Computational Physics in lockdown in Cambridge

David Buscher

Computational physics in Cambridge was already evolving

• In 2015
  • 1st year: Matlab (basic plotting etc)
  • 2nd year: Basic C++ programming
  • 3rd year: C++ numerical programming
• By early 2020:
  • 3rd year course fully in Python
  • Plans to transition 1st and 2nd year courses to Python

The course is a mix of teaching elements

• Lectures covering numerical techniques + programming (8 lectures)
• Practical exercises: students solve 3 problems with demonstrator support (4 afternoons)
• Computing project: Substantial physics problem written up as a 3000-word report (no contact time)

Demonstrating used Teams

Hand-in was finally online

Lockdown mostly accelerated existing trends

• Move to Colab will stay
• Video lectures will likely remain an option
• Not clear about demonstrating