Integrating Computational Physics into the Undergraduate Curriciulum at Wake Forest University: Mechanics and Intermediate Lab

At Wake Forest University, computation has been closely integrated into two key courses in the curriculum; Phy 262 and 266. Phy 262 (Mechanics) is a differential-equations based course taken by all students in the departments -- BA and BS physics majors, BS Biophysics, and physics minors -- and is an elective in the BS engineering course. The use of computation has been integrated into the course starting with in lecture examples and with Friday computational labs over the last decade and is now a standard aspect of the course. The course is moving from Matlab to Python, and in starting in 2023, has had the students grapple with aspects of Generative AI. Phy 266 (Intermediate Lab II) is required for all BS Physics students, and the first half of the course is purely computational. Computation in this course has evolved from more in-depth consideration of topics in Phy 262 to a mostly independent introduction to data science, machine learning and python in 2023. Both courses and their use of computation will be explored in detail.