Rules
Assignments of groups to measurements
We will have a discussion on the first class of the semester, where we form groups of three students. Every group can express their preferences as of which measurements they would like to carry out. For this reason, it is very important to participate on this first class. This is announced via email (from Neptun) or in a Teams message. Groups need to be formed such that group members have similar timetables and similar/same availabilities for the laboratories (i.e. everyone is free on the days concerned, etc).
The location and date/time of the measurements
This laboratory course consists of 12 weeks, and 5 hours of laboratory work every week, thus 60 contact hours total. This can be rearranged, but not shortened. In the spring semester of 2024, the official time according to the timetable of the University is Mondays, between 8:00 and 15:00. The first and last days of the semester are 12th of February amd 17th of May, and laboratories can be held between 20th of February and 17th of May, 2024. One can deviate from the above day/time of the week depending on the flexibility of the students and the instructors of the measurements, especially at locations outside of Budapest (for example, devoting a whole weekend, or two consecutive working days).
We expect that the laboratory classes will be held in-person.
In case of personal participation, please, wash or
sanitize your hands before and after the labs, stay at home
if you are sick, and observe the actual health
regulations of the host institutes and ELTE.
Each group has to conduct three measurements during the semester.
These can be chosen by the groups in the beginning of the semester,
but they will be subject to availability, and not guaranteed.
All the three measurements take 20 contact hours each (60 hours in total).
Measurements are conducted by trios (sometimes duos) of students, according to the
"Groups" assignment table.
The locations of the measurements and the offices/labs of the instructors are given at the
"Measurements"
link.
Since the measurements are, in many cases, at locations and facilities outside of the University, they can be rearranged into 3 days and 7 hours/day, to make the organization easier. Thus, it is a good idea to arrange for a whole free day per week for this laboratory class in your schedules.
A special case is the measurement at Piszkéstető, which is conducted on the weekends (nights) between Friday afternoon and Sunday evening. Further exemptions are the measurements at the accelerator facilities in Debrecen, in the HAS Institute for Nuclear Research: the timetable for those should be agreed with the instructors working at the given Institute, for every group separately. It may be possible to stay overnight in the guesthouse of the Institute in Debrecen, subject to discussion every year. This measurement takes two full days, 10 hours per day, and one night to be spent in Debrecen, during working days.
The precise timetable of the measurements should be discussed with each instructor by each group, at least one week before the measurements (but as soon as possible). Gábor Veres (vg at ludens.elte.hu) should be cc-d in all e-mail communications between students and instructors about the timetable and the measurements! This is especially important, since one can only enter the sites of the Wigner Institute, HAS Institute for Nuclear Research and the Piszkéstető Observatory with pre-arranged authorizations (sometimes including national ID numbers provided in advance).
In case of well justified no-show (illness) it is important to notify the organizer of the laboratory class and the instructor of the specific measurement as soon as possible! Opportunities of organizing supplementary measurements may be very limited and complicated. In case of unjustified no-show the grade at the end of the semester can be refused. In case of COVID or cold-flu symptoms, please STAY AT HOME and we will try to find a solution for you.
Laboratory reports
The deadline to submit the laboratory reports is two weeks after the last date/appointment that belongs to the given measurement. In case of the measurements at the Technical University it is one week. The exception is the end of the semester: the absolute deadline is the last day of the semester, 17th of May, 2024, even if that is shorter than two weeks.
The laboratory report should be submitted by the deadline to the instructor of the specific measurement in writing in electronic form (based on the agreement with the instructor) and at the same time it should be sent to the organizer of the laboratory course (Gábor Veres, vg at ludens.elte.hu) as well! Any delay has a consequence of subtraction of 1/2 grade per week of delay.
The members of the working group shall prepare and submit their laboratory reports separately, by default. If the instructor specificly asks for a common report, that may also be allowed. However, nobody is allowed to argue at the end of the semester, that the preparation of the common laboratory report of the group was supposed to be done by another member of the group, but "it did not happen" (thus it is not her/his fault)! Whoever is missing a laboratory report, cannot get a grade at the end of the semester, irrespectively of who was "supposed to" prepare that. This is partially why it is recommended to submit individual reports by each team member, not just one report as a team. All the team members should contribute anyway to the laboratory reports.
Although only three laboratory reports should be prepared during the semester, these reports have to reflect the experience and knowledge gained over the long time (20 contact hours) of the exercise, including the detailed analysis of the data, the discussion and interpretation of the results, as expected from a well trained MSc student. This is especially valid if the team submits only one common laboratory report. Before submitting the report (possibly still at the last appointment with the instructor) usually the teams may ask for a consultation with the instructor if necessary, or, questions can be asked in e-mail. However, the final submission of the report is a statement that the author(s) fully understood and analysed the measurement, her/his/their report is final, she/he/they could not improve much on it any more, and the presented work can now be evaluated. There are no possibilities of iterations or corrections of the report after the two-week deadline. Parts or chapters from the preparatory material or textbooks should not be copied into the laboratory report, including material from the www. These can be referenced in the report. The actual structure, methodology, results and discussion of the measurement should be presented. The laboratory report can be thought of as a simpler BSc thesis, but shorter, more dense, and without a too lengthy introduction to the given topic (unless asked for by the instructor). Wherever meaningful, one should not forget about the correct evaluation of the experimental uncertainties.
Preparation
Every laboratory instructor provides a preparatory material, which may be found also here under the link "Measurements" Every team should notify the instructor one week before the measurement in e-mail, indicating that the team members have read this material already (if such material is given), and ask her/him to suggest further reading for the preparation, if necessary. (If no reading material is provided at the above link, then the given instructor has to be asked for it in any case). Since these outside Institutes do us a favour gladly by accepting you and leading these exercises, we are really obliged to prepare for these measurements diligently and accurately, as well as to submit our well written laboratory reports in due time. The language of the report should be agreed with the instructor (English or Hungarian).
Communicating to us any observed mistakes or suggestions for improvements concerning the preparatory materials is very welcome.
