Undergraduates are encouraged to become involved in these projects, applying the lessons learned in laboratory and classroom. Outstanding physics students like Ken Bacon '93, can apply for the highly competitive Scholar of the College program, which allows them to develop their own research projects under faculty supervision. Bacon is engaged in theoretical research on quantum microstructures, which someday may be transformed into computer chips and switches 100 times smaller than those now used in commercial applications. I am coming from the other end, starting with the roots of the problem and trying to work towards the data. That means long hours on the computer, solving complex mathematical problems, but the opportunity to perform research with future-altering potential is one of the few undergraduates get, says Bacon.
Qualified students can pursue their research interests after the academic year ends.
BC physics majors have consistently obtained competitive summer research positions at university and government laboratories throughout the country, such as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, through programs like the National Science Foundation's Research Experience for Undergraduates. These positions offer an opportunity to carry out full-time scientific inquiry in fields ranging from astrophysics to nuclear fusion to superconductivity. When studying a problem in wave motion or resonance, physics students at Boston College are not confined by the limits of text or lab workbook. The department's computer facilities transform teaching and learning into a dynamic experience. Using the sophisticated interactive computer programs in one of BC's new computational physics instruction laboratories , students can run experiments, changing variables at will to learn how outcome measure affected.