Conference Session

Effective Projects and Experiments in Instrumentation and Control

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Akram Hossain, Purdue University, Calumet; Md. Rasheduzzaman, Purdue University, Calumet

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

Technology is a new program in the department ofEngineering Technology. The curriculum emphasizes high-speed packaging that involvesmotion control mainly with servomotors and induction motors. The students in this program, inaddition to many other courses, take courses in basic mechanics and mechanical design, electriccircuits, basic mathematics and calculus before taking four courses of the sequence of courses.Concepts of mechanical cams (Ref: “cam definition” Merriam Webster) operation andperforming an electronic cam using a servomotor control system for a given task are introduced.Writing ladder logic to perform a given cam operation for an application is also an integral partof the PLC course. A semester long project based on real life

Conference Session

Effective Projects and Experiments in Instrumentation and Control

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Asad Yousuf, Savannah State University; Tyler Schecklman, Savannah Technical College

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

and Ta vs. OccurrencesHumidity SensorThe humidity sensor used in this project is a HIH-4030, which is a low power analog sensormanufactured by Honeywell [6]. The relative humidity sensor uses a laser trimmed, thermosetpolymer capacitive sensing element with on-chip integrated signal conditioning. The sensingelement's multilayer construction provides excellent resistance to most application hazards suchas condensation, dust, dirt, oils and common environmental chemicals. This sensor hasadvantages of a fast response time combined with stable, low drift performance. This is ananalog sensor that requires a 5 volt supply, and it has an output line that is connected to themicrocontrollers ADC. This sensor has an accuracy of ±3.5% over the entire

Conference Session

Great Ideas for Projects that Teach Instrumentation

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Keller, University of Tulsa; Jeremy S. Daily, University of Tulsa

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

assess the both general and specificoutcomes of the laboratory experience.IntroductionMeasurement and instrumentation courses are typically the ‘catch-all’ course for topics inexperimental design and execution in mechanical engineering curriculum. Course objectivesinclude the introduction of modern data acquisition systems and techniques, the development andpresentation of statistical techniques for data analysis, and the introduction of formal uncertaintyanalysis. These three course topics are employed in nearly every rigorous engineering experimentthat a student would perform in either an industrial setting or during advanced graduate research.However, most laboratory experiments are ‘canned’ and handed to the student with a detailedprocedure

Conference Session

Great Ideas for Projects that Teach Instrumentation

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Farid Farahmand, Sonoma State Univeristy; Saeid Moslehpour, University of Hartford

Tagged Divisions

Instrumentation

difficult time to follow algorithms and programming sequences. Infact, some studies show that while students can often learn the syntax of individualcommands in any programming language quickly, the skill of combining commands intoa program and integrating them with a hardware device is harder to learn.2In order to better prepare freshmen students and introduce them to available lab resourcesand general engineering and computer science curriculum, the Department ofEngineering Science at Sonoma State University has been requiring students to take anintroductory course to engineering. Introduction to Engineering (ES110) is a two-credithour core engineering course with one hour lecture and 2 ½ hours of lab per week.Majority of students enrolled in