The semester project is to replicate and extend a Molecular Dynamics simulation reported in the condensed matter and physical chemistry literature or to design your own based on your interests.
The project requires that you identify a problem in the literature that uses Molecular Dynamics or Monte Carlo (in any area of condensed matter and physical chemistry) and make a brief report on the problem you selected. You will then replicate a part of the MD simulation and extend it, or produce your own original simulation. You will give a presentation introducing the problem you selected, describing the MD experiment, reporting preliminary results you reached, and comparing your results with those in the paper you replicated and extended (or with other results in the literature). Your final paper may be similar in structure to that of a published paper-- abstract, introduction with background, model and methods, results with graphs and tables correctly numbered and with captions, discussion with comparison to other similar work, conclusions.
After you have made a first draft of your report, a fellow student will review it and write a referee's report. (Likewise, you will review a fellow student's first draft.) Each reviewer will make a brief class presentaion on the review.
Finally, you will prepare a final version of the report and make a class presentaion on it. The final class presentations will be done in the form of a mini-symposium. Each student will have 15 minutes to compactly present the project emulating a scientific conference.
The project is to be completed according to a sequence of milestones:
February 22 :Feasibility study -- software, etc. Submit a one page report.
Estela Blaisten-Barojas, blaisten@gmu.edu