MAE 170: Experimental Techniques
Spring 2006
Faculty
Prof. Farhat Beg Prof. Joanna McKittrick
471 EBU-II 257 EBU-II
858-822-1266 858-534-5425
fbeg@ucsd.edu jmckittrick@ucsd.edu
Office hours: during lab sessions Office hours: M 3:00 – 4:40 PM
Mike Watson Nick Busan
104 EBU-II 104 EBU-II
mwatson@ucsd.edu nbusan@ucsd.edu
Teaching Assistants:
Dan Zemler (dzemler@ucsd.edu)
Jenny
Hsiung (whsiung@ucsd.edu)
Anastasiya (avershen@ucsd.edu)
Jin Yeol (Eric) Kim (erickim@ucsd.edu)
Labview Specialist: Jordan Meyer/Dan Zemler
Laboratory TAs
Morning Afternoon Evening
Tuesday Jenny Anastasiya Eric
Wednesday Anastasiya Dan Z Eric
Thursday Jenny Anastasiya Eric
Friday Jenny Dan Z
Lectures: SORIS Hall 108, Monday 5:00 – 6:50 pm
Labs: Tuesday – Fridays, 126 EBU-II, check schedule for times.
Website: http://mae170.ucsd.edu/
Description: This class will teach the basics of data collection and analysis, using a number of laboratory instruments and computer-based data acquisition. National Instruments’ LabviewTM language will be used for data collection and processing. Treatment of uncertainty in experimental data and succinct, accurate presentation of results in written reports will be emphasized.
Assignments and Grading: The course grade will consist of lab / weekly grades (8 x 9% = 72%), a midterm examination (8%) and a final examination (10% written, 10% in-laboratory). Decomposing the weekly grade (9% per week): the weekly grade will be comprised of L ab quiz (30%), an assessment of your preparation in the laboratory by means a check of your laboratory notebook (20%), the functioning of your LabviewTM VI (10%), and your written report (40%). To help you with the report writing, the first two reports will have 20% of the grades for each week and the assessment will be 50% for the first two weeks.
Faculty office hours: Your first line of defense is generally the TA. TAs and staff will be available during all of the laboratory “open” hours in EBU-II 126. Stopping by during the 2nd half of the lab sessions is advisable, during the first hour the TAs and staff are pretty busy getting things going. For questions that TAs and staff cannot solve, please contact the faculty. Email the faculty who gave the lecture that week for questions about the lab. For ALL email communication please put “MAE 170” in the subject or there is little chance it will be seen and recognized as class-related. Prof. Beg will handle administrative matters for the class, please contact him with any questions that you may have. Professors Beg and McKittrick will be visiting the lab during sessions regularly.
Class questions, make-up work, etc.: This is a class of over 300 people, and hence we have firm rules about class conduct, etc. There will be no make-ups of quizzes, exams, or labs without ADVANCE authorization. Homework and lab reports are due at the beginning of your lab session, they will be considered late if they are submitted more than 15 minutes after the session starts. You will get your lab reports and homework back within two weeks of submission: if you have an issue with your grades talk with Prof. Beg. A quiz may be given in the lecture; in the lab quizzes will be administered within 5 minutes of the start of the lab and there will be no make-ups if you are late to lab … BE ON TIME.
Labview VIs: An important part of this class includes the preparation of Labview VIs (Virtual Instruments) to acquire data using a PC and data acquisition card. We have an agreement with the National Instruments to use the program online for educational purposes. The software can be found in the EBU-II computer labs.
Lab Reports: Lab reports must be neatly prepared using a word processor and must be attached by STAPLES – no handwritten lab reports, no paper clips are acceptable. The names of the people in the group and their lab section / time must be clearly indicated on the report. Report formats and expectations will be covered in Lecture 2, as will the class expectations on error analysis. Each person (not each group) will be required to have their own lab notebook with carbon copies, and staple the copies from each book to the back of their reports as an Appendix. For data taken electronically, make notes about the experimental condition, filename, etc. Graphs should be taped or stapled into lab books. Before the lab, you should write in the lab book a few paragraphs about the procedure and what you expect will happen. Your TA will come by to check each person’s understanding and to check each notebook to make sure that your lab book includes all of the proper preparation and subsequent data. Lab reports without appended data and/or lab notebooks that are not up to standards may result in SEPARATE lab reports written by members of a group. This will make your partners, your TA, and possibly yourself very upset if it happens to you. Hence please no shortcuts.
Please note that this quarter we are asking you to submit your lab reports to your TAs electronically too. The text of the report will be checked with existing reports from previous years to ensure that it is not plagiarized.
University of California policies on Academic Integrity will be strictly enforced. Please talk with the instructors if you have any questions or observe any questionable behavior. Details on the University policies may be found on the web here: http://www-senate.ucsd.edu/manual/Appendices/app2.htm.
Safety Rules: At the beginning of each lab Mike, Nick, or the TA will give you a reminder of what you are to accomplish in the lab and an overview of safety issues. The labs are inherently safe, but experiments can always be made unsafe through improper adherence to safety rules. In the decades that this class has been taught, there has been only non-trivial accident (overturning of a pot of boiling water) – as regrettable as this accident was, we do not think it necessitates the discontinuation of experiments with boiling water.
There is also an experiment using a laser pointer. DO NOT STARE INTO THE LASER. DO NOT POINT THE LASER TOWARD OTHERS.
It is your responsibility to take common sense precautions and to be careful in the lab. If you ever feel that there may be a safety issue (with yourself or another group) while you are in the lab, DO NOT CONTINUE – TELL MIKE, NICK, or the TAs immediately and your concern will be addressed. We expect that by working together, the next many thousands of students can complete this lab course without any mishaps.
Version current 09/23/06