Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Microscopy of soft materials
- 2 Computational methods to study jammed systems
- 3 Soft random solids: particulate gels, compressed emulsions, and hybrid materials
- 4 Langmuir monolayers
- 5 Computer modeling of granular rheology
- 6 Rheological and microrheological measurements of soft condensed matter
- 7 Particle-based measurement techniques for soft matter
- 8 Cellular automata models of granular flow
- 9 Photoelastic materials
- 10 Image acquisition and analysis in soft condensed matter
- 11 Structure and patterns in bacterial colonies
- Index
- References
10 - Image acquisition and analysis in soft condensed matter
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Microscopy of soft materials
- 2 Computational methods to study jammed systems
- 3 Soft random solids: particulate gels, compressed emulsions, and hybrid materials
- 4 Langmuir monolayers
- 5 Computer modeling of granular rheology
- 6 Rheological and microrheological measurements of soft condensed matter
- 7 Particle-based measurement techniques for soft matter
- 8 Cellular automata models of granular flow
- 9 Photoelastic materials
- 10 Image acquisition and analysis in soft condensed matter
- 11 Structure and patterns in bacterial colonies
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Fast and affordable computing power, especially in the form of personal computers and workstations, has enabled the expansion of the study of soft condensed matter physics over the last two decades. The use of computing power to not only analyze image data but acquire it from high-resolution and high-speed digital sources has also made many significant investigations in soft condensed matter experiments accessible to students while still pursuing their undergraduate degrees. Unlike students just a generation before, contemporary undergraduates are well versed in the use of computing power, even operating systems such as Linux, when they first arrive on campus. Because of outreach initiatives such as REU programs, intentions to recruit future graduate students, and an increasingly competitive trend in the careers of undergraduate majors, the opportunities to engage undergraduates in research has flourished over nearly the same period of time.
Granular systems, with simple hard sphere interactions and inter-particle friction, tend to be investigated in experiments that are tabletop in scale. As a subset of soft condensed matter systems, the macroscopic nature of granular physics makes the systems conceptually accessible to students as early as the sophomore or junior year of their baccalaureate careers. This no way trivializes the investigations or minimizes the advances in knowledge that a properly trained undergraduate can contribute to the larger scientific community when mentored well.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010