Teaching excellence is a priority at the CCSR, and the CCSR graduate students and faculty have a track record of excellent teaching. For example, as of the fall 2002 semester, all six CCSR graduate students have been on the UIUC list of excellent teachers every semester in which they were eligible. In addition, three of them, Benny Brown, Joseph Jun, and Chris Strelioff, received the UIUC Anderson teaching award, which is awarded to only one Teaching Assistant in Physics each year.

Each semester several undergraduate students contribute in a significant way to CCSR research, and almost all CCSR publications have undergraduate co-authors. On several publications, including those in prestigious journals such as the Physical Review, undergraduates are listed as first author.

Physics 510: Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos

Physics 510 Homepage

This course is one of the longest running Nonlinear Dynamics Courses in the country, taught for more than 30 years in the UIUC Physics department.

Formerly Physics 420: Physics 420 Homepage

Physics 511: Advanced Nonlinear Dynamics

Physics 511 Homepage

Formerly Physics 421: Physics 421 Homepage

This course is one of the longest running Nonlinear Dynamics Courses in the country, taught for more than 30 years in the UIUC Physics department.

Physics 199BCS: Exploring the Behavior of Complex Systems

Laboratory Research, Scientific Computation, Web Publishing

Physics 199BCS Homepage

This course helps undergraduate and graduate students deepen their understanding of complex systems through an exposure to active reseach.

The students learn:

• How to plan and carry out their own research projects.
• Set up their own table-top experiments, take data, and analyze them utilizing the internet.
• How to present a "show and tell" of their research project.
• How to write a research report on the internet.
• How to give an oral research presentation using the internet.
• How to work together as a team.

The experiments typically cover a current research topic in Complex Systems Research and are related to some aspect of the physics course material.

CyberClub: Towards a 1:1 Student/Teacher Ratio Using Technology

We use nonlinear resonances to teach academically at risk students through the web. This pilot project is being tested at two public schools: Urbana Middle School, and Franklin Middle School, and two alternative public schools: The R.E.A.D.Y program and the CARE middle school.

Chem 420: Instrumental Methods of Chemical Characterization

This course covers the fundamentals of instrumental characterization including: nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, potentiometry, voltammetry, atomic and molecular spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, activation analysis, electron and x-ray spectroscopy, and gas and liquid chromatography.

Political Science 387: National Security Policy

PS 387 examines principal theories of international security and evaluates their capacity to explain the security behavior of states and other key international actors.