Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Geology - Physics

at University of Ottawa Canada

The Master of Education (M.Ed.), coursework option, is a course-based program designed to deepen your knowledge of education, improve your professional practice and expand your career choices.

Mathematics and statistics are not only powerful problem-solving tools, but also highly creative fields of studies that combine imagination with logic, and precision with intuition. 

Mathematics is much more than numbers! Its basic goal is to reveal and model general patterns to help explain our world, whether they be found in electrical impulses in the human nervous system, the evolution of animal populations in their habitats, fluctuations in stock-market prices, or electronic communications. Mathematics reaches far beyond science and engineering into medicine, business and the social sciences. 

Advances in mathematics and statistics lie behind many discoveries that are now part of our daily lives, such as MRI scanners, digital compression of music and video, secure electronic communications, data mining, genomic algorithms, futures pricing, and many other innovations. 

The Department of Mathematics and Statistics offers Honours, majors and minors both in mathematics and in statistics. Our Honours program in statistics is accredited by the Statistical Society of Canada, allowing graduates to earn the A.Stat. professional designation. Moreover, the Department offers a joint honours program in mathematics and economics, a joint honours program in mathematics and computer science, as well as a multidisciplinary program in financial mathematics and economics. All our honours programs also include the co-operative education option.

Public policy decisions shape daily life and well-being. Many essential services, such as health care and education, are provided by the public sector. Using their regulatory powers, governments establish the framework for competition between firms and they protect the environment. In return for public services, individuals and firms must pay taxes. This interdisciplinary program, which draws on the tools of economic analysis, gives students a better understanding of the challenges linked to public-sector economics (federal, provincial, municipal). Domains of application include the labour market, health care, education, environment and taxation.

Why is our world the way it is? How can we understand and explain what we observe around us, from the smallest sub-atomic particles to the largest galaxies? How can we apply this understanding to manipulate our world? Studying physics gives insight into the fundamental laws of nature. 

But an education in physics gives so much more. The rigorous training our students receive in analyzing and understanding complex problems is valuable in many future careers. While many of our graduates have established careers in universities and in the high tech sector as research and development scientists, others have used their physics degrees as a springboard to careers in finance, administration, medicine, management or education. The range of career opportunities is perhaps wider than for any other students with a science education. 

Physicists have revolutionized the way we live our lives, with groundbreaking discoveries and new technologies, transferable to other fields such as biology or finance. Our professors and graduates are an important part of this chain. Many of our professors have also been recognized for their teaching and are seen as world-class researchers in their fields of expertise. 

The research conducted by the professors in the Department of Physics is concentrated in several sub-specialties, including the physics of biological and complex systems, condensed matter physics, photonics and the physics of geomaterials. Depending upon your choice of program, you have the opportunity to take courses and participate in research projects in these specialized areas. 

In addition to the Honours BSc in Physics, we offer three other Honours BSc programs. The first is in physics-mathematics, which provides enriched mathematics training within a physics program. The second is the option in photonics, which gives students a solid training in physics and a more applied and industry-related training in photonics. The third is the option in biological physics, which teaches students to apply a rigorous education in physics to various areas of life sciences. We also offer a Major in Physics that can form the core of an Honours BSc when combined with a major or a minor in another discipline in the Faculty of Science, or in another faculty. Finally, starting in fall 2016, we will offer a five-year integrated program in physics (BSc) and electrical engineering (BASc), jointly with the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). This unique program will offer a full education in physics and electrical engineering. Graduates will be sought after by industry and academia, as they will have the capacity to develop technology from a basic physics idea to the final product. 

The Department of Physics also has strong graduate programs, leading to an MSc or PhD. They give students the opportunity to work on cutting edge science in a research group led by one or more department professors.

Sociology involves the study of societies, specifically their institutions, cultures, and transformations. Sociologists seek to uncover the processes, rules, and norms that govern social relations. They seek to understand issues such as the origins and consequences of social inequalities and collective behaviours. In our programs, students have the opportunity to apply theoretical approaches to real-world cases and learn how to use research tools such as interviewing, discourse analysis, surveys, and statistical analyses. The connection between theory and research enables students to understand a range of contemporary social issues, such as poverty, ethnic relations, deviance, gender relations, international development, power, and technology.

The Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in directing focuses on the practice of directing contemporary theatre. It allows students to develop their skills in the art of directing and offers the unique opportunity to study both English and French theatre practices in a bilingual and bicultural setting. The program is designed to prepare students to work as directors in professional theatre.

History
History is the discipline that focuses on the diverse and complex ways that individuals and groups have created and adjusted to change over thousands of years around the world. In studying change over time, history students learn to interpret evidence of human thought and behavior, in order to understand the impact of individual and collective decision-making, the changing relationships among people and societies, and between humans and their environment. 

Political Science
Politics is omnipresent in our lives. Political science seeks to describe, analyze, understand and assess the principles and power relations that govern social life. It revolves as much around the structures and institutions that define these relations and principles as around the ideas and practices that drive them. It studies everything that influences political life and institutions (ideologies, groups, social movements, etc.) on a local, regional, national and international scale.

Our programs offer in-depth training in political science and encourage critical reflection on pivotal issues like citizenship, identity, political participation, globalization and development, governance and the state, and ethics and democracy. A discipline open to many theoretical and methodological approaches, political science constantly exchanges and shares with other fields. At the University of Ottawa's School of Political Studies, you build your knowledge in four subfields of political science: political thought, Canadian and Quebec politics, comparative politics, and international relations and global politics.

Psychology is the science that studies human behaviour and mental processes, and it is one of the richest fields of scholarly and scientific research. The BA in psychology deals with the fundamentals of psychology with a particular focus on how we learn, communicate and interact with one another, preparing you for graduate studies in experimental psychology, clinical psychology, in health sciences, in education or in administration. 

Building on a solid foundation of traditional engineering skills, this program covers many different aspects of computer software and hardware design, and allows for more specialized studies in microprocessor-based systems, computer architecture, programming concepts, real-time operating systems, software engineering and robotics. This program provides multiple paths to a variety of careers.

Software engineering is a CO-OP only program that emphasizes innovation and teamwork to develop practical, solution-driven thinking. During their fourth-year project, students in this program can form teams and leverage their work experience to create real applications; some students even start their own companies. They learn how to apply engineering principles—including rapid prototyping, requirements analysis, system modelling, design, implementation, testing and project management—to develop software. Software engineers are key professionals in fields such as high tech, finance, telecommunications, government, health care, transportation and entertainment.