Honors Program and the Senior Thesis

Official catalogue description: Physics | Applied Physics

Honors Program Advisor: Prof. Sanchez-Yamagishi

The Honors Program in Physics encourages all students majoring in Physics or Applied Physics to consider advanced work in one of the Department's research areas.

To qualify for Departmental Honors in Physics, students must accomplish the following before graduation

  • Complete three quarters of Honors Thesis in Physics under the supervision of a faculty member (PHYSICS H196A-PHYSICS H196B-PHYSICS H196C).
  • Complete a senior thesis that is deemed of honors quality by their supervisor and the Honors program advisor.
  • Achieve a grade point average of at least 3.4 overall and 3.5 in physics courses. 

 

All students are welcome to participate in the H196 sequence and complete a senior thesis, regardless of their GPA. 

 

Senior thesis guidelines

Senior Thesis Registration and Grading

  • Register for H196A,B,C for the F,W,S quarters of your senior year.
  • Before registering, contact your potential research advisor to ask if they are willing to advise your research. If they agree, ask what their expectations are, and develop a plan to conduct the research and complete the thesis on time. 
  • Your thesis adviser will assign you an IP (in progress) grade for the Fall and Winter quarters. You will get a final letter grade for all 3 quarters once you complete your thesis in the Spring.
  • Your thesis can include research you started before your senior year.
  • You will submit your final thesis at the end of finals week in the spring quarter.
  • Begin writing the intro and methods section for your thesis at the beginning of your research to help you plan. Revise and update your thesis as your research progresses. During your final quarter, you should set aside enough time to complete the senior thesis in time for the end of the Spring quarter.

Senior Thesis Outline

Here is a typical outline of a senior thesis. In Physics 194, students learn in detail how to write the different components of such a research report.

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Methods
  • Results
  • Analysis
  • Discussion
  • Conclusion
  • References

Senior Thesis format:

  • The B.S. thesis does not have any strict formatting requirements
  • We recommend the instructions and templates found on the UCI Libraries website: https://guides.lib.uci.edu/gradmanual/templates
  • Your goal is to produce a professional-looking document, which will probably exclude some of the elements required in a M.S. thesis or a Ph.D. dissertation
  • Example theses are available right below the lecture on this Canvas webpage
  • Your thesis will be approved by your advisor, so the exact format and content is really up for negotiation between the two of you

 

UCI Libraries Templates

https://guides.lib.uci.edu/gradmanual/templates