evaluation is not meant to be a "holographic lab olympics;" rather, it is to make sure that everyone has a common set of skills required to complete their final projects.

Lab notebooks (10%)

Documentation of lab work is an essential part of laboratory life. You are required to maintain a lab notebook during MAS.450/854. We will discuss characteristics and qualities of good lab notebooks early in the class. Notebooks will be collected at the middle and end of the semester for evaluation and grading.

Final projects (20%)

At the end of the semester, after the assigned labs, you will have an opportunity for independent experiments in the form of a final project. We require you to work in teams. You will design an experiment, a laboratory apparatus to test it, and a procedure to carry it out. You'll conduct the experiment using the techniques of holography and lab work that you've learned in class, documenting each step along the way. Finally, you'll present your work in class during the final exam period.

This year, we would like to encourage final projects to be more like controlled experiments and less like creative projects. It's hard to pull off a professional-looking holographic image in the short time you have for final projects. Also, making holograms usually takes much more time than you think it will, for some reason. On the other hand, holography is an undeveloped field; well-designed experimental work you do in class could quite possibly be the basis for a research paper in holography.

We'll provide a list of project ideas later in the term. You can always discuss project ideas at any time with your lab TA or the course instructor.