Institute of Solid State Physics
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A bachelor project serves as an introduction to scientific research. During this project, 4 weeks are spent in a research laboratory (150 hours, 6 ECTS). At the conclusion of the research, a report about the results is written and a 20 minute public presentation is given. The time necessary to write the report and prepare the presentation are included in the 150 hours.
A true scientific publication must be original work; it should describe scientific results that have never been reported before. Ideally, a bachelor report should have the character of a scientific publication. A bachelor report is not intended to be a review of work done by others.
A scientific publication should begin with a short and clear description of what was done, why it was done, and what the main results are. It is not a novel where the reader should be kept in suspense until the last page. Tell the ending on the first page and then use the rest of the report to fill in the details.
After the initial statement of your own results, give the reader some background information. All scientific projects build on the work of others. You should make it clear what the state-of-the-art was at the start of your project. This section should be brief, no more than about 3 pages. Provide the reader with references to books or articles that describe your research topic in more detail.
The bulk of a bachelor report should contain a discussion of the scientific issue you attempted to resolve, the methodology you used, a presentation of the data, and a discussion of the results. The recommened length of the report is 15-25 pages.
The TU will scan all master and PhD theses electronically for plagiarism. While there is currently no plan to systematically scan the bachelor theses, everything in electronic form might be scanned at some time. It should be clear from the way the references are placed which ideas you claim as your own and which you have taken from others.
The use of artificial intelligence is not prohibited but it should be made clear how artificial intelligence was used. You are encouraged to use tools like Grammarly or DeepL to check your spelling and grammar. Take care that the meaning is not changed by these tools when they try to improve your grammar. Generative AI such as ChatGPT is more dangerous to use. Generative AI often makes factual errors. There is also the problem that a report should be written in one voice. If most of the report is written in acceptable 'German English' where the grammar is technically correct but the phrasing is different from what a native speaker would use, and then one section has perfect English grammar it seems like more than one person wrote the report although you claim to be the only author. If you use AI then add a sentence such as, 'DeepL was used to check the grammar of this document' or 'ChatGPT was used to generate the text in Section 3'. Consult with your advisor if you plan to use generative AI in your bachelor report.
To protect the privacy of students, the university does not publish a list of student names or email addresses. However, when a bachelor student works in our institute, we typically list their names and email addresses on our institute website. This makes it easier for members of the institute to contact each other. If you do not want to be listed on the website, please inform the secretary when your project starts.
A list of possible bachelor projects is given below. For most of them, you should have completed a course on solid state physics. There is a certain flexibility in defining bachelor projects. You may propose the topic of a bachelor project to a member of the scientific staff. If you have questions about bachelor projects at the Institute of Solid State Physics, please contact Peter Hadley.
Richtlinien zur Erstellung einer Bachelorarbeit im
Bachelorstudium Technische Physik
TU Graz templates for theses.
The interpretation of µCT measurements depends strongly on the quality of the segmentation of the data. In order to improve the segmentation of measured data we want to further explore KI methods in data segmentation. With these segmentations further quantitative interpretation of the µCT data will be done, in order to get a deeper insight into different materials. | |
Understanding transport in disordered solids | |
Our research aims to understand how transport through disordered, typically porous materials (e.g. paper) is determined by their 3D microstructure. To this end, we combine simulations of transport through the microstructure with a detailed analysis of the structure itself. Such a statistical analysis gives us information on how much the structure varies in the material and how strongly different transport properties correlate in the material. Of particular interest are cases in which the microstructure of the material changes during transportation. Possible projects for bachelor students that support this research relate to topics such as (i) identifying the location of phases (e.g. solids and air) in 3D micro-CT images using deep learning, (ii) analyzing solid or air-filled regions in porous materials using pore network analysis, (iii) predicting transport in progressively changing microstructures using pore network modeling or physically informed neural networks. | |
Impact of local deformations in paper on air transport | |
The 3D microstructure of paper recorded at micrometer resolution reveals the pore space available for transport in paper. When dry paper is exposed to water, the total pore space expands in volume even though the paper fibers double in volume at the same time. Yet it remains unclear how strongly transport changes when the pore space locally changes. To answer that, this project uses pore networks, i.e., the actual pore space is mapped on a pore network. Monitoring transport through the pore networks associated to paper before and while being contact with water shall reveal whether water-induced changes can decisively affect transport.
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Self-similar surfaces in foams? | |
Many applications of porous materials hinge on the specific surface area they can offer, e.g., catalysts. | |
X-ray reflectivity – software test | |
The optical reflection of X-ray at surfaces is a useful tool to characterize surfaces and thin films. The work will include the performance of a series of X-ray reflectivity measurements of various samples. The experimental data will be analyzed by using three different software packages: X’Pert Reflectivity, GenX and refnx. The work should demonstrate the usability of the recently developed software refnx. | |
Understanding electronic and vibrational properties of organic semiconductors and framework structures using density-functional theory in combination with machine-learned force fields | |
The focus of our research is on understanding charge and heat transport in organic semiconductors and metal-organic framework structures. For that we simulate the electronic band structures and phonon properties of materials and perform non-equilibrium molecular-dynamics simulations, where recently developed self-parametrizing machine-learned force fields for describing inter-atomic interactions are of particular interest. During the bachelor thesis students get involved in that research performing corresponding simulations and analyzing the obtained results in close collaboration with the members of our team. contact: Egbert Zojer (egbert.zojer@tugraz.at) | |
Relaunch of the software STEREOPOLE | |
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