MODULES PHY2071/2073
COMPUTATIONAL PROJECT
Template for Computational Modelling Project Reports
A. Student
Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, GU2 7XH, UK
E-mail address: [email protected], urn: 1234567
This MS Word template should be used to prepare your computational project report. It is intended
to be helpful in structuring your final report in a format that you will recognize when you read
published scientific papers. We hope that using this format will mean a more consistent and focused
set of final reports and also give you a first experience of presenting your work in such a way. The
REPORT LENGTH IS LIMITED TO SIX PAGES IN THIS FORMAT and fonts should not be
changed. A printout of your computer code is not part in this page limit and should be added as an
Appendix to your report. This first Abstract section should be relatively short (~200 words) and should
outline the problem, the computational methods used and the major achievements of the computational
project - to inform potential readers whether this work is of relevance and importance to them.
Submission deadline: 16.00 on Monday 23 May 2016 (Week 12 of Semester 2)
Supervisor: B. Supervisor
I. INTRODUCTION
This template should be used in preparing final reports.
It is intended to help you arrange your project report into a
format that has the look and feel of a short scientific paper,
as might be published following the report of new work at a
scientific conference. References to work of others and to
websites and texts from which you have used information
should appear as numbered citations, e.g. [1, 2].
Every project report will be somewhat different and you
are expected to choose both the number and the names
of section headings as you feel appropriate. The headings
shown here simply reflect default sections that may be
needed as elements of a balanced report.
The INTRODUCTION should introduce the project, the
physics and computational problem to be addressed and
review briefly relevant work of others [3, 4], referring to
supporting references, etc. The length of the Introduction
will depend on the individual project and your judgment of
which sections require most space. However, it should be
sufficiently detailed for a reader to understand the
motivation for the project, why it is of interest, and the
scope of the work that will be carried out.
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This section and any sub-sections should explain concisely
the underlying theoretical ideas needed to understand the
project and what has been done, but without any extensive
discussion of standard and well-known concepts. Commonknowledge mathematics and/or physics background (e.g.
conservation laws …) should be referenced [4], as should
any standard numerical methods used, e.g. improved Euler
method, Runge-Kutta [3]. If necessary, major sections such
as this one can also be divided into sub-sections, as follows.
Simply copy and paste headings if more are needed. Be
careful to reference the work of others that you use. If using
the words of others then you should use a quotation: “these
very fine words’’ were spoken by Isaac Newton [8].
a.
Theory sub-section name number 1
Equations should not be reproduced needlessly or in bulk
if there is a suitable reference [5] where they can be found.
If several equations are needed but they break the train of
argument, these could be included as an Appendix. Saying,
for example, more details of this derivation are outlined in
Appendix A.
Equations can be included using the standard MS Word
Equation Editor (Insert  Object  Microsoft Equation)
and these will look something like this:

e
t
dt  1
(1)
0
You should number the equations and refer to them just like
you do for references and citations: e.g. equation (1) is a
definite integral of the decaying exponential function. You
can also include short unnumbered equations or
mathematical expressions in the text (in-line equations),
such as: it is a fact that 2  1.414... , and we can also
assume, to the precision needed, that   3.141592564 .
b.
Theory sub-section name number 2
The numerical methods that are used should be stated
clearly. That is, one should outline how the physical
problem has been translated into a computer-based model
or simulation, the programming language and the compiler
used, plus any other special considerations needed to be
able to reproduce your results. Does the calculation require
particular precision for any part of the computation? It is
NOT necessary to explain standard numerical techniques
from books and lectures, e.g. the Runge-Kutta, the Euler
methods, Simpson’s rule, Newton-Raphson root searching,
etc., that should be referenced [8]. The way in which any
1
MODULES PHY2071/2073
COMPUTATIONAL PROJECT
such techniques are exploited in your project should
however be discussed clearly.
III. NUMERICAL DETAILS
There should be a discussion of any accuracy and other
numerical tests and checks of the methods you have used,
e.g. energy and momentum conservation, integration tests
in test cases, can be mentioned. Key input and integration
parameters are probably best included in tables so they are
not hidden in the text. For example:
Parameter
Minimum
Maximum
Step
Error
Time (s)
0
200
0.1
0.004
Position
(km)
-6.6
+8.2
0.01
0.05
If your report contains figures, they should typically be
placed in one column. A large figure could span two
columns if needs dictate. You can cut and paste captions for
additional figures.
Figure captions use Figure style. The figure image itself
uses picture style. Since one column is 3.25 inches wide, a
600 dpi figure should be 1950 pixels wide. A 300 dpi
figure would be 975 pixels wide.
TABLE I. The step lengths used for the time (in seconds)
and position (in km) numerical integrations and their
associated errors [8]. Tables should have a caption that is
sufficiently detailed to understand what is presented.
This section with the NUMERICAL DETAILS should be
sufficiently comprehensive to make clear the values of all
important parameters used, so that another researcher
should be able to reproduce your results using either your
program or a program of their own.
IV. RESULTS
The discussion of results and their significance is clearly
an important part of the report. Space limitations will mean
you will probably have to be selective in the results you can
show and the best format (figures, tables, histograms, text)
to discuss these results. This choice will depend on the
project and nature of the results.
FIG. 2. Each figure should have its own caption that is
sufficiently detailed to understand what is presented. Fonts
on figures should be large enough to be read easily.
Beware of using default gnuplot fonts that can be too small
after reduction of the size of the figures. Captions can
contain citations. E.g., related applications can be found in
Figure 12 of Reference [7]. This figure is borrowed from
Tostevin [9]. This is an inserted png file.
Your report should contain a carefully-chosen set of your
figures that best illustrate the most important physics points
you wish to make and to explain these clearly.
FIG. 1. This figure, with its own caption, shows the coordinate system and angular momentum couplings used in
recent work [10]. This is an inserted file (Insert  Picture
 From File…) in png format.
V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
A SUMMARY section should be used to make a
relatively brief review of the project and its achievements.
It may also be used to conclude your report, perhaps
2
MODULES PHY2071/2073
making some suggestions for further work that could have
been done if time had allowed, or pointing out further
interesting applications of the program you have produced
that could usefully be explored. Any shortcomings you
have noted in the methods used in the present work could
also be mentioned and how these might be improved if the
project were repeated.
To conclude, using this MS Word template we hope you
can prepare and structure your computational project final
reports more easily and with a uniform style and length.
Please feel free to comment if you can think of simple ways
to improve the template or the instructions given for future
years and users.
The SIX PAGE LIMIT IS FOR MATERIAL UP TO
THIS POINT – the conclusions to the report.
COMPUTATIONAL PROJECT
References: Include all of your cited references following
the acknowledgements (and also after the Appendix). The
recommended format for references to websites, books, and
to papers in scientific journals is shown below. The
references are NOT part of the 6 pages of the report and
you should include all relevant and useful references you
have used.
APPENDIX A
A printout of your program should be included with your
report submission. The printout need not conform to the
format of this template – just a regular printout in a font
size that is easily read.
APPENDIX B
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Use this section to report any particular help or
professional input that has aided or contributed to the
project work. I would like to thank Professor Mickey Finn
and Mr J. Arthur Rank for providing copies of the
subroutines Runge-Kutta [1] and Bessel-function [3] and
the EPSRC for financial assistance.
Further Appendices can be added, if needed. Appendices
are NOT included as part of the page limit of the report and
can be used to include supplementary information that
YOU want to include for completeness. These Appendices
will not be assessed as a formal part of the report and are
not a means to bypass the six page limit on the report itself.
[1] https://useful.web.site, retrieved 15/04/2016
[2] W. Rindler, Introduction to Special Relativity, Oxford
University Press (Dec 1982), Eq. (22), page 103
[3] Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing
Third Edition (2007), Cambridge University Press
[4] P. Adamson et al. Phys. Rev. D 76, 072005 (2007)
[5] K. Hirata et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 58, 1490 (1987)
[6] T. Kobayashi, Electroanal. Chem. 177, 281 (1984)
[7] R. Fitrilawati, et al., Mathematika 2, 16 (1997)
[8] https://another.useful.web.site, retrieved 22/04/2016
[9] J.A. Tostevin, private communication, March 2016.
[10] Y. Kucuk and J.A. Tostevin, Phys. Rev. C 89, 034607
(2014)
3