I have interviews as a physics lab assistant and lab apprenticeship

[hagopbul]

Hello All :

in the near future i will have few interviews as lab assistance and lab apprenticeship , mainly physics labs , do anyone have a source on lab devices to review before the interviews ? maybe i won't be able to find all my old books or internet links

Best Regards
Hagop Bulbulian

 

[CrysPhys]

in the near future i will have few interviews as lab assistance and lab apprenticeship , mainly physics labs , do anyone have a source on lab devices to review before the interviews ? maybe i won't be able to find all my old books or internet links

<<Emphasis added>> "Lab devices", even with the delimiter of "mainly physics labs", is waaay too vague. Are you talking about basic instruments such as computers, voltmeters, and micrometers? Otherwise, instrumentation will vary significantly with the specific lab (e.g., materials analysis vs. particle accelerator). Please clarify your question and what your goal is.

 

[hagopbul]

mainly 1st or 2nd year undergraduate physics laboratory for one interview

 

[berkeman]

Can you look at the online syllabus for each of the lab classes that you would be working with? That should give you some idea of the types of experiments they do and what kind of equipment is likely involved.

Do you have experience with motion measuring video setups and software? Even cellphones can be used to track motion in ball-down-ramp and projectile motion labs.

Do you think you will be helping in electronics labs for these physics classes? If so, it would be good to find out what equipment they use (oscilloscopes, signal generators, etc.), and familiarize yourself with them (download their online manuals, for example).

 

[CrysPhys]

mainly 1st or 2nd year undergraduate physics laboratory for one interview

Your profile is not clear on your background and current status. Did you complete a bachelor's in physics? If so, how long ago? Are you applying for a position at a university different from the one you attended?

 

[hagopbul]

i completed a BSc. in physics years ago maybe 2008 or 2009 i don't remember exactly (always forget this date :) ) the position is in a different university and in a different country

about why i have no idea because it is different educational system and no mention what's so ever on what lab , but i form an impression it is maybe 1st , or 2nd year lab which is more a general physics labs , but there is a lot of equipment and even huge number of setups and frankly i didnt do labs since 2016

the other lab is in the united state , i filled the papers and emailed them waiting for their response , no mention also on the labs

 

[CrysPhys]

i completed a BSc. in physics years ago maybe 2008 or 2009 i don't remember exactly (always forget this date :) ) the position is in a different university and in a different country

about why i have no idea because it is different educational system and no mention what's so ever on what lab , but i form an impression it is maybe 1st , or 2nd year lab which is more a general physics labs , but there is a lot of equipment and even huge number of setups and frankly i didnt do labs since 2016

the other lab is in the united state , i filled the papers and emailed them waiting for their response , no mention also on the labs

In that case, if the university does not have a detailed course description on their website, I would reach out to your contact at the university and request a detailed course description in advance of your interview. If [when (I hope) ] the US university responds and arranges for an interview, do the same there. Good luck!

 

[robphy]

Aside from specifics from the universities where you have applied,
it might be a good idea to look at lab manuals from different schools
https://www.google.com/search?q=physics+lab+manual

Some are more elaborate than others, some are more hand-holding, etc...
... but you can get a sense of some common themes, as well as the variety of approaches.

Detailed "lab setups" are particular to the equipment at each place.
No one is expecting you to know how they are all set-up.
(That comes with experience.)
But it's probably more important to know how one could set it up.


In particular, it might be much more important to understand:
the point of each lab (as part of a set of labs for that course),
what is being measured,
how it's being measured (and why is it measured in that way, and not some other way),
and how it's being analyzed
(taking into account
the preparation of the student
and the faculty's goal for that student's experience).

 

[dlgoff]

Hello All :

in the near future i will have few interviews as lab assistant and lab apprenticeship , mainly physics labs , do anyone have a source on lab devices to review before the interviews ? maybe i won't be able to find all my old books or internet links

Best Regards
Hagop Bulbulian

I was a lab assistance at my university back in the '70s and what I had to do was to do the experiments just like the students were asked to do. I believe the harder task was the grading part. Good luck.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

mainly 1st or 2nd year undergraduate physics laboratory for one interview

Here are three lecture courses covering almost all undergraduate laboratory work, at least according to the syllabi in Indian universities:

Experimental Physics I

Experimental Physics II

Experimental Physics III

It's definitely too much to go through all the videos, but you can at least look through the list and see if you remember the devices, and if not, you can go through the video. (When I need to go through these videos, I generally increase the speed to 2x, otherwise they become too boring.)