In 1987, convinced that the scientific careers of its majors would be significantly enhanced by a broad exposure to computational approaches to problems in physics, the Department of Physics at Lawrence successfully sought support amounting to about $400,000 from the W. M. Keck Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and several vendors to conduct a pilot project designed to nurture both the personal initiative and the individual skills to use sophisticated computational tools intelligently and independently. To this end, we have created the Lawrence Computational Physics Laboratory, which gives 45 or so physics majors each year (typically 12 seniors, 13 juniors, 20 sophomores) and five faculty members exclusive 24-hour per day access to an impressive collection of computational hardware and software as well as a library of pertinent manuals, text books, and locally prepared documents. In addition, we have engaged in faculty development, and---most importantly---we have embedded numerous computer-based classroom demonstrations and homework exercises in many of our upper-level offerings, thereby encouraging and supporting continued independent use both in our junior/senior courses and in senior-level independent studies. This pilot project has received national attention, being described in several published papers and invited talks (see later section). Its existence served as the basis for convening a small national conference (Summer, 1990) at Lawrence (supported by the Sloan Foundation), and it has stimulated several individual visits to the Lawrence campus.
In 1993, additional funds amounting to about $150,000 were received from the National Science Foundation and the W. M. Keck Foundation to permit addition of 3D graphics capabilities and color printing capabilities to the Computational Physics Laboratory initially equipped by the grants received in 1987 and 1988.
In 1998, grants from Lawrence University allowed us to begin replacing the oldest SGI equipment with up-to-date SGI equipment. This process will be ongoing, two or three older units being replaced each year with state-of-the-art equipment.
In early 2000, a grant of $177,026 (supplemented in 2003 with an additional $3781) from the Educational Materials and Development (EMD) track of the Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Program of the National Science Foundation provided support for the collection of numerous local instructional documents into a text and the conduct at Lawrence of four week-long summer workshops for physics faculty members from around the United States. The resulting book, titled Computation and Problem Solving in Undergraduate Physics, is flexible in design. Through the inclusion of components using the selected software packages, the book can be adapted to respect the particular hardware and software available at specific institutions. Details can be found at the Physics CCLI project web site.
In December, 2001, the Department received a third grant from the W. M. Keck Foundation. Of the $400,000 total grant, $106,853 was allocated to further development of the Computational Physics Laboratory. The primary objectives of this infusion were to introduce a required sophomore course in computation and mechanics, to introduce an elective junior/senior course in computational physics, and to increase the extent to which computational resources are used throughout the physics curriculum at Lawrence. In anticipation of increased use generated by those changes in our curriculum, the grant supported an expansion of the total number of workstations in the laboratory and an upgrading of the server, the existing workstations, and the printers.
In the remainder of this web page, we enumerate the current spectrum of hardware and the most frequently used pieces of software and list the several papers and presentations that have arisen in the context of developing this resource and writing the text already mentioned.
(as of 1 January 2006)
Students and faculty members in physics at Lawrence have access to the following networked computer hardware:
Most of this hardware equips the Lawrence Computational Physics Laboratory (the CPL), which is housed in a single, attractively decorated, quiet, well lighted, and inviting room of about 1200 square feet, to which, because we issue keys, upper-division physics majors have 24-hour access.
The SGI equipment is still in house and functional but is being discontinued in favor of the HP equipment. It has been taken off maintenance contracts but will continue to be available as long as it continues to work.
Available software in the Computational Physics Laboratory reflects a deliberate focus on professionally-developed packages and, in addition to operating systems [SGI UNIX (IRIX), Windows-2000), windowing systems (X, Windows), system utilities, language compilers (C, C++, FORTRAN), graphics support (IDL, MAPLE, IRIS/NAG Explorer, Kaleidagraph), spreadsheet (EXCEL), and text editors (jot, xemacs, nedit, notepad, pfe), includes the following primary items:
We also have single licenses for MATLAB (from the MathWorks, Inc.) and Mathematica (from Wolfram Associates, Inc.).
Beyond the hardware and software in the CPL, students have access to a small library of printed materials, including an assortment of software manuals, a selection of books on computational approaches to problems in physics, and notebooks containing about 60 student-written 5--25 page documents detailing computationally based studies undertaken by students at Lawrence. While these documents are still available, many have been superceded by the book Computation and Problem Solving in Undergraduate Physics already mentioned. More of them will experience that evolution as our curriculum and the text evolve.
All workstations in the CPL are connected to the University network and, through a firewall, have access to the world wide web.
He has also given physics colloquia at
and contributed papers at