Postgraduate Course: CDT-OPTIMA credits awarded at Strathclyde, semester 2, Build Your Own Microscope (CHEM11053)
Course Outline
| School | School of Chemistry |
College | College of Science and Engineering |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 5 |
ECTS Credits | 2.5 |
| Summary | "Build your own microscope" is a hands-on course in which groups of students are given the necessary components to build a microscope. The course is taught at Strathclyde University for CDT-OPTIMA credits awarded at Strathclyde. It will be led by Professor Neil Shand of DSTL who will teach the students through a variety of lectures, workshops and independent study exercises how to assemble a fully functional microscope. This course will give a unique insight into how an optical microscope system works as well as how to design and optimise optical spectroscopy systems. The students will learn how different optical instruments including Raman, fluorescence and absorption can be designed from first principle. This will give the students a unique understanding of the techniques that they will be using throughout their PhD as well as in their future careers, whether they remain in optical imaging research after their PhDs or go into industry or work for instrument manufacturers, this course will greatly add to their employability combined with the other courses they will take during the CDT programme. This course will teach the students, over the course of a week, what it could otherwise take them years to learn through simply using commercially available systems. |
| Course description |
At the end of this course students will be able to:
Work effectively in teams and understand the various roles that individuals can play in teams.
Understand how fundamental physical sciences can be applied to build a functional microscope.
Day 1
Lecture 1- detectors, gratings, slits, optics, optical fibres, light sources
Practical laboratory - Introduction to SandBox Calibration of the System Effects on Resolution / Range of Gratings and SlitsCalculate Resolution (FWHM) of systemMeasure Resolution of system and determine FWHM using Lamps and Laser SourcesExplore effect of fibre on throughput and resolution
Practical assignment 1: Produce Specification Sheet / Marketing Flyer for Your Spectrometer Product Application Development-
Day 2
Lecture 2- absorbance spectroscopy, reflectance spectroscopy,
Assignment 2: The Pitch Students should prepare a short concise proposal in the form of a Power Point on their spectroscopic Sandbox design on which technique they will use to solve a customer materials identification challenge. The assignment should involve some internet research and suggest some novel techniques, some which hopefully can be implemented. The students should look to identify disruptive technologies and provide an aspect of Horizon scanning. I would expect student to identify things such as miniaturisation and integration of the systems e.g. mems type devices Associated Practical- Development of an instrument and pitch as per the assignment.
Therefore the students should work in groups on designing and building their customers instrument using the equipment available to them during days 2-5.
Day 3-
Lecture 3- fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy
Group work
Day 4-
Lecture 4- Advanced Techniques Lecture / Discussion covering advanced techniques such as SERS, SORS, metal enhanced fluorescence. It should include group discussion on some future concepts such as using mobile phone as spectroscopic devices.
Group work.
Day 5-
Continuation of group work followed by the Pitch-
Customer Demo Day (Assessment). Your customer is coming to visit your company he/she is expecting you to present the results of your work in a short Power-Point Presentation, this should include the design of your system and why it is better than that of your competitors. The customer is also expecting to see a practical demo of your system, all members of the team should provide at least one aspect of the brief. The Power Point will be no more than 15 minutes each with 15 minutes demo
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2016/17, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
| Course Start Date |
16/01/2017 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
50
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 1,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
49 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
0 %,
Practical Exam
100 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The course will be assessed continuously by Professor Shand and Dr Faulds. Students will be assigned a mark based on their level of engagement, effort and understanding of the task and their ability to build a functional microscope. |
| Feedback |
Feedback will be given to the students throughout the exercise in order to ensure that the key points covered in lectures and workshops have been understood and are being used in the successful design and build of a functional microscope. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Work effectively in teams and understand the various roles that individuals can play in teams.
- Understand how fundamental physical sciences can be applied to build a functional microscope.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
None. |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
There will be 4, 2 hour sessions of class contact time with the students. The course will be taught over the course of 5 days. Each morning the students will receive a 2 hour interactive lecture with class discussion on how each component of the microscope works and the fundamental theory behind each of the techniques that the students will then build in the practical sessions. |
| Keywords | microscope |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Paul Barlow
Tel: (0131 6)50 4727
Email: Paul.Barlow@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Samantha Brown
Tel: (0131 6)51 7769
Email: samantha.brown@ed.ac.uk |
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