Studies
Stakeholder Advisory Board
The Stakeholder Advisory Board for physics students has been established in 2021. The purpose is to enhance the connection between physics students and private enterprises - how physics studies lead to interesting jobs and careers outside academia. As of now, we organize get-togethers with students, excursions to the companies, and visitor lectures where the companies can tell about their activities in research and development.
The Advisory Board consist of the following companies and experts. These cover a board scope of enterprises, also beyond a typical physicist's profile, ranging from very large companies to fresh spin-offs:
VTT: Sanna Arpiainen
IQM: Juha Vartiainen
Nordea: Jukka Sinisalo
Boco IP Oy Ab: Thomas Carlsson
Kaiku Health: Joel Lehikoinen
Granlund: Anna Korolyuk
Undergraduate studies
The Department of Applied Physics provides a wide selection of undergraduate courses in basic physics both for the physics students in the Master (Engineering Physics) programme and Bachelor programme majors (Engineering Physics or Mathematics and Systems Sciences) as well as for students in other engineering degree programmes both in the School of Science and in the other schools. The physics laboratory experiments are an essential part of undergraduate studies. The department’s research groups provide topics and supervision for bachelor’s theses on various topical fields of physics.
In the master’s studies provided by the Department of Applied Physics, the students can further strengthen their knowledge in physical sciences within the major subjects of Engineering Physics. The studies include courses in quantum mechanics, statistical physics, computational and experimental physics, materials and nanophysics, and in advanced energy technologies including fission, fusion or renewable energy sources.
Bachelor's Thesis and Seminar
The Bachelor's Thesis and Seminar is a 10 cr study module that is a compulsory part of the Bachelor's degree. The department’s research groups provide topics and supervision for bachelor’s theses on various topical fields of physics. More information.
Master's Programme in Engineering Physics
The Master's Programme in Engineering Physics offers two majors: Materials Physics and Quantum Technology, and Advanced Energy Technologies. The majors consist of two parts: a core content and a flexible choice of courses selected by the student. The core courses cover important topics for engineering physics and methods from computational, theoretical, and experimental physics. The core content includes also some choices for more detailed focusing on a certain subject. The rest of the studies have a very flexible structure, and provides the student with the possibility of focusing in physics, nanoscience, energy studies, or designing a more cross-disciplinary content for the major. The student can also choose to complete a minor subject, or complete a more extended major.
The objective of the major is to give the student the chance of profiling the studies for the future professional life while providing a very strong background in physics and mathematics. The studies include a lot of hands-on experience with research.
The student’s curriculum consists of a major (40-65 ECTS), an option for a minor (20-25 ECTS), elective studies (25-30 ECTS), and a master’s thesis (30 ECTS), 120 ECTS in total.
See the curriculum 2020-2022 of the programme.
Recent Master’s thesis topics of Engineering Physics students include, e.g. Framework for a positron microscope, Collective dynamics of multimode circuit optomechanical systems, Top quark reconstruction in the analysis of charged Higgs bosons, Electron-beam induced optical superresolution in integrated light-electron microscopy, Optical modelling of dye solar cells and colour characterization, Evolutionary Design of Plasmonic Nanoantennas for Multispectral Applications.
More information
Master's Programme in Engineering Physics
Bachelor and Master programmes of Aalto University (Into pages)
Bachelor Thesis in Engineering Physics
Special Assignments
Students’ special assignments are an essential part of the master’s studies. The research groups at the Department of Applied Physics provide topics and supervision for special assignments, which are often completed during a summer internship at the department.
More information about special assignments
Teaching assistants
The Department of Applied Physics employs a large number of teaching assistants on its courses. Most assistants are graduate students, but the department also hires interested undergraduates to help with these tasks. In case you are interested in becoming a teaching assistant and/or being included in relevant mailing lists, please send an email of your teaching interests/experience together with on extract of your study register to [email protected]. Salary level depends on details, but is roughly 30 euros per hour with extra bonuses from various tasks related to teaching.
Doctoral studies
The Department of Applied Physics is highly committed to doctoral researcher training of which the research groups bear the main responsibility. The postgraduate students have a large flexibility and responsibility in the postgraduate studies. The doctoral studies are based on top-level scientific research. The department has roughly 25 research groups which offer Ph.D. research positions in topical experimental, theoretical or computational projects. Graduate training networks at the School of Science provide also training in terms of courses, Summer Schools and Workshops.
An obligatory stage of the Physics doctoral studies is the midterm review no later than 18 months after enrollment.
For the course studies in the doctoral education, it is strongly recommended that the students select courses directly relevant and closely related to their research field. A large number of graduate level lecture courses are given at the department and, in addition to the lecture courses, it is recommended that postgraduate students participate in (summer) schools and workshops in Finland and abroad. Workshops and schools are credited in doctoral studies. Also acting as an assistant in departments physics courses is awarded by credit points (See the study programme course PHYS-E0543 Physics Teaching V). It is also possible to obtain credits by self-study of relevant books and review articles.
Further information can be obtained from the senior teaching and research staff at the department. Useful information is available also on the web page for the Aalto Doctoral Programme in Science.
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