(Recorded) Project Listings available (sent on 23/09/2020)

1 Outubro 2020, 15:23 • Jose Manuel Lourenco Coutinho Afonso

The project listings are now available.

I would ask you to send me your 3 choices by 12h00 Friday. At that point I will start the process of allocating projects. 

Allow me to recall that, given the huge pressure on the course this year (20 students this far), a student may end up being allocated a project that is not amongst his first 3 choices - this was discussed in our class, and is also detailed in the document. As I mentioned before, although we will try to accommodate your personal preferences, the purpose of the course is to allow you a first research experience in Astrophysics - and if you end up being allocated a project you haven't chosen, I hope you can see this as an opportunity to acquire some experience and get to know a topic of research you might not get to experience ever in your life.

(Recorded) Details for the semestre (sent on 23/09/2020)

1 Outubro 2020, 15:15 • Jose Manuel Lourenco Coutinho Afonso

The course of Astrophysics Laboratory aims to introduce the student to scientific research, theoretical, experimental or computational, in Astronomy and Astrophysics, under the supervision of a researcher. It will help to develop research skills such as image processing and analysis, data handling or computation/simulation. The course takes place over the 1st semestre and corresponds to 6 ECTS, or an equivalent of 150 hours of workload.

Projects:

• The student is provided a list of projects made available by researchers in this area.

• The student should select up to 3 projects ranked by personal preference. Although an effort will be made to accommodate these priorities, projects may have to be attributed randomly among the students that choose the same project. In cases of extreme pressure, a project may be attributed to a student that is not amongst his first 3 choices. The coordinator of the course will send the final allocations both to the students and proposed supervisors. Each supervisor may

  only host up to two projects simultaneously.

  Evaluation Methodology:

• The evaluation includes three components:
  - Evaluation by the supervisor (relative weight 25%);
  - Project report (10 pages) (50%);
  - Public presentation of the work at the end of the course (25%)

• The supervisor evaluates the work done considering: • Capacity of work
  • Autonomy
  • Capacity for innovation

• The report should reveal the acquisition of basic competences of research during the project. The work is not expected to be original work suitable for publication. The main goal of this course is the learning of new skills, not necessarily obtaining a conclusive final scientific result.

• The public presentation should also reveal the obtained expertise, with clarity and communication skills being particularly valued.

• The evaluation of the report and the presentation will be done by a Juri of three researchers appointed by the coordinator of the course. The Juri shall not include any supervisor of current projects.