NSF Award
9851104
Funding is requested for an integrated, computer based data acquisition system and laboratory for the Mechanical Engineering Technology (MET) program, in the Ward College of Technology at the University of Hartford. This system will permit students to gain hands-on experience with state of the art methods of data acquisition, while exploring the various physical phenomenon encountered in the field of MET. A major advantage of the proposed laboratory will be the use of a single data acquisition system in several required undergraduate courses. The computerized system will interface with conventional instrumentation such as load cells and displacement measuring devices and will permit electronic transmission of data. Systems of this type are widely used in industry today and will serve to substantially strengthen the applied aspect of the MET program. The requested software, LabVIEW by National Instruments, is currently used at major universities and industry alike and takes the place of the common voltmeter and oscilloscope. This proposal can be considered innovative due to the use of a single data acquisition system along with conventional transducers in nearly every major course. Presently, five courses have been targeted and the additional hardware needs for each is detailed in the following sections. It is also believed that the use of the computer in place of traditional instrumentation will allow women and minorities to experience a more even playing field than the traditional student in engineering technology, who often has had some experience with conventional instrumentation. Today, virtually every student has had experience with personal computers and LabVIEW is very similar to the common Apple and Windows operating systems. Once implemented, this laboratory will provide students with a working knowledge of the discipline as it actually occurs in industry today. The use of a single system will provide a coherent and unified approach to data acquisition and post processing.
