Past Projects
These projects have been offered in the past, and while they may not be presently available, may give you an idea of the range of projects on offer. If you wish to do work similar to one of these projects, approach the relevant supervisor directly. (Abstracts are not available in all cases.)
Astronomy
- Projects in stellar astrophysics (Assoc Prof Peter Cottrell)
- Photometric measurement of nitrogen in stars and globular clusters (Michael Albrow)
- Computation of asteroid orbits (Prof Jack Baggaley and Mr Alan Gilmore)
- The age of globular cluster NGC 6637 (Dr Michael Albrow)
- Abundances of the elements (Assoc Prof Peter Cottrell)
- Apsidal motion in eclipsing binary stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (Dr William Tobin)
- Hot-Jupiter transits (Dr Michael Albrow)
- Targeting SALT time (Assoc Prof Peter Cottrell)
- Investigating the conditions on Europa and their effect of life (Dr Karen Pollard)
- Study of the radial-velocity variations of delta Scuti stars (Dr Karen Pollard)
- NGC 2419: Globular cluster or galaxy? (Dr Michael Albrow)
- Markov chain Monte Carlo for parameter estimation (Dr Michael Albrow)
- The abundance of carbon in galactic globular clusters (Dr Michael Albrow)
- A spectroscopic study of RS Cha (Dr Karen Pollard)
Atmospheric Physics
- Modelling the interaction of atmospheric flow and snow: Are snow dunes and sastrugi an example of a self organized system? (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Development of an Environmental Wireless Sensor Network. (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Measuring mixing in a simple model and in the real world (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Christchurch air quality (Dr Steven George)
- Measuring mixing in simple models (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Temperature trends over Antarctica (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Observations of the Antarctic stratosphere using super-pressure balloons (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Earth System Modelling: The last 600 million years (Dr Steven George)
- Accurate determination of the Canterbury Universtity Stratosphere Troposphere Radars antenna pointing direction using reverse radio astronomy (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Kalman Filtering of the GPS signal used in the Stratosphere Troposphere Atmospheric measurement Glider (STAG) (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Validation of the STAG (Stratosphere Troposphere Atmospheric Measurement Glider) atmospheric measurement system (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Development of an Automated Weather Station and comparison of the measurements with radar data (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Recovery and initial examination of the Arrival Heights and Birdlings Flat MF radar data record (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- An examination of the effects of terrain on cloud structure and formation (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Development of a prototype microbarograph (Dr Adrian McDonald)
- Modelling of the microphysics at the zero degree isotherm (Dr Adrian McDonald and Dr Darlene Heuff)
- STAG Measurement Campaign II (Dr Adrian McDonald)
Cosmic Ray Physics
- Build a prototype wire chamber for air shower detection (Dr Steve Churchwell)
- IceCube Neutrino telescope projects (Dr Jenni Adams)
Mathematical Physics
- Clifford Algebra as a geometric foundation for fundamental physics (Professor Phil Butler and Peter Renaud)
- Clifford's space time algebra and formulation of electromagnetic fields (Prof Phil Butler)
- Formulation of classical mechanics using superfied geometric algebra (Dr William Joyce)
- Clifford algebra as a geometric foundation for fundamental physics (Prof. Phil Butler & Dr William Joyce)
- Recoupling Lie algebra as an algebraic approach to second quantisation (Dr William Joyce)
- An investigation within the quantum theory of elementary particle ensembles (Dr William Joyce)
- Physical aspects of hyperbolic three-manifolds (Dr Ishwaree Neupane)
- Quantum field theories in 0+1 and 1+1 dimensions (Dr Ishwaree Neupane)
- When spacetime ceases to have an operational meaning (Dr Dharamvir Ahluwalia-Khalilova)
- An ab intio derivation of Maxwell equations and discovery of a paradoxical element (Dr Dharamvir Ahluwalia-Khalilova)
- Quantum tower of Pisa (Dr Dharamvir Ahluwalia-Khalilova)
Mechanics
- Frozen golf balls (Dr Roger Reeves)
Medical Physics
- 2008 MARS Summer Interns (Professor Phil Butler)
- 2008 HIT Lab NZ Imaging Course (Raphael Grasset)
- 2008 MARS Biomedical Imaging Research Topics (Professor Phil Butler)
- A self-guided tutorial for treatment planning in
radiation therapy (Juergen Meyer) - Digital image based elasto-tomography imaging (Dr Lou Reinisch)
- Construction and testing of a system for digitising ultrasound video (Dr Nick Cook)
- Calibration of light meters for use in digital imaging (Dr David Goode)
- Analysis of diffusion MRI data in children (Dr Richard Watts)
- Fluorescence identification of pathogens (Assoc. Prof. Lou Reinisch)
- Temperature stability of the Medipix detector in the MARS scanner (Dr Anthony Butler)
Nanotechnology
- Investigation of devices based on atomic clusters (Dr Pierre Convers)
- Investigation of nanowire fabrication techniques (Dr Jim Partridge)
- Projects in the Characterisation of GaN (Dr Roger Reeves)
- Pulsed laser deposition (Dr Roger Reeves)
- Photoluminescence of etched silicon (Dr Roger Reeves)
- Photoconductivity of indium nitride and indium-galium nitride (Dr Roger Reeves)
- Analysis of automation possibilities for data files generated by the in-house written software lab routines (Dr Roger Reeves)
Optics
- Refractive index of smoke (Dr Robert Hurst)
Planetary science
- Non-invasive imaging of polygonal patterned ground in Antarctic permafrost soils and comparison with Martian permafrost soils (Dr David Nobes and Assoc. Prof. Peter Cottrell)
Ring Laser
- Microseismic background (Dr Robert Hurst)
- Instantaneous phase readout from a ring laser gyro (Dr Robert Hurst)
- Investigation and control of backscatter coupling in ring lasers (Dr Robert Hurst)
Space Physics
- Inflow directions of radar meteors in near-Earth space (Prof J Baggaley)
Spectroscopy
- Modelling of 4f-5d transitions in lanthanide ions (Assoc Prof Michael Reid)
- Simulation of two-photon absorption in Eu2+:CaF2 (Dr Michael Reid)
- Modelling of non-radiative transitions in lanthanide ions (Assoc Prof Michael Reid)