ME 240:
Fundamentals of Instrumentation & Measurement
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Rochester
Fall 2024 | Douglas H. Kelley and Ibrahim Mohammad
Lab Lectures will meet once per week for 75 minutes (14:00-15:15 Wednesdays in Dewey 1101). Required for ME majors. 4 credits. Labs will meet synchronously and in person for three hours each week (in Hopeman 124, with each student attending just one lab meeting):
| Section | Time | Instructors |
|---|---|---|
| 240-5 | M 10:30-13:30 | Shawn McPoyle and Jennifer Yu |
| 240-2 | W 10:00-13:00 | Shawn McPoyle and Daniel Medina |
| 240-3 | R 15:00-18:00 | Pouria Hajizadeh and Joshua Nova-Yingst |
| 240-4 | F 13:00-16:00 | Pouria Hajizadeh and Daniel Medina |
Course Goals
Opening the upper-level laboratory sequence in Mechanical Engineering, this course introduces students to contemporary techniques for data acquisition and analysis, focusing on measurements commonly made by mechanical engineers. Students measure quantities like force, position, velocity, temperature, flow rate, elastic modulus, and viscosity. Students learn about analog and digital signals, frequency analysis, measurement system models, statistics and uncertainty analysis, filters, sampling, and data visualization. Matlab is the primary software environment for acquisition and analysis. The art of troubleshooting, requiring both intuition and resilience, is a key skill developed in this course.
Successful students in this course will also gain
- an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences (ABET Student Outcome 3),
- an ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, create a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives (ABET Student Outcome 5), and
- an ability to develop and conduct appropriate experimentation, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions (ABET Student Outcome 6).
Prerequisites
ME 160 (co-requisite), PHY 122, ME 226.
Materials
Sharing material generated for this course by the instructors is prohibited.
- Required: Any edition of Introduction to Engineering Experimentation by A. J. Wheeler and A. R. Ganji.
- See also: Appendix: A guide for technical writing
- See also: Experimental Methods for Engineers by J. P. Holman.
- Library resources: scholarly articles, material properties, patents, standards, and more.
Assignments & Grading
All assignments and activities associated with this course must be performed in accordance with the University of Rochester's Academic Honesty Policy. In this course, students are allowed to collaborate on homework and laboratory reports — provided that each collaborator takes the time to fully understand the material, then write and submit their own assignment. Students are encouraged and expected to use manufacturers' manuals and documentation during lab exercises and in writing lab reports, finding them online as necessary. Use of artificial intelligence like ChatGPT is allowed in homework and lab reports as long as use is acknowledged in the assignment. Services like Chegg.com are uniformly prohibited. Facilitating dishonesty is dishonesty. Procrastination is a major source of dishonesty, so start assignments early and keep yourself organized. On quizzes and exams, neither collaboration nor outside aids are permitted unless the instructors explicitly state otherwise. Students must write and sign the Honor Pledge on all exams: “I affirm that I will not give or receive any unauthorized help on this exam, and that all work will be my own.”
- Reading Quizzes - 5%
- Each lab exercise will begin with a reading quiz consisting of three short questions taken directly from the procedure for that lab exercise.
- Lab reports - 60%
- Lab reports are to be submitted via GradeScope, due at the end of the Friday of the subsequent week, except for the last lab report, which is due at the end of the last day of university classes. Late submissions will be penalized 33% if less than 24 hours late, and 66% if between 24 and 48 hours late. Submissions more than 48 hours late will not be accepted.
- Homework - 10%
- Homework is to be submitted via GradeScope, due at the end of the Tuesday of the subsequent week. Late submissions will not be accepted. The lowest homework grade will be dropped.
- Final exam - 25%
- Cumulative and in person, 16:00 14 December, Dewey 1101.
Communication, Availability & Feedback
The instructors will distribute evaluations periodically to collect feedback. Students are encouraged to communicate among themselves and with the instructors via the ME 240 - 24 Teams channel, linked from the course Blackboard page. The instructors typically check Teams and email frequently but cannot guarantee immediate response at all times. For in-depth questions, a face-to-face discussion usually works better, so come to office hours:
| Time | Location | Instructor |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesdays 13:30-14:30 | Hopeman 218 | Doug Kelley |
| Tuesdays 10:00-11:00 or find a time and send a note | Hopeman 304 | Ibrahim Mohammad |
Course Schedule
Reading assignments specified as section numbers below come from the third edition of the text by Wheeler and Ganji. Links to many assignments are in Resources. This schedule may evolve as the course progresses. When a lab meets on a religious or cultural holiday, affected students can usually attend a different lab section instead; please make arrangements with the instructor beforehand.
| Week of | Topics | Reading | Due |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 August | Lecture: General aspects of measurement systems | slides | 2.1-2.4 | Prerequisites quiz on Blackboard |
| Lab: No labs. | |||
| 2 September | Lecture: Electrical measurement systems, signal conditioners, thermocouples, pyrometers, temperature measurement errors | 3.1-3.2, 9.2.1, 9.2.5, 9.2.6 | Bonus: Beliefs & Goals |
| Lab: No labs. | |||
| 9 September | Lecture: Indicating and recording devices, computerized data acquisition systems | slides | 3.3, 4.1-4.4.2 | Homework 1; Laboratory Safety Training (search for "standard chemical"), Laboratory safety quiz on Blackboard |
| Lab: Newton's law of cooling (week 1 of 2) | Newton's law of cooling | Reading quiz: Newton's law of cooling | |
| 16 September | Lecture: Sampling and aliasing | slides | 5.1 | Homework 2 |
| Lab: Newton's law of cooling (week 2 of 2) | Newton's law of cooling | ||
| 23 September | Lecture: Spectral analysis, Fourier series and transforms | slides | 5.2-5.3 | Homework 3; Deliverables: Newton's law of cooling |
| Lab: Particle tracking velocimetry (week 1 of 2) | Particle tracking velocimetry | Reading quiz: Particle tracking velocimetry | |
| 30 September | Lecture: Selecting sampling rate and filtering, writing captions and abstracts | 5.4 | Homework 4 |
| Lab: Particle tracking velocimetry (week 2 of 2) | Particle tracking velocimetry | ||
| 7 October | Lecture: Introduction to statistical analysis and probability | 6.1-6.3.1 | Homework 5; Deliverables: Particle tracking velocimetry |
| Lab: Music, vibrations, and frequency analysis (week 1 of 2) | Music, vibrations, and frequency analysis | Reading quiz: Music, vibrations, and frequency analysis | |
| 14 October | Lecture: Common probability distribution functions | 6.3.2 | Homework 6 |
| Lab: No labs. | |||
| 21 October | Lecture: Parameter estimation, strain gages | 6.4, 8.1 | Homework 7 |
| Lab: Music, vibrations, and frequency analysis (week 2 of 2) | Music, vibrations, and frequency analysis | ||
| 28 October | Lecture: Outlier elimination, correlation coefficients | 6.5-6.6.1 | Homework 8; Deliverables: Music, vibrations, and frequency analysis |
| Lab: Repeatability and statistics (week 1 of 1) | Repeatability and statistics | Reading quiz: Repeatability and statistics | |
| 4 November | Lecture: Fitting functions to data | 6.6.2, 6.6.4-6.6.5, 8.2.2 | Homework 9; Deliverables: Repeatability and statistics |
| Lab: Bridge and amplifier circuits (week 1 of 1) | Bridge and amplifier circuits | Reading quiz: Bridge and amplifier circuits | |
| 11 November | Lecture: Combining random variables, basic uncertainty propagation, linear variable differential transformers | 6.7, 7.1-7.2, 8.2.2 | Homework 10; Deliverables: Amplifiers and bridge circuits |
| Lab: Strain (week 1 of 1) | Strain | Reading quiz: Strain | |
| 18 November | Lecture: Systematic and random uncertainty, sources of elemental error | 7.3-7.4 | Homework 11; Deliverables: Strain |
| Lab: Translation stage design (week 1 of 2) | Translation stage design | Reading quiz: Translation stage design | |
| 25 November | Lecture: No lecture. | ||
| Lab: No labs. | |||
| 2 December | Lecture: Uncertainty for multiple-measurement and single-measurement experiments, manufacturers' uncertainty data | 7.5-7.8 | Homework 12 |
| Lab: Translation stage design (week 2 of 2) | Translation stage design | ||
| 9 December | Lecture: No lecture. | Deliverables: Translation stage design (end of the last day of class) | |
| Lab: No labs. |
Accessibility Accommodations
The University of Rochester respects and welcomes students of all backgrounds and abilities. The University employs professional staff committed to assisting students with disabilities in the classroom, residence halls, libraries, and elsewhere on campus. In the event you encounter any barriers to full participation in this course due to the impact of a disability, please contact the Office of Disability Resources (disability@rochester.edu, 585-276-5075). The access coordinators in the Office of Disability Resources can meet with you to discuss the barriers you are experiencing and explain the eligibility process for establishing academic accommodations. It is a personal decision to disclose the existence of a disability and to request an accommodation. A decision not to disclose will be respected. Students who request an accommodation must provide appropriate documentation to the Disability Coordinator. The University remains flexible regarding the types of reasonable accommodations that can be made. Students with disabilities are invited to offer suggestions for accommodations.
Title IX
All members of the University community have the right to learn and work in a safe environment free from all forms of harassment, including harassment on the basis of sex or gender. Students who have been subjected to sexual harassment, including sexual assault, dating/domestic violence or stalking, have the right to receive academic, housing, transportation or other accommodations, to receive counseling and health services and to make a report about such behavior to the University and to law enforcement. For more information please visit www.rochester.edu/sexualmisconduct or contact the Title IX coordinator.
This document is available at http://hajim.rochester.edu/me/sites/kelley/me240/.