Matt Dobbs' Physics Courses

Physics 257 Experimental Methods Part I (2006,2007,2008)

A laboratory course (3 hours a week) with 1.5 hours of lecture per week. It is aimed at physics majors but students from other departments may enroll. This is a challenging course, with a weekly lab report and lecture assignment. The lecture covers statistics, error evaluation and propagation, and computer analysis. We use the Matlab analysis and visualization program.

Physics 228 Energy and the Environment (2007,2008,2009)

A general interest course covering the physics of energy production and consumption, with an emphasis on environmental impact. There are weekly assignments, a poster project, midterm, and final exam. The course is open to all students, but a basic knowledge of high school or first year level calculus is expected.

• Password protected Instructor's page

Physics 641 Observational Techniques in Astrophysics (2007,2008)

This team taught graduate course covers the fundamentals of astrophysics instrumentation and analysis. I teach the section (6 lecture hours) on mm-wavelength instrumentation.

Physics 620 Experimental Particle Physics (2006,2008,2009)

This team taught graduate level course covers the fundamentals of experimental particle physics. I teach the section (3 lecture hours) on Monte Carlo Simulation tools.

Physics 521 Astrophysics (2010,2011)

A quantitative course in galactic and extragalactic astrophysics. Topics include observational techniques, stars and stellar evolution, compact objects, galaxy structure, kinematics, evolution and cosmology.