ChE 253M -- Fundamentals Lab -- Course Syllabus
Instructor
Keith Friedman, Ph.D. in ChE
Contact: friedman@che.utexas.edu or 512-471-7872 (email preferred)
Lecture & Lab: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 2-5 pm in CPE 1.418 & 1.420
Office Hrs: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday 3-4 pm in CPE 1.420
Teaching Assistants
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•
•
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Temperature Measurement
Liquid Flow Measurement
Compressible Gas Flow
Statistical Process Control
Rheology & Design of Expts
Heat Exchange & Control
Report Writing
Derek Hernandez [dshernan@gmail.com]
Mark Ferraro [mferraro99@gmail.com]
Name [email]
Name [email]
Craig Milroy [milroy@che.utexas.edu]
Name [email]
Andrew Costigan [Andrew_Costigan@post.harvard.edu]
Office Hrs: The Technical TAs can be consulted one hour after lab starts: Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday 3-4 pm in CPE 1.420. The Writing TA is available by appointment.
Description
ChE 253M Measurement, Control, and Data Analysis Laboratory Spring 2010
Unique Numbers 14755 (M), 14760 (Tu), 14765 (W)
Course Prerequisites (All with a grade ≥ C):
ChE 333T (Engineering Communications), ChE 348 (Numerical Methods), ChE 353 (Transport
Phenomena) and ChE 253K (Applied Statistics).
The short-term purpose of this class is to actualize the material in pre-requisite classes: most experiments will demonstrate transport phenomena (ChE 353), and you will do statistical analysis
(ChE 253K and ChE 348) of the data and write several professional lab reports (ChE 333T). The
long-term purpose is to teach you to perform and report engineering experiments, tasks that you are
very likely to be assigned in your first job. Stated subjectively, the objective for you to get comfortable making and reporting engineering measurements -- to learn to have fun in the lab.
In this class you will:
• Learn laboratory safety and work safely
• Learn about teamwork and work in teams
• Measure temperature, pressure, flow and viscosity with common lab and industrial instruments.
• Quantify the precision and accuracy of measurements made with uncalibrated instruments against
instruments calibrated to NIST standards
• Collect, statistically analyze and report data, producing full-length professional technical reports.
• Apply statistical tools, e.g., significance tests, confidence intervals and linear regression, and statistical software, e.g., JMP and Excel, to experimental data.
• Create and analyze statistical process control (SPC) charts.
• Gain a qualitative understanding of computer data acquisition and process control
This class will help you meet three ABET criteria:
B. An ability to design and conduct experiments as well as analyze and interpret data
D. Ability function on multidisciplinary teams
G. An ability to communicate effectively
Materials
• Website: "MEAS, CNTRL, & DATA ANLY LAB " at https://courses.utexas.edu (Blackboard)
• Computer and Software: You will need a computer.
o Microsoft Excel. Microsoft Office is available at the Campus Computer Store.
o JMP Statistical Discovery Software. The department provides JMP.
• Textbook: The Team Memory Jogger, First Edition. Goal/QPC and Oriel Inc., New Hampshire,
1995, ISBN 1-879364-51-4
• Course materials and textbooks from ChE 333T, ChE 348, ChE 353 and ChE 253K
Schedule
During the first week of classes you will attend an orientation lecture. Thereafter, you will attend
lab every other week, according the Class Schedule. Thus, you will attend six lab periods and
complete six experiments: (1) temperature measurement, (2) liquid flow measurement, (3) compressible gas flow, (4) statistical process control, (5) rheology and design of experiments, and (6)
heat exchange and control.
(Note: "Class Schedule" and other Bold titles refer to documents you need to read. They are on the
class Blackboard website.)
Pre-Lab Preparation
Because you are required to (1) bring a datasheet to every experiment, (2) bring a Teamwork Plan
to team-report experiments, and (3) take a pre-lab quiz on the experiment's theory, procedure and
safety, you need to prepare for each lab, optimally with your teammates. Study the Experiment
Guide before coming to lab, so you know how to analyze the data during the lab period and can
pass the pre-lab quiz. The datasheet is a form or spread sheet configured to record the data. Preparing this form is an opportunity to carefully consider exactly what measurements you will be making
in the laboratory. This spreadsheet will be checked and will be part of your quiz grade.
Teamwork
You will work in a team of four students. The teams will be chosen to distribute needed skills,
based on the Team Profile you will submit at the first class meeting. Team assignments will posted
by Friday of the first week. When you have your team assignment, please read the re-read Class
Schedule and put the lab and due dates on your calendar. Missed lab periods cannot be made up
and late reports cannot be accepted without a University recognized excuse -- see below.
On all experiments, your team should work together to prepare and perform the experiment and to
analyze the data during the lab period. ("During the lab period" is the right time to analyze the data,
because you will have your team and TA there to help you, and you will leave the lab knowing that
you have the data you need.) To do quality work quickly, you need choreography, and so your
team is required to complete the Teamwork Plan which lists the roles and responsibilities of each
team member. The following table is just a starting suggestion for team roles; you will want to optimize it based on your team's strengths and the needs of the experiment
Team Roles -- A Starting Suggestion
Role
People
Task
People
Pre-Lab
Preparation
All
Data Analyzer &
Graph Preparer
All & Early
Preparation & Lab Work
Instrument &
Method & Data
Equipt Operator
Recorder
1 or 2
1
Team Report Writing
Intro & Method
Results
Section Writer
Section Writer
1 or 2
1 or 2
Data Analyzer
1 or 2
Editor &
Assembler
1 or 2
Reports
On experiments with Team Reports, the team should continue working together to get the report
done. On experiments with Individual Reports, collaboration stops when you leave the lab. When
you leave the lab after these experiments, be sure you have all the methods notes, measurement data
and data analysis you need to work all by yourself. This is a clear line; crossing it is cheating.
Your lab report is routine engineering report written to a specification. The specification is in the
writing guide and template on the web site at http://www.engr.utexas.edu/che/techwriting/. Please
read the writing guide carefully and use it as a checklist. You will probably write hundreds of reports during your career, so learn to make writing as routine as solving homework problems. Do
not make a masterpiece; just communicate information clearly and efficiently.
Your report must be submitted at or before class on the due date. Submit you report an MS Word
"doc" file; do not submit it in another format, e.g., "pdf." Please submit your report file via Blackboard -- see Uploading Reports for instructions. If your sample calculations are hand written,
hand them to the experiment's TA at the beginning of class.
Deadlines
Missing a lab period, or uploading a report or submitting hand-written sample calculations after
their due-date lab begins will reduce your report score by 50%, unless you have a Universityrecognized excuse. You must attend the lab or submit the report and calculations within one week
of the missed due date, or your report score will be zero.
University Recognized excuses include medical problems requiring doctor visits, religious holy
days, military service and qualifying medical or military family leave. For missed lab periods, your
excuse must prevent you from working that day. For late individual reports, your excuse must prevent you from working on the report for three days or more. For late team reports, your (plural) excuse must prevent two or more team members from working on the report.
Job interviews are not recognized excuses. You can have the interview arranger contact me and I
will confirm that I am rigid and the reason you need to move the interview by an hour or a day. (I
will also tell the interviewer that you are a responsible student.) Extra curricular activities are helpful, and work pile-ups in multiple classes are real difficulties, but they are not recognized excuses -sorry.
Grading
The TAs will score your reports for technical content (75%) and writing (25%). The technical score
contains 140 points for the report and 10 points for the quiz. The writing score contains 50 points
for writing and format. Please review the Technical Scoring sheet and the Writing Scoring sheet
to see how the different sections and aspects of the reports are score. If you have a question about
report scoring, please take the report in question to the TA. Your report grade can be changed up to
two weeks after being returned.
Your scores on the six lab reports (1200 points) and homework (to be determined) will determine
your grade. The report scores will be totaled two ways, "constant" and "improvement," and you
will get the higher total score at the end of the semester. Your grade will be determined by your
percent of total points -- please see below.
Scoring-Grading Schemes
Totaling
Constant
Improvement
A
≥92%
Individual Rpt #1
200 points
180
A<92 −
≥90%
B+
<90 −
≥87%
Individual Rpt #2
200
200
B
<87 −
≥82%
B<82 −
≥80%
Individual Rpt #3
200
220
C+
<80 −
≥77%
C
<77 −
≥72%
All Team Rpts
200
200
C<72 −
≥70%
D
<70%
Because grading is not competitive, you should not be inhibited in working together on lab preparation, lab work and team reports. But, you must work alone when taking quizzes and writing individual reports.
Integrity
Honesty is fundamental to engineering. Dishonest engineers are at best a shameful waste, and at
worst, they kill people. If you cannot work honestly, as a student and as a professional, you cannot
be an engineer.
Read and understand the document titled Academic Integrity. You will be responsible for it.
• Cheating. On experiments with Individual Reports, collaboration stops when you leave the lab.
When you leave the lab after these experiments, be sure you have all the methods notes, measurement data and data analysis you need to work all by yourself. This is a clear line; crossing it is
cheating.
• Plagiarism. To plagiarize is to use someone else's ideas or words and claim them as your own (by
not explicitly stating that they are not your own). Plagiarizing directly from someone else's report
or from an old file report is strictly forbidden. Plagiarizing from the experimental handout and reference textbooks is inappropriate, unnecessary and forbidden. Short phases or statements from
references may be used if put in quotation marks with due credit given by reference. Mathematical equations from handouts and references may be used if identified and referenced. If no reference is cited, it is presumed that the work is original. If you have a question about interpretation
of this policy, assume the most conservative possible interpretation or ask your Teaching Assistant for an interpretation before turning in your report. (Paraphrased from Prof. Willson's syllabus.)
Cheating or plagiarism will be handled via the Student Discipline process of Student Judicial Services, as described on their website: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/. A report with cheating or
plagiarism will receive a zero. A student with two such reports will receive an F.
Safety
All students are expected to understand any hazards associated with their particular experiments
prior to beginning them. If you are unsure, please ask your TA. Unsafe practices will get a warning; failure to heed that warning will get you dismissed from class and a zero for the experiment.
Based on 40 years in the lab and teaching, Prof. Willson and I have set the following safety rules:
• Safety glasses with clear plastic or hardened glass lenses will be worn by all participants. Side
shields are desirable but not mandatory.
• Long pants and/or aprons must be worn by all participants, and closed-toe footwear is required.
Open-toe sandals may not be worn in the laboratory. You will not be allowed to conduct the experiments if you are dressed improperly.
• Eating and drinking are not allowed in the laboratory area.
• Each student must know the positions and operation of fire extinguishers, safety showers, and eye
fountains. Should it become necessary to use any of these devices, please notify your instructor
afterwards so that they may be properly recharged as necessary.
• Good housekeeping procedures are essential in the laboratory. Particularly, accidental spills of
water and chemical solvents should be wiped up immediately and disposed of properly. Doing
this will prevent poor footing and minimize the possibility of fire and toxic inhalation.
• Spilled mercury should be gathered as completely as possible and disposed of properly. Your instructor should be immediately notified in the event of a mercury spill. A mercury cleanup kit is
available in the stockroom.
• Be wary of possible electrical hazards. All electrical devices should be properly grounded.
Frayed or otherwise hazardous electrical cords should be reported and replaced or repaired.
Flammable solvents should be kept away from electrical equipment.
• Portable radios are prohibited because they are distracting and therefore hazardous.
Administrative
University of Texas policy states:
Course Instructor Surveys. Students will be informed of the date that the Course/Instructor evaluations will be done. Students are required to attend class on that date unless prior arrangements have
been made to complete the survey.
Accommodations for Disabilities. The University of Texas at Austin provides, upon request, appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information,
contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 471-6259, 471-4641 TTY or the College of Engineering Director of Students with Disabilities at 471-4321.
Religious Holy Days. A student who misses classes or other required activities, including examinations, for the observance of a religious holy day should inform the instructor as far in advance of the
absence as possible, so that arrangements can be made to complete an assignment within a reasonable time after the absence.
Absence for Military Service. In accordance with Section 51.9111 of the Texas Education Code, a
student is excused from attending classes or engaging in other required activities, including exams,
if he or she is called to active military service of a reasonably brief duration. The student will be
allowed a reasonable time after the absence to complete assignments and take exams.