Professor Exell's Notes for Students

These notes will be revised from time to time. Please watch this site for changes. Follow the links below to get handouts for the courses.

Research Methodology: JEE 613

In this course you will practise the general skills needed in scientific and technical research.

You will have homework exercises each worth 1% up to a maximum total of 10%, two short presentations in the classroom, and two written examinations: a mid term exam worth 30%, and a final exam worth 60%.

Textbook

The textbook for this course is RESEARCH METHODOLOGY by R. H. B. EXELL, published by Technical Information Services, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) with financial support from The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment (JGSEE), ISBN 974-456-658-2, December 2006.

It is available in the JGSEE office, and in the KMUTT bookshop. The links in the Course Outline below give supplementary handouts for students taking this course.

Course Outline

• Mathematical Exercise 1: Numerical Measurements, Significant digits, SI units, dimensions.
• Writing Exercise 1: Literature review: Summarize two articles on Earthshine.
• Mathematical Exercise 2: Fitting Formulas to data: Exact fit and 'best fit'.
• Writing Exercise 2: Description and use of Equipment: How to make and use a Tabletop Furnace.
• Home Experiment 1: Determination of the Circle Constant (2 pi) by measuring circular objects: Error Analysis.
• Presentation 1: Your favorite Creative Hobby.

• Mid Term Exam

• Writing Exercise 3: Writing a proposal: Qualitative experiments on Photosynthesis.
• Mathematical Exercise 3: Descriptive Statistics: Mean, variance, correlation, simple analysis of variance.
• Writing Exercise 4: Discussion of a controversial topic: Nuclear power from Thorium instead of uranium.
• Mathematical Exercise 4: Dynamic Systems Models: Deterministic systems, chaos.
• Home Experiment 2: Determination of the Acceleration of Gravity by timing the swings of a pendulum.
• Presentation 2: Good and Bad Research Practice.

• Final Exam

Solar Energy: Part of JEE 658 Renewable Energy Technologies

In this part of the course you will study the principles of solar radiation, solar photovoltaics, and solar thermal technologies.

Course Outline for Solar Energy

• Introduction to Solar Energy.
• Solar radiation.
• Photovoltaics I.
• Photovoltaics II.
• Solar thermal I.
• Solar thermal II.

Solar Radiation Data Simulator

This is a program in JavaScript for generating numerical data with the same properties as real solar radiation data in the tropics.

Robert Harold Buchanan Exell,
M.A., D. Phil. (Oxford); Hon. D. Sc. (KMUTT).

Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment
Center of Excellence on Energy Technology and Environment
(CEE PERDO)
King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi,
Bangmod, Thungkru, Bangkok 10140, Thailand.