PH 393 Instrumentation and Analysis Fall 2009
Professor: Dr. David W. Donovan
Office: 2513 West Science
Phone: 227-2453
Email: ddonovan@nmu.edu
WWW: http://physics.nmu.edu/~ddonovan/
Office Hours: M W R 10:00 - 11:45 AM
F 10:00 - 10:50 AM
M 4:00 - 5:00 PM
Other times by Appointment
Grade Breakdown: Homework/Lab
projects 25% (Includes Peer Reviews and Presentation
Critiques)
Major Projects/Presentations 25% (Diode and Major Project)
Midterm Exam 25%
Final Exam 25%
NOTE: You must receive a passing grade in each part
(Lecture and Lab) separately in order to pass the course as a whole. If you fail either part, regardless of your
grade in the other part you will fail the course!!
Electronic versions of
this document have working hyperlinks!
THERE IS NO EXTRA
CREDIT!! Doing poorly for a portion
of the semester will not be corrected by any extra projects. Please do not assume you can replace poor
work under any circumstances with any “additional assignments”!!
This class is an introduction to the process of learning the skills required to conceive of, construct, perform, analyze, report, and to evaluate scientific experiments. This will involve learning how to collect data, examine that data in real time and to perform analysis techniques to convert raw data into publishable forms. This course will introduce you to some of the methods of experimental science. You will become familiar with basic electronics concepts and instrumentation including: how to make voltage and current measurements, amplifier circuits, timing circuit, electronic filters and rectifier circuits. You will learn how to connect computers to laboratory equipment in order to make these measurements automatically or remotely. Additionally, you will learn how to perform mathematical analysis on data primarily using MATLAB.
After taking care of the basics, much of this class will revolve around individualized or small group projects. Students are encouraged to come up with their own projects that they are interested in pursuing. All projects must be approved by the professor to insure both that the projects are suitable for this course and for costs, safety, and feasibility of such projects.
At the conclusion of each major project, a report will be turned in. These reports will be submitted as many times as necessary to produce an acceptable report. (Note: The final grade of these reports will be partly based on how many submissions are necessary for final acceptance. The fewer submissions, the higher the grade.) The goal of these reports is to prepare students for the process of writing articles for research publication. In addition, students will be required to present their Individual Major Project report in an oral presentation using PowerPoint for the class and any interested guests during either the last week of the semester and/or during finals week as needed.
An important concept in the publishing of research results is the Peer Review. All students in this class will be required to review other class participants writing and to offer proper comments about their work and writing. The professor will provide rubrics to guide your critique of your colleagues work. You will objectively discuss your colleagues work. The goal of this is to prepare you for the important goal of reviewing other people’s work. You are to strive to be professional about this. Teasing or other inappropriate comments in your reviews may result in your own grade being lowered.
While there is a required lab period each week, the nature of this course is not such that there will be a series of canned lab exercises each week. Instead, it is very likely that lab and lecture will be intermixed as the situation requires. Therefore there may not be lab worksheets per se to turn in each week. However there will be various homework projects assigned. These will include problems to solve, computer programs to work out, results from running various programs or using the commercial software to solve problems, etc. There will also be a midterm and final exams. These will be take home exams.
Labs will be done
with partners, who will both be present in the lab room until the either the
work has been completed or the lab time is over. Please refrain from coming to lab late. Some of the experiments have the potential to
destroy lab equipment; please do not apply power to a project until you have
fully checked it over. Do not wire a
project with power being on. Be
careful with Electricity, even the small doses we use can cause problems!!!
Attendance at all labs is mandatory. Make ups for labs will only be provided for at the discretion of the professor. This will occur only for reasonable excuses. Desire to go home for the weekend or to go hunting are not considered reasonable excuses. Informing the professor BEFORE an absence is more likely to result in a make-up than informing the professor after the absence.
Please wear shoes that completely cover your feet in lab. Open toed shoes and sandals will not be permitted. If you wear such shoes, you will be asked to leave lab to change. This is a safety issue and this will not be ignored! Bare feet and/or just socks are not allowed in the lab!!
There will be two exams: a midterm and a final in this class. All exams are going to be take-home exams. There will be no extension on the due date of these exams. Failure to turn in the exams by 6:00 PM on the date specified will result in a zero for the exam. You are free to use any printed reference material you may find. But you are not allowed to discuss the exams in any manner, even hypothetical, with any persons other than the professor. Of course you may bitch and complain about how hard the exam is, but nothing specific please.
MATLAB RULE: All homework problems and exam problems which ask for sketches or plots and all labs which ask for plots are to be done in MATLAB only. NO HAND DRAWN PLOTS EVER!!! No use of EXCEL ever!! All such MATLAB plots are to have your name, date, proper axis labels, especially including appropriate units, and the scales should be such that as much as possible a single page is filled by the plot. All MATLAB work must include the m-file which created the plot or solved the problem. If a problem is solved using MATLAB, a cleaned up text file should be printed out from the command window showing the answers. By cleaned up it is meant that extra spaces, duplicate results, error messages, etc. should have been removed. These results from the command window may be added to your m-file as comments. Your professor will explain this to you.
Proper axis labels would include either {Force, F, (N)} or {Ln(Force), ln(F), (ln(N))}
In the case of thick packets of paper, a large paperclip may be preferable to a staple. Please do not fasten homework in a manner which makes it difficult for the solutions to be read. Homework, as well as exams and labs, should be free of debris: coffee stains, food particles, eraser pieces, ragged edges, etc. Please make the pages as neat as possible. Papers which the professor cannot read for any reason (legibility, contrast between writing and paper, etc) are just wrong, and all points will be lost. Homework is YOUR opportunity to show the professor that you understand the material and can produce a proper solution. The numerical answer is not the final criteria. All problems which require answers must be have a value not an equation. Moreover, all numerical answers (unless they are pure numbers), must have an appropriate set of units. No units when needed, No Credit for the problem!!!
Because of the amount of work done in this class, falling behind will cause a severe hardship to a student. Catching up is extremely difficult. In order to prevent this from occurring, homework and labs must be turned in on time. Any assignment not turned in on time may incur a 10% per day late penalty. Moreover, no work will be accepted more than one week late. Note: Exams are not included in this policy (see above). If you have a specific problem that requires your work to be turned in late, you should discuss the situation with the professor.
Homework, and exam solutions, and other material will be posted on the World Wide Web at my webpage which is located at: http://physics.nmu.edu/~ddonovan/ Select the My Courses Option. If you need assistance in learning how to use the world-wide web, see your professor. Note: I do not use WebCT!
The professor will make every effort to respond to all email (ddonovan@nmu.edu ) questions received by 5 PM Monday through Friday, with a response by 10 PM Monday through Friday. Students are expected to regularly check their NMU issued email accounts for any messages the professor may send out to the class as a whole or to an individual in the class. Moreover, when students ask the professor a question requiring an answer, it is appropriate for the student to check their email in a timely fashion and to confirm the receipt of the answer, and if necessary provide any answers to questions the professor may have posed about the situation.
Food of any kind (including snack food) is not allowed in the lab or classroom. Please do not bring it in. Drinks will be permitted as long as care is taken not to have spills occur. If excessive spillage occurs, drinks may be restricted as well.
Students in this class are expected to conform to a code of academic honesty. While it is encouraged for students to work together, there are situations where work is expected to be the student’s whose name appears on the work. Quizzes and exams are obvious examples of where cheating will not be tolerated. However, using the same code and documentation (even if you change your name and modify some words), is also considered cheating. For example, using the same MATLAB m-files (unless given permission by the instructor) in lab or for homework to produce two copies of plots or problem solutions (even if you change your name), is considered cheating. Each student is expected to learn how to create their own files. In lab work, it will often be the case that both partners will have identical work. However, both partners are to turn in lab sheets, and both partners are expected to participate equally in completing the lab tasks. It is not acceptable for one partner to do all the work, while the other merely watches and writes. Both partners are expected to understand the lab exercises. If you have questions on what is considered appropriate, ask your professor.
Please be sure any
cell phones or pagers or other devices do not produce sounds during lectures.
Please do not engage in
conversations at all during lectures and at times when the professor is
lecturing during a lab exercise. At
times when the professor is not lecturing during a lab exercise, you may have
conversations provided they are not offensive or distracting to other members
of the class.
Computer Usage Policies:
If Permission is granted then:
If you have a need for disability-related accommodations or services, please inform the Coordinator of Disability Services in the Disability Services Office at 2001 C. B. Hedgcock (227-1700). Reasonable and effective accommodations and services will be provided to students if requests are made in a timely manner, with appropriate documentation, in accordance with federal, state, and University guidelines.
Northern Michigan University does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, height, weight, marital status, familial status, handicap/disability, sexual orientation or veteran status in employment or the provision of services, and provides, upon request, reasonable accommodation including auxiliary aids and services necessary to afford individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate in all programs and activities. Persons having civil rights inquiries may contact the Affirmative Action Office at 502 Cohodas Hall (227‑2478).
Tentative Course
Content
MATLAB Fundamentals
Basic Electronic circuits
How to measure Voltages
How to measure Currents
How to interface to Computers using A/D boards
Diodes and Simple Diode Circuits
Semiconductor Theory
Diode Equation a Non-Linear Model
Error Analysis and the Propagation of Experimental Errors
Curve Fitting of Experimental Data
Linear Models
Non-Linear Models
Operational Amplifier circuits
Fourier Analysis
Integral Transforms
Dirac Delta Functions
Nyquist Sampling Theorem
Fourier Filter (If time permits)
Tentative Course
Deadlines (all by 6 PM on date specified or work is considered late. See Late penalties) NOTE:
Dates may change depending on needs and progress of the course.
Sep 4 – Your individual Major Project Proposal (10% of Major Project grade)
Sep 9 – Peer Reviews of Major Project Proposals
Sep 18 – First draft of Procedures and Literature Review (include references) for Major Project (20% of Major Project grade)
Sep 18 – All Requests for Equipment purchases for Major Projects
Sep 23 – Peer Reviews of Procedures and Literature Review (include references) for Major Project
Sep 25 – First draft of Diode Project Procedures and Literature Review (Include references) (30% of Diode Project grade)
Sep 30 – Peer Reviews of Diode Project Procedures and Literature Review (Include references)
Oct 2 – First draft of Diode Project Data, Data Analysis, and Error Analysis (30% of Diode Project grade)
Oct 7 – Peer Reviews of Diode Project Data, Data Analysis, and Error Analysis
Oct 8 – First draft of Diode Project Conclusions (10% of Diode Project grade)
Oct 13 – Peer Reviews of Diode Project Conclusions
Oct 16 – Final Complete Diode Project Due (30% of Diode Project grade)
Oct 30 – Major Project Progress report including initial data (10% of Major Project grade)
Nov 6 – First Draft Data, Data Analysis and Error Analysis of Major Project (10% of Major Project grade)
Nov 11 – Peer Reviews Data, Data Analysis and Error Analysis of Major Project
Nov 20 – First draft of Major Project Conclusions (understood data collection and analysis may be ongoing) (10% of Major Project grade)
Nov 24 – Peer Reviews of Major Project Conclusions (understood data collection and analysis may be ongoing)
Nov 30 – Final Complete Major Project Due (30% of Major Project grade)
Dec 4 – PowerPoint Presentations of Major Project Due (20% of Major Project grade)
Major Project
Presentations will be given in the last week of lab and during Finals Week as
scheduled in the class. All Students are
expected to attend and to critique all Major Project Presentations.
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Please send any comments or questions about this page
to ddonovan@nmu.edu
This
page last updated on August 23, 2009