Computerized Instrumentation

PHY 215

PHY 215 is an introductory course on the uses of a small computer in the laboratory. Topics may include: input and output ports, analog to digital converters, thermistors, timers, stepper motors, nonlinear least squares fitting to experimental data, digital signal processing, numerical integration, temperature measurement and control, and scientific documentation.

The course syllabus, homework exercise solutions, and other resources are available behind the following links:

• the fall 2024 course syllabus and calendar,
• draft PHY215 laboratory manual,
• esp32 microcontroller data sheet
• esp32 microcontroller exercise book
• IRFZ40 HEXFET data sheet
• style and format example of a scientific paper. Here is a Microsoft word template for a paper submitted to Physical Review journals. The revtex4 package and a template for writing your paper is available from overleaf.
• Each of the exercises in the lab manual must be submitted as a separate markdown file (file extension .md). You have (at least) three options for a markdown editor. (i) VS Code with the markdown plugin installed (ii) CLion or (iii) PyCharm. You will probably need to created an education account for the last two. Also: here is a markdown example (zip file) showing how to document your exercises.

Instructors: Kerry K. Kuehn, Ph.D., Professor of Physics, kerry.kuehn[at]wlc.edu,

Jeff Brown, Ph.D., Professor of Computer Science, jeffrey.brown[at]wlc.edu

This is an introductory course on the uses of a small computer in the laboratory. Topics may include: input and output ports, analog to digital converters, thermistors, timers, stepper motors, nonlinear least squares fitting to experimental data, digital signal processing, numerical integration, temperature measurement and control, and scientific documentation.

Office Hours: TBA

What are the textbook(s) for this course? We will be using the PHY 215 laboratory manual. In addition, you may find the following resources useful:

Eric Matthes. Python Crash Course, 3rd Ed.(San Francisco: No Starch Press, 2023).