Project Allocation

In his fifth year of study each MPhys student has to to a so-called "Research Project". The research projects proceeds over two of the three terms.

A list of about 30 possible projects was published, and each student had to list his top 5 choices.

I picked the following projects:

Ultrafast laser machining using adaptive optics
Multi-step moves in Quantum Monte Carlo simulations
Fermionic Quantum Monte Carlo calculations for quantum dots
Pattern Recognition and Applications to Nuclear Emission Data
Two interacting atoms in a trap

No. 1 was a mixed experimental and computational project, No 2-4 were computational and 5 was just theory.

Shortly after we submitted our whiches the allocation was published, and it turned out that I got none of my wishes, even though projects No 2 and 4 did not show up on the final allocation list.

As you can imagine, I was seriously pissed off.

Later I found out that the students from Würzburg only ever get experimental projects because then it counts as a hands-on training required for our diploma.

If we had known this beforehands we could have selected five experimental projects...

The topic I got know is "Sources for Ultrafast Quantum Key Distribution System".