Design Like a Physicist


Physics 398DLP, Spring 2022

3 credit hours

Face-to-face (but masked!), Friday afternoons, 1 pm - 5 pm, in Loomis 276.

Note that we'll meet online, via Zoom, during the first week of the semester.


Dean Bashir has asked faculty to distribute to students the information linked here.

Required stuff


There are no required texts for Physics 398DLP. I will assemble starter "kits" of parts and tools for each of you, which you are to pick up from the table in the hall between Loomis 437 and Loomis 441 BEFORE the first (Zoom) class meeting.

You must come to each class (including the first) with

  • • A laptop or other device that is capable of running the Arduino Integrated Developer's Environment (IDE) as well as the current version of Anaconda's Python IDE. Note that smartphones will be insufficient for your needs. The Mac OS and some version of Windows are probably best, but if you insist on using a Unix/Linux laptop, I'm going to assume that you are generally able to cope with the problems that might arise.
  • • A charger for your laptop.
  • • An adapter (if necessary) that will let your laptop read/write from/to an SD memory card.
  • • Your box of parts and tools.
  • • Adapters that will let you connect a pair of USB-A cables to your laptop.
  • • A physical paper notebook in which you will perform calculations, etc. etc.

Attendance at the entire Friday class session, from 1pm to 4:50pm, is obligatory. Your grade will include your level of compliance with this requirement. In addition, Shubhang Goswami (the p398DLP TA) and I will meet with individual groups each week in Loomis 437 for about a half hour to discuss nitty-gritty technical issues and monitor your progress. We will schedule these to avoid conflicts with your other academic obligations. These meetings are also obligatory. Please have your devices and tools at hand whenever we meet.

Office hours are on-demand: let Shubhang and/or me know that you'd like to meet; try to give us a couple of hours advance notice.

In a departure from earler semesters of the course, there will be weekly homework assignments. In general, each week's assignment will be due at 5 pm on Thursday of the following week. For example, the week 1 assignment is due on Thursday of week 2. You are to email material of/from the completed assignment to the course TA. Assignments that are late by up to one week will receive at most 50% of full credit. We will not grade assignments that are more than one week late. For technicalk reasons involving Physics Dept. IT infrastructure, we are unable to use the usual gradebook software, so you'll have to ask us for a report of your records if you'd like to see what we have for you. I will post asignments to the course website as the semester unfolds.


Suggested projects

  •     A novel temperature monitor for equine laminitis cryotherapy. "Laminitis" (also called "founder") is a dreadful (and dreadfully common) affliction in which the layers of connective tissue in a horse's lower legs become damaged. A horse so afflicted becomes lame; if not addressed promptly, sometimes the unforunate animal must be euthanized. Early treatment involves immersing the affected leg in an ice bath, while trying to maintain the temperature of the surface of the leg above freezing, at around 5°C. But the temperature is hit-or-miss. I have an idea how we might monitor the temperature with a precision of about a degree, and have been discussing the possibilities with a Vet Med researcher.
  •     An initial feasibility study of a rotating-mirror arthroscope. Orthopedic surgeons use an optical instrument called an arthroscope to view the surgical field during procedures such as joint repair. The typical field of view of an arthroscope can vary from 75° to 115°. Could we expand this to greater than 200° by synchronizing image capture with the orientation of a rotating mirror?
  •     Predictive seismometry: Can we recognize seismic noise on a perimeter surrounding a sensitive device, and use this to predict the vibrations that will be experienced by the device? A possible application would be the stabilization of final-focus beam optics in a high energy linear electron-positron collider.
  •     Winter corn/soy field color spectroscopy: fly an AS7341 spectrometer over no-till fields and see if there's anything to be learned from the color profiles we observe during late fall.
  •     Daytime bovine methanogenesis measurements in a UIUC Animal Sciences barn. In the United States livestock generate more methane than nearly all other sources. Methane is an important, incredibly harmful contributor to climate change caused by greenhouse gas emission. Let's install a string of methane sensors, all read by an Arduino that is radio-linked to a WiFi-enabled base station.
  •     Microphone-based, radio-linked vector anemometers (my invention!): could a sound engineer use these to correct (in real time) for wind-induced phase errors between towers of speakers in a large outdoor concert venue?
  •     Exploration of a Bernoulli's principle-based vector anemometer (my speculations!): is the remarkable DPS310 pressure sensor accurate enough for us to gauge wind velocity based on pressure changes in a wind channel of varying cross sectional area?
  •     Inertial navigation: how well can we integrate the rotations and accelerations of a Roomba autonomous vacuum cleaner to figure out where the device actually is?
  •     Spectral properties of African percussion instruments: Djembe vs. conga. How (and why) does the sound change with technique?
  •     Piano overtone spectra: bass, middle, and upper ranges. I have a story for you about an elerly piano tuner who appeared to have become somewhat tone deaf.
  •     Solar cell performance comparisons: control an NPN-based current source with an Arduino, see what various solar cells can do. I'm starting to use these in an agriculture technology project, and there are surprises in what I find. So let's scope this out in more detail.
  •     Predictive shock mitigation on Illinois Central passenger trains. Amtrak rails are a mess just south of Kankakee. Could the bumps felt in one car be radio'd to a device in a car further towards the rear? It might allow an active suspension supporting a crate of delicate devices to better protect its cargo.
  •     Prospects for live performance over Zoom: time-stability of latency; relative latencies of image and audio signals. (I appreciate that we are all sick of Zoom!)
  •     Noise produced by wind turbines. We want to do this in the time domain, not frequency domain.
  •     Multiple-head IR non-contact thermometer. What would it take to measure the temperatures of a dozen subjects simultaneously? How fast can nwe do this?
  •     Foot pressure profiles for users of standing desks. I like my standing desk, but should I be wearing protective footgear?
  •     Airborne particulate concentrations in agricultural settings (outside/inside tractor and/or combine cabins)
  •     Directional selectivity of a two-electret-microphone-per-ear hearing aid.


    • Syllabus and milestones


    I will not distribute hardcopies of the course packet this term; you can (and should) download it here.. The detailed syllabus starts on p. 27 of the course packet. The list of milestones we'll expect you to hit begins on p. 24. I reproduce them below. Note that EVERYTHING I distribute is copyrighted, and you are to respect this.

    Milestones

    • •  1a. Modify the Arduino’s blink program so that it blinks the initials (of your English/American name) in Morse code. (Week 1, by end of Friday class)
    • •  1b. Install and test a BME680. (Week 1, by end of Friday class)
    • •  1c. On your breadboard, install the following devices (in addition to the BME680 and Arduino): LCD (including 10kΩ trimpot), keypad, and microSD breakout. (Week 2, by beginning of Friday class)
    • •  1d. Formulate a project plan and division of project responsibilities. (Week 2, by midweek group conference with course staff)
    • •  2a. Install, set, and read back a DS3231 real time clock. (Week 2, by end of Friday class)
    • •  2b. Install and read back a GPS module. Use it to set the DS3231 real time clock. (Week 2, by end of Friday class)
    • •  2c. Write a short text file to your SD card. Copy the file to your laptop, then write a short Python program to read it and display its contents. (Week 2, by end of Friday class)
    • •  2d. Finish installing all the parts on your breadboard required for your project’s data logger. (Week 3, by beginning of Friday class)
    • •  2e. Register an Autodesk user account, then visit the TinkerCad website. (Week 3, by beginning of Friday class)
    • •  3a. Write a single bare-bones program that read all your project circuit’s sensors and writes data to a microSD file. (Week 3, by end of Friday class)
    • •  3b. Write a single bare-bones Python data analysis program that generates histograms and plots of environmental data read by your BME680. Calculate means and RMS widths for these quantities. (Week 3, by end of Friday class)
    • •  3c. Log in to Autodesk and download EAGLE. (Week 4, by midweek group conference with course staff)
    • •  4a. Finish writing a reasonably sophisticated DAQ and use it for a quick field test of your devices. (Week 4, by end of Friday class)
    • •  4b. Analyze your field test data, generating the plots and calculations that you expect to appear in your ultimate report. (Week 4, by end of Friday class)
    • •  4c. Install breakout boards on your PCB and test it. (Week 5, by midweek group conference with course staff)
    • •  5a. Perform a longer set of field tests and run them through your analysis. (Week 5, by beginning of Friday class)
    • •  5b. In consultation with course staff, refine your offline analysis. (Week 5, by end of Friday class)
    • •  5c. Finish PCB and transition to using it for more field test data; verify that PCBs function as expected. (Week 5, by end of Friday class)
    • •  5d. Use TinkerCad to design personalized covers for your PCB cases. (Week 5, by end of Friday class)
    • •  5d. Use TinkerCad to design personalized covers for your PCB cases. (Week 5, by end of Friday class)
    • •  6a. Take all the data that you think you’ll need for your project. (Week 6, by end of Friday class)
    • •  6b. Verify that your data are valid: analyze them. (Week 6, by end of Friday class)
    • •  7a. Analyze production data and discuss your conclusions with course staff. (Week 7, by end of Friday class)
    • •  7b. Draft a modified run plan if appropriate, take more production data. (Week 8, by midweek group conference with course staff)
    • •  8a. Develop a detailed data analysis including cross calibration techniques, and run all your data through it. (Week 8, by end of Friday class)
    • •  8b. Write brief outline of a possible project report, discuss with course staff. (Week 8, by end of Friday class)
    • •  9-10. Write and submit “nearly final” draft of project report. (Week 10, by start of Friday class)
    • •  11-12. Rewrite and submit “final” project report. (Week 12, by start of Friday class)
    • •  13-14a. Prepare PowerPoint project presentation. (Week 14, by start of Friday class)
    • •  13-14b. Prepare and submit final project report. (Week 14, by start of Friday class)