Society of Physics Students

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WPI Society of Physics Students
WPI Society of Physics Students
Please note that this is no longer the SPS's main page. We have a website now, which
can be found at http://users.wpi.edu/~sps. Although we will continue to maintain
this wiki, please note that it may not contain the most up to date information.

The Society of Physics Students (associated with the Physics Honor Society ΣΡΣ) is a student organization dedicated to enjoying a creative and entertaining pursuit of physics. A chapter exists at almost every physics department in the United States, but of course the WPI chapter may be the coolest. Every physics major is automatically a member and is eligible to be an officer.

Our meetings run on Wednesdays from 6-7 in the Physics Library (Olin Hall 118). Please feel free to drop by, as we are usually either talking about physics, watching YouTube video's, or building/utilizing various physics demonstrations (see SPS Projects for lists of past, present, and future projects).



Contents

Current Events

Our calendar: Google Calendar


Applying to Grad School

Outline

1) Which University? - Shoot for high ranking places - it will give you higher caliber peers and provide a rich environment for learning. Also more opportunities after graduation.

- Be practical though, most students from WPI get GRE scores around 20% to 30%. This is REALLY low. MIT thinks 80% is low. I would shoot for two schools from the top 10, two from top 30, two from top 40, two from top 60. Maybe 1 from top 80, (this will be a very comfortable safety school).

- Where do you want to live for the next 6 years of your life? Keep in mind, that is how long you will be at this University. You could likely marry and have children before you finish your degree.

2) What to Study? - My impression is that schools only care that you are interested in their general subject of expertise. Boston College is all Condensed Matter; they probably wouldn't accept you if you wanted to study astronomy, and they would be a bad match anyway. You needn't get to specific though, you will have plenty of time while there to decide which professor / project you are interested in.

3) Who do you ask for letters of Recommendation - A few profs that know you well, and hopefully some that will personalize the letters to each school that you are interested in. Find some profs at the school you find interesting and put together a spreadsheet of what interests you about each school. Include all other pertinent info in this spreadsheet, and ask for all your letters of recommendation at once from each WPI prof., it will make things easier.


4) What the schools are looking for. - Good GRE scores. Good transcripts. Genuine interest in their field of research (the research being done in their department mind you).

5) Fellowships -NSF, Hertz Foundation, and several others. They are really prestigious. keep in mind, you can often apply your first or second year of grad school too.

6) What to expect from Grad School - lots of work. You will have to really know your stuff, and the first year you will just being doing coursework.

7) Get Paid (typical is $20,000/year +/- 4,000 and free tuition)

8) What to do if you recieve rejections - Call around, maybe there is someplace that needs TAs - Interview for jobs (this is a fantastic opportunity to learn about what industry actually looks like, its different from academia)

Upcoming Events

Wavepackets, Chaos, and Scattering: From Chemistry to Physics and Back

Weekend before Finals...
Date: Oct 7-9, 2010
Location: ITAMP, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA
website: [1]

Fall 2010 Meeting of the New York Section of the APS

First Weekend of Fall Break!
Topic:Topic: Origins: Solar System, Universe, and Life
Date: Oct 15-16, 2010
Location: Hofstra University, Hampstead, NY (Long Island)
website: [2]

2010 MRS Fall Meeting (materials research science)

Tues, Wed, Thurs of 3rd to last week of B-term
Date: November 30-December 2, 2010
Location: Boston, MA
website: [3]

Past Events

James Kakalios, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota

Date: Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Olin 107
James Kakalios, author of The Phsyics of Superheros, will be our second wonderful speaker this year. His talk sounds really cool, so you should be sure not to miss it! Go here for more details.

Weekly Meeting (April 14, 2010)

There will be NO MEETING this week. This is due to the fact that we will be hosting our second Wonderful Speaker on this day, which you should go to! He is James Kakalios, author of The Physics of Superheroes, which uses superhero physics to teach about traditional physics concepts in untraditional ways. More details are available [http://users.wpi.edu/~sps/colloquia/wonderful.html#041410

Weekly Meeting (April 21, 2010)

We have decided to provide a forum for those who will be presenting on project presentation day (Thursday, April 22) to practice their presentations. Come and get a sneak peek at student projects that have been going on at WPI over the past year! Go here for more details.

Star Gazing with Galileo

Time: 9-10
Location: TBD
As some of you may know, we purchased a Galileoscope back in October with the intention of meeting up in the late eveing for some viewing. Up until now, that hasn't happened. But all that's about to change! On this night, we plan to gather (not quite sure where yet) and do some star gazing with the aid of our telescope. It will be quite a cool time, for even around a city like Worcester, there is much to see. We're hoping for a clear night, but we obviously won't know until the last second. So hang in there, astronomy buffs! Your time is almost nigh!

Weekly Meeting (April 28, 2010)

There will be a meeting this week, but we do not yet know what we will be doing.

Projects and Regular Events

see SPS Projects and Regular Events

Colloquia and Conferences

Physics Department Colloquia

There are currently no Physics Department Colloquia scheduled.

Wonderful Speakers

James Kakalios, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota

Date: Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Time: 4:00 PM
Location: Olin Hall 107

If Superman can leap tall buildings in a single bound, what was the gravity on Krypton like? Does the Fantastic Four's Invisible Woman go blind when she becomes transparent, since light passes through her and her invisible eyes? Can the Flash run at the speed of light, or even faster? Why did Spider-Man's webbing fail his girlfriend? What are the Newtonian physics at work in Gotham City? These and other crucial questions have bedeviled comic book fans for decades. Now science comes to the rescue, ending debates and reaffirming what fans always knew - that comics contain an abundance of useful, accurate knowledge. In his talk, Kakalios will discuss many popular superheroes, and findings from the cutting edge of science. Learn which comic creators got their science right and which got it wrong. James Kakalios is a professor of physics at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Since 2001 he has taught "Everything I Needed to Know About Physics I Learned from Reading Comic Books," a hugely popular course that generated coast-to- coast media attention. He has published more than one hundred physics papers and has conducted research on a variety of obscure physical phenomena. His book "The Physics of Superheroes" was named one of the best science books by Discover (2005). He served as a science consultant on the adaptation of the graphic novel Watchmen into a major feature film. He lives in Minnesota. Refreshments will be served in Olin Hall 118 at 3:30 P.M. A booksigning will be held in the same room following the talk.

Wonderful Speaker Committee

SPS is responsible for inviting speakers for the wonderful speaker colloquium series, a supplemental physics department colloquium series. These are the colloquia marked as wonderful speaker for people who pay attention to the emails about the colloquia or if reading the list of events on the physics department website. If anyone has specific people they would like to invite or research areas in physics they would like to see talks on, email sps-officers@wpi.edu or the wonderful speaker coordinator before the beginning of the school year the talk would be given.

Wonderful Speaker Invitees

Listed here should be invited professors, person who emailed them, that person's position in SPS (WSC Committee, Officer, etc) and the email date. If an invited speaker responds to your email positively, then send an email to Erken Tuzel (etuzel@wpi.edu) asking how you should proceed. Include their response in the email to Erken so he knows whats going on.

  • James Kakalios - Nathan Nesbitt - sps president - 10/10/2009
  • Michio Kaku - Austin Noto-Moniz - sps webmaster - 10/1/2009
  • Brian Greene - Austin Noto-Moniz - sps webmaster - 10/1/2009
  • Alan Guth - Austin Noto-Moniz - sps webmaster - 10/1/09
  • David Morin - Zhen Chen - sps member - 10/05/2009
  • John Wardle - Tingting Liu - sps secretary - 10/27/2009
  • Emanuela Barberis - Tingting Liu - sps secretary - 10/28/2009

SPS Officers

Officer Description

President - Makes decisions, runs meetings, leads the attack on paperwork and red tape to make SPS events happen. Can take the lead on planning events and projects, as well as buying the supplies for the projects.

Vice President - Helps president out, gives suggestions, runs meeting if president can't come, helps with the paperwork (like submitting a request to Lens and Lights to come to the Fruit Drop), helps with events planning/material buying.

Treasurer - In charge of money. That means submitting a budget request to SGA that is typically due beginning to mid December, as well as Semester Report Forms at the end of B and D term (which means tracking spending throughout the year). Treasurer is also responsible for dealing with/signing off on Expense Reimbursement forms, to pay people back if they buy stuff for SPS, and submitting SFR's to SGA for new events to get money for the event (budget money should be used for recurring events that were included in the budget request). All the SGA forms can be found here. Treasurer can also take the lead on buying project materials, especially since he/she knows best how much money should be spent on various items. In this case the president will need to sign off on the Expense Reimbursement form.

Secretary - Takes minutes at SPS meetings, emails those minutes to all the officers. Manages the email alias.

Webmaster - Updates the SPS website.

Wonderful Speaker Coordinator - Coordinates inviting wonderful speakers (awesome professors from other universities that coordinator would like to have come to WPI for a few days and give some talks about their research). Invitations to these professors usually need to be sent out during A-term, so this job requires a bit of work of the summer.

Past and Present Officers

2009-2010

  • President: Nathan Nesbitt
  • Vice-President: Elizabeth Gould
  • Treasurer: Kyle Murdock
  • Secretary: Tingting Liu
  • Webmaster: Austin Noto-Moniz


2008-2009

  • President: Dante Amoroso
  • Vice-President: Nicholas LeCompte
  • Treasurer: Nathan Nesbitt
  • Secretary: Vineet Barot
  • Webmaster: David Coit
  • Wonderful Speaker Coordinators: Elizabeth Gould, Nathan Nesbitt, Nicholas LeCompte


2007-2008

  • President: Ergys Subashie

Links

Videos and Podcasts

YouTube Must-See's for Physicists

Online Science Videos and Podcasts

Reference Material for Course Work

Other

Conferences

Professional Societies

Scholarship Applications

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