Through your final-year project you have the chance to put your studies into practice and experience academic research. The final-year project is undertaken by all students, so even if you don't take the research placement or apply for the Junior Research Associate Scheme, you can still get involved.
How does the final project work?
The final-year project is an important part of your degree. It is in the project where you have a chance to put your studies into practice and experience academic research.
You will be closely supervised by a faculty member and in many cases you will interact with postdoctoral researchers and PhD students.
Projects vary from the purely experimental, including numerical projects using a supercomputer, to theoretical projects.
Choosing your project
You will be given a list of ongoing projects with information about the type of skills you need to be accepted on to the project (for example, experimental, numerical, theoretical).
You will then select a number of projects you are interested in and give your project preference. You will then be matched to a project taking into account your preference.
You can see some of the past final-year projects below. Because we are always up-to-date with the latest research, these projects are subject to change, and may not be available when you reach your final year.
"My final-year project focussed on analysing and collating available data about the Magnificent Seven stars, and then using the developed code to analyse their spectra. I worked with a team on the XMM Cluster Survey (XCS), developing a new Python module, X-ray: Generate and Analyse (XGA) to provide interactive and automated analyses of X-ray emitting sources observed by the XMM-Newton space telescope."
"It was an opportunity to get involved in writing a module in Python, which helped with my BSc project. This was one of the first times ever that my contribution actually had the potential to help other researchers, which felt amazing. I am eternally grateful to the whole of XCS, and especially to David Turner, for such an opportunity and for the support throughout my degree."
Violetta Korbina (pictured above)
Physics with Astrophysics BSc graduate and currently studying for an MSc in Astronomy
aims to determine the hierarchy of neutrino mass states, and ultimately help shed light on the mystery behind the matter-antimatter imbalance of the universe."
Read about James' final-year projectA selection of potential final-year project subjects by research group:
Astronomy Centre
Dependence of galaxy properties on halo mass
Exploring the distant Universe with the Webb telescope
FLARES: The First Light and Reionisation Epoch Simulation
Is the Universe weird?
Testing models of the early universe
Weak gravitational lensing
Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
Acoustic-optic modulator
Development of a quantum microwave microscope
Experimental Particle Physics
Atomic magnetometry development for the neutron EDM experiment
Prospects for dark matter discovery at LHC
Materials Physics
3-dimensional graphene foams for tissue engineering
Nanostructured heterojunctions of silver nanowires and layered nano materials
Theoretical Particle Physics
Fixed points and phase transitions in quantum field theory
Quantum effects in general relativity
Supersymmetric quantum theory
Theoretical aspects of black holes
DISCUS - The Date Intensive Science Centre
Applying machine-learning and other data science techniques to Earth observations
Find out about our research centres and groups
You might also be interested in:
- undergraduate research opportunities
- showcase of student project work
- life as a Physics student.
- our courses
Contact us
Physics and Astronomy
ug.admissions@physics.sussex.ac.uk