Elastic and inelastic transmission in guided atom lasers: a truncated Wigner approach

We study the transport properties of an ultracold gas of Bose-Einstein condensate that is coupled from a magnetic trap into a one-dimensional waveguide. Our theoretical approach to tackle this problem is based on the truncated Wigner method for which we assume the system to consist of two semi-infinite non-interacting leads and a finite interacting scattering region with two constrictions modelling an atomic quantum dot. The transmission is computed in the steady-state regime and we find a good agreement between truncated Wigner and Matrix-Product State calculations. We also identify clear signatures of inelastic resonant scattering by analyzing the distribution of energy in the transmitted atomic matter wave beam.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Bringing the Outside World In: Using Mixed Panel Assessment of Oral Presentations with Electrical and Electronic Engineering Students

Engineering students have been portrayed as having poor oral communication skills despite oral communication competence being a key factor in future career success. With the aim of equipping students with attributes identified as important for Engineering graduates this paper presents a research project carried out at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China in the Division of Science & Engineering with Electrical and Electronic with undergraduate students, focusing on the use of a mixed specialist and non-specialist audience for students’ end of semester oral presentations assessment. It is known that oral presentations are an important academic genre developing communication skills and confidence in students but it is an area which has been found to be lacking in traditional engineering courses. The innovation of the mixed panel was to help prepare students for life after university by giving them experience of pitching technical material appropriate to the knowledge of the audience, which is something they will have to do when working in companies or on projects. This paper outlines the experience from the perspective of the assessors from different disciplines who were interviewed to determine what they were looking for in the presentations. It will also review the experience of the students themselves, based on a survey which considered the impact the mixed audience had on their presentation preparation in terms of language, presenting skills and content. This innovation in assessment encourages multi-disciplinary thinking in students and the impact of audience on presentation content and delivery is something which could be explored across different academic fields