Physics Simulation and Java

The table below gives a rough outline to the materials in the older course. For the new course, see the Java Tech Course Map.

Students who already have Java experience can omit the exercises and instead do an approved term project that illustrates all the programming and simulation techniques discussed here.

If you would like to try embedded Java using a dedicated hardware, this may well be possible. It requires that you have a PC with a serial port and can install the tools provided. The devices in question are the Javelin Stamp and a Swedish hardware called SNAP. The former has a very nice programming environment but uses the Parallax Java. There are lots of examples for turning on/off LEDs in a patch area, using a virtual ADC, etc. The latter uses the SUN Java and has an Ethernet connecton.

Contact Thomas Lindblad if you are interested in term projects and/or in hardware experience.

--- Older Course Outline ----

For the programming lectures the illustrations under the Example Exercises column show typical applets (or standalone applications) that the students will be assigned as homework for a given week. The weekly exercise will practice the Java Techniques and Physics Simulation Techniques as described in the other two columns for that week.

Students who already have Java experience can omit the exercises and instead do an approved term project that illustrates all the programming and simulation techniques discussed here.

This could include a comparison of an actual X-Ray detector system to simulation.

Week	Example Exercises	Java Techniques	Physics Simulation Techniques
1a		Physics Lecture 1: Concepts in microcosmic physics. From observations to interpretations. Constructing models and forming theories. Descriptions and simulations of phenomena. (ThL)
1b		Intro to Java, basic syntax, applet setup.
2	Draw ball.	Basic graphics and syntax.	Class objects -> physical entities
3	Ball bounces	Threads and simple animation	Threads provide a multi-processing computation model that is very useful for simulations. Physical entities that are separate and independent in the real world can be simulated with separate and independent threads.
4		Physics Lecture 2: Designing an experiment, construction and simulation of test runs. Monitoring experiments. Remote control, remote sensing. (ThL) Macrocosmic experiments. Sharing common set ups. Digital X-rays, infra sound and other techniques of physics engineering (KW)
5	Hit button to drop ball.	User interaction with buttons. Event handling.	Add a physical model - e.g. gravitation and friction in this case
6	Multiple balls bouncing.	Multi-threading Improved animation methods	Particles bounce off each other, i.e. no overlapping. Illustrates simple particle interaction.
7	Image in applet	Image handling: loading and displaying images, image observers, etc.
8		Physics Lecture 3: Complex experimental setups. High energy physics experiment, the detectors, electronics and computers, von Neumann versus neural techniques. (Thl) Space born and other experiments. Saving bandwidth. Feature extraction. Novelty and change detection. (KW)
9	Edges of image	Obtaining and manipulating pixels	Image analysis, e.g. edge finding.
10	Particles scatter off each other. Control panel.	Panels, layout managers, text fields, etc.	Particle scattering simulation.
11	Charts	More layout manager, menubars and menus	Simple charting, histograms, and statistical analysis.
12-13	Separate standalone server and Client applet.	Internet communications between a server application and a client applet.	Discuss use of the Internet and the client/sever model for remote experiment control and monitoring, IO streaming.
14-15	Separate Expt. & detector simulation with server and client.	Server application communicates with physics application to return status and measured data to a client that monitors and controls the experiment.	Application simulates both the physical process and the experiment to measure the process. Use a separate server application to communicate with the detector simulation to send control signals and to receive data. A third client application (or applet) communicates with the server to send control signals to the experiment and to receive and display the data.
16	Course review and discussion
--	In class exams