This is the transcript for the video Applied Physics & Nanotechnology – Course Info
Thanks for tuning in, if you’re interested in studying physics or nano at UTS, this video is for you. My name’s Matthew Arnold and I’m the program director for physics and nano UTS. Before we begin, I’d like to acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation upon whose ancestral lands our campus now stands, I pay respect to the elders, both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for this land. In this video, I’ll explain why you should study at UTS, why you should study physics or nanotech, while you’re studying these majors some of the career opportunities and what to do if you want to know more. There are many good reasons to study at UTS. We have a proud tradition of teaching students practical skills, and all our lecturers are active researchers and we have developed absolutely world class facilities to help students learn. Our lecturers actively collaborate with industry and we have a strong culture of making a difference to the world. UTS Science is ranked above world standard in all our disciplines. You’re probably aware that the world faces great challenges, this includes finding more efficient ways to collect and use energy and better communication and computer technology. Meeting these challenges needs people who are flexible problem solvers, who can analyse, explain and predict the response of physical systems. Physicist and materials scientists will be a key part of this effort. UTS is proud to be a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for a Transformative Meta-Optics. This is a new type of technology that offers completely new functionality with applications in areas such as communications and computing. Two of our lecturers Igor and Milos are leading our contribution to this exciting new area.
Now I’ll briefly explain the applied physics and nanotechnology majors. First, an example of how physics can make a difference to the world. In the top left, my colleague Angus is holding a new material that he developed to keep buildings cool. In the thermal image, the orange areas are a typical hot roof, the black area on the other hand, is the new material which is able to keep the roof so cool that it’s sometimes cooler than the surrounding air. That’s an example of the kind of things that research physicists do, but I should point out that physicists go into a wide range of careers. These include areas like finance, information technology and many others. You’ll notice that they don’t all have physics in the title, but physicists are valued in these areas for their problem solving skills. We prepare you for this with activities where you develop your problem solving skills and we train you to use industry standard and research equipment. You’re also encouraged to further develop workplace skills by doing an internship with our research teams. In first year, you’ll do physics, chemistry and maths, and second year you’ll cover fundamental physics in more detail and then in third year you’ll get to apply this knowledge. This includes subjects that I teach, like electronics, where you learn how to build circuits, computational physics, where you learn how to develop computer simulations, and nanophotonics, where you learn how to build optics equipment. You also have four electives where you can focus more on your interests. And now to nanotechnology, which is the science of very small things, this field brings together scientists from many different disciplines to work on problems like how to make better computers and communication systems.
The diagram on the top left shows the structure of a special material called boron nitride. Researchers at UTS have discovered that wherever this material is missing an atom, it emits light, which looks like tiny stars under a microscope. This light is actually emitted as single photons, which is very useful for making securer communication systems for things like online banking. Nanotechnologists have a broad range of skills that includes physics, chemistry and some biology, and they go into careers like consulting, scientific equipment, chemical manufacturing and many others. We help to prepare you by developing your skills in all those different disciplines, and we’re training you to use industry standard and research equipment. You’re also encouraged to further develop workplace skills by doing an internship with our research teams. If you study nanotechnology with us in your first year, you’ll do physics, chemistry and maths, in your second year, you’ll cover physics, chemistry and materials in more detail, then in your third year you’ll apply this knowledge in senior physics and chemistry subjects. You also have four electives where you can focus more on subjects that interest you. I’d like to take a moment to look at the careers that our graduates have gone into. These include traditional physics and nanotech research, but also a wide variety of other roles, physics and nanotech graduates are valued for their skills and their career opportunities are diverse and rewarding. Thanks for watching. I hope it was helpful, if you have any questions, please get in touch at science@uts.edu.au and don’t forget to follow us on social media. Thank you and goodbye.