Conference Session

New Instrumentation Ideas

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Abhijit Nagchaudhuri, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; Madhumi Mitra, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; Xavier Henry, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; Dayvon Green, Morgan State University

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

to such changes.The algal masses consume the dissolved oxygen for respiration leading to anoxic conditions inthe waters which in turn could result in massive fish kills and related organisms.4 The algalblooms are a strong indication of the overall health of a body of water in any region, and throughmonitoring the water quality of a specific ecosystem it becomes much easier to devise a waterquality management plan towards reversing or preventing the changes that are negativelyaffecting the region.5The monitoring of water quality using remote sensing was initiated in the 1970’s using earthresources technology satellite, later renamed Landsat1 (ERTS-1). Since then, the digitalevaluation of remotely sensed data has been widely used to estimate

Conference Session

Instrumentation in Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Seema Khan, Sonoma State University; Farid Farahmand, Sonoma State University; Saeid Moslehpour, University of Hartford

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

Page 15.45.9plans to improve and enhance IVLPs’ features.1. By design, IVLP allows only one user to have control over the application modules. In the future we plan to add a time-out feature to limit user access to IVLP to eliminate long idle connections.2. In this phase of the project we focused on development of IVLP using a central server. In the distributed IVLP design, we plan to support multiple seamless experiments from different sites. This is particularly useful when different institutions are collaborating together and each institution has limited test equipments.3. A major area of improvement in the future will be adding security features to the client database. For example, we plan to add permissions to user profiles so

Conference Session

Instrumentation and Measurement Innovation

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gary Mullett, Springfield Technical Community College

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

,the use of alternative and renewable energy sources and their interconnections to the nationalgrid are facilitated by an intelligent grid and the use of computerized automation and controlsystems that utilize remote sensing and communications technologies that are both wireless andwired in nature. The similarities between the upgrading of our telecommunications infrastructurethat has occurred over the past fifteen years and is still ongoing today and the plans for theupgrading of the electric grid have many parallels. However, in the case of the smart grid and socalled cleantech (i.e. low carbon footprint) initiatives, it is the convergence of several maturingtechnologies that allows the benefits of these particular applications of sensor

Conference Session

Instrumentation in Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David McDonald, Lake Superior State University

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

ElectricalEngineering and Mechanical Engineering Plans of Study. An overview of the course and it’splacement within a vehicle system option in electrical and mechanical engineering is outlined asa context for the data acquisition and control laboratory activities. Course instruction presentsvehicle data acquisition applications while including discussions on the operation and testing of ageneric electric vehicle drive train. An internal combustion vehicle and a vehicle chassisdynamometer are also used in the laboratory experience.A sample laboratory project and assessment discussion is presented. An assessment datasummary is also provided for the previous offering of the course along with the larger setting ofengineering professionalism data in electrical and

Conference Session

Programs Using New Instrumentation Concepts

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Layton, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Thomas Adams, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

undergraduates than any other. However wedo make the case in the following section that our work makes a contribution via a synthesis of Page 15.923.2the strengths of widely-used texts. Also, in recent years we have seen a steady increase in ouraccreditation program-outcome measures supported by our measurement systems course,although this material on piezoresistive sensors would contribute at most two hours of content tothe course. Based on these broad measures, we are satisfied that a presentation of sensoroperating principles like the one developed here contributes to meeting our learning objectives.We plan to develop an approach for measuring

Conference Session

Programs Using New Instrumentation Concepts

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jerry Keska, University of Louisiana, Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

author observed very similar effects, which resulted in poorlearning outcomes for the laboratory session. This was related to poorly developedstudent activities before they came to the lab. As a result, the lab experiment turned into amechanical exercise of following the lab manual instead of an exercise where thestudents actively built meaningful knowledge during the process. Over the next semester,structural changes are planned which will intensify the pre-lab activities, and which willrequire the students to be much more prepared before coming to a laboratory session.This should ultimately make the students’ learning process more successful and efficient