Reghan Hill

Please refer here for departmental regulations and other useful information.

Microscopy

Please refer here and here for vital information on optical microscopy.

Research proposals, publications, presentations and posters

These documents should be typeset using a powerful Latex editor such as WinEdt, Texmaker or TeXnicCenter. Ask for a template to get started. Cygwin should be installed on Windows operating systems for Unix-like applications and programming environments, e.g., when using gcc and tcsh. You will need to also install the Miktex, Ghostscript and Ghostview programs.

Bibtex with Latex is the preferred method for handling bibliographies and references. New graduate students should start building a Bibtex database (.bib file!) as soon as they begin preparing their research proposal.

Latex with the Beamer package is the preferred method for presentations. There is a powerful package available for making posters. WinEdt and TeXnicCenter automatically download and install packages when required.

Publication quality graphs from Matlab can be produced using the following code segments and templates:

set(0,'defaultaxesfontsize',18); set(0,'defaulttextfontsize',18); set(0,'defaultaxeslinewidth',2); set(0,'defaultlinelinewidth',2); xlabel('$\xi/a$','FontSize',18,'Interpreter','latex'); ylabel('$\eta/a$','FontSize',18,'Interpreter','latex'); set(gca,'FontSize',14,'FontName','Times'); print -depsc latexfigure.eps;

The following code furnishes a template for non-linear curve fitting in Matlab:

function curvefit close all load data.dat % e.g., two columns of x and y data xdata=data(:,1) ydata=data(:,2) x0=[1 0.3 1 1 1] % initial guess of best-fit parameters [x,resnorm] = lsqcurvefit(@myfun,x0,xdata,ydata) % returns a vector of best-fit parameters x and a vector of residuals % plot the best fit curve and the data figure(1) semilogy(xdata,ydata.^2,'o') hold on xv=linspace(0.2,1,300); semilogy(xv,myfun(x,xv).^2,'k-') % Here is the non-linear function (arbitrary) function F = myfun(x,xdata) x=real(x); F = x(1).*(xdata-x(2)).^x(3).*xdata.^x(4)./(1-xdata).^x(5); return

Xmgrace is the preferred software for making publication quality figures outside of Matlab. It is readily installed under Windows using Cygwin. You need to set up a template to standardize formatting. Xmgrace has powerful interactive tools for manipulating and viewing data.

Inkscape (free) and Adobe Illustrator are preferred for producing presentation and publication quality graphics and diagrams. Inkscape is readily available for Linux and Windows operating systems. Xfig under Linux and Cygwin is also excellent.

Computer file synchronization and backup

It is essential to backup important files. File synchronization can be conveniently performed using GoodSync under Windows. For Linux platforms, the rsync utility is readily available for synchronization and backup tasks. Most recently, I have adopted Dropbox for cross-platform backup and synchronization; this supports very convenient file sharing between Dropbox users.

Courses

Standard graduate courses at the 500- and 600-level include: Computational Methods; Foundations of Fluid Mechanics; Foundations of Soft Matter; Thermodynamics; and Heat and Mass Transfer. Students in my group are strongly encouraged to take the other 600-level Chemical Engineering Fundamentals courses, in addition to more specialized courses in the engineering and applied sciences.

Laboratory access, procedures and protocols

All graduate students working in my laboratory must first obtain the necessary safety instruction, and understand the procedures and protocols already in place. They must seek the permission and approval of the designated laboratory safety officer to use equipment. All students must thoroughly read and understand equipment operating manuals, and be proficient in the appropriate maintenance and cleaning procedures. Training for microfabrication, SEM and TEM facilities is available.