ECE3500: Lab Report Guidelines and Template (Fall 2014)
Joel B. Harley
ECE 3500: Fundamentals of Signals and System, Lab Section A
Joel.Harley@utah.edu
Abstract. The purpose of writing lab reports is to (1) get practice carefully analyzing results and data from a
particular experiment and (2) get practice communicating technical information to an audience of your peers.
Both in academia and industry, you will often be analyzing results and communicating technical information
through a technical report. The reports will usually follow a template or a set of specific guidelines. This
document serves as both a template and a set of guidelines for your lab report. In these guidelines, we discuss
the preferred structure for ECE 3500 lab reports and the rubric that will be used to grade them.
INTRODUCTION & MOTIVATION
This document provides a basic template and set of guidelines for writing a lab report for ECE 3500 at
the University of Utah for Fall 2014. I ask that students use this template to clearly communicate your
work and analyses to myself and the teaching assistants. This document is based on a slightly modified
version of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) single column proceedings template for Microsoft
Word [1]. We are not using an IEEE template since IEEE exclusively uses double column templates.
Double column templates can often be frustrating to work with in Microsoft Word.
In your careers in industry and/or academia, you will need to communicate technical information to
your peers. Often this technical information will be communicated in the form of a technical report. These
laboratory reports are intended to give your guidance and practice on writing a clear, concise, and useful
technical report. Emphasis here should be placed on conciseness. In any discipline or industry, report
requirements may vary. However, a well-written, concise report will always be valuable and appreciated
[2]. In this class, we will grade reports based on quality over quantity. To understand what “quality” is,
these guidelines include the grading rubric that will be used by the lab teaching assistants and me when
grading each submitted report.
These guidelines are divided into three sections: Report Structure, Grading Rubric, and Conclusions.
The first section, Report Structure, will discuss the general structure and sections of a lab reports for ECE
3500. The second section, Grading Rubric, will discuss how the teaching assistant and I will grade each
lab report. The conclusions will summarize the topics and provide some final words of wisdom.
REPORT STRUCTURE
Structure is invaluable for quickly communicating information to any audience. By using the structure
outlined in this section, you will help the lab teaching assistants and me understand, grade, and compare
your work. Unstructured documents can be confusing and difficult to use. A good structure will also help
you write your report by provide a rough outline. For ECE 3500, lab reports will be structured as follows:
(0) Abstract, (1) Introduction & Motivation, (2) Experimental Design, (3) Analytical Methods, (4) Results
and Discussion, (5) Conclusions, (6) References (only if necessary). Figure 1 summarizes the purpose of
each section. The following subsections will discuss each of the sections in depth.
Abstract
• Motivates report
• Summarizes
methods and
results
Introduction &
Motivation
• Motivates the
reader
• Summarized
methods
• Outlines report
Experimental
Design
Analytical
Methods
• Allows readers
to replicate your
experiment
• Allows readers
to replicate your
analysis
Results and
Discussion
• Includes
descriptions of
figures
• Discusses
questions from
lab assignment
Conclusions
• Summarizes
results
• Relates results
to a “big
picture”
References
• Included if you
use material or
reference an
external source
Figure 1
Abstract
The abstract is a short, but sweet, summary of your report. It is intended to give readers a very quick
overview of (1) your motivation for writing the report, (2) the methods and/or results presented in the
report, and (3) a quick summary of the results of the report. If you have numerical values that summarize
your results, these are often included in the abstract. The abstract allows readers to quickly assess if they
want to read the report and learn more technical details. Yet, if readers only read the abstract, they will
still have a good understanding report’s contents. Think of the abstract as a type of “too long; didn’t read
(abbreviated tl;dr)” summary that is commonly used on internet forums.
Introduction & Motivation
The introduction and motivation is, arguably, the most important part of your report. This section tells
the reader why we are interested in the topic discussed throughout the report. Often this section begins
with broad ideas that connect the contents of your report to particular applications or uses (your
motivation). The section then discusses specifically what is addressed in the report. This will often
include a short discussion on the methods used (and why they are used) and some summary results
(similar to the abstract). This section is also often used (although not always) to establish the structure of
the report. That is, it introduces and briefly discusses the sections that follow it.
Note this section is to motivate readers, not necessary to express your motivations. For a course, such
ECE 3500, your most pressing motivation is likely “because you have to.” This is not a good motivation
for a reader. However, for lab reports, the primary motivation can be (but does not have to be) centered on
why we are learning about the methods from each lab assignment. All of the labs in this course stem from
real applications and methods used to solve real, challenging problems. I encourage you to think critically
about your lab work and learn more about each topic (feel free to use Wikipedia or any online resource).
You should be able to find some motivation for why this work or these methods are important to study
and understand for your (and the reader’s) future career.
Experimental Design
This section is intended to discuss what you used in your lab work. In general, you do not need to list
every single step and action undertaken during your lab work. The goal of this section is to allow others
to reasonably replicate your work. You should discuss the equipment, to reasonable detail, used in the
study. If you are using a computer, you do not need to provide the complete specifications for the
machine unless it is vital to the study. In contrast, if you are measuring voltage levels in your experiment,
you should include the source voltage level and discuss any components that then affect the voltage.
Diagrams and pictures can be useful to discuss design and can save you from much needless writing. If
the lab assignment is exclusively programming work (i.e., MATLAB), you should describe the data you
analyzed and its unique characteristics. For example, “In this lab, I analyzed a distorted voice recording.
In the recording, [describe distortion].” Remember: we should be able to reasonably replicate your work.
You should also discuss unique characteristics of your setup. These unique characteristics may be due
to calibration (e.g., “We calibrated the scope to ignore measurements less than 0.1 V”). Alternatively,
these unique characteristics may be due to “glitches” in your system (e.g., “We observed that our scope
measured many large, anomalous voltage spikes during the experiment.”) Any information that is relevant
to the analysis and results should be included.
Analytical Methods
This is intended to discuss how you analyzed your experimental data / measurement. This may be in
the form of equations, algorithms, or code. For example, the equation
∞
𝑋(𝜔) = ∫ 𝑥(𝑡)𝑒 −𝑗𝜔𝑡 𝑑𝑡
−∞
represents the expression for the Fourier transform, where 𝑥(𝑡) is the transform’s input signal and 𝑋(𝜔)
is the transform’s output signal. If, in this section, you discuss the code you used, you should not include
all of the code. You should mentioned special functions used in your code (e.g., “I used the MATLAB
function freqz to compute the frequency representation of signal x.”). Similar to the “Experimental
Design” section, this section is intended to show others how to reasonably replicate your analyses. If
useful, you may also include diagrams or pictures demonstrate your analytical method.
Results and Discussion
This section is intended to show and discuss the results from combining your experimental design and
analytical methods. In industry and academia, you would usually report on what you believe are the
important and interesting results in the work you conducted. You are free to do this. However, (1) the labs
are designed for you to think and learn about certain concepts and (2) the teaching assistants and I need
fair way to grade this section.
Therefore, each lab (that requires a report) will include subsections labeled Include in Lab Report
“Results and Discussion” Section. You will be expected to include any plots and answer any questions
posed in these subsections of the lab assignments. If you include nothing but these requested figure and
answers (written in prose, not bullet points), you will receive full credit for this section.
Figures (plots and tables of results) may be included either in the document with the text or included at
the end of the document. We ask though that each figure is labeled in order (Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.) and
referenced in the text using that label nomenclature. No captions are necessary, but all figures of results
should be described in this section.
Conclusions
The conclusion section wraps everything together. The conclusion should include another summary of
your report with a greater focus (relative to the abstract and introduction) on the results. You conclusions
should also briefly allude to a bigger picture. How are your results important and relevant for new and
more challenging problems? How can your results be applied to better understand Signals and Systems,
Electrical and Computer Engineer, or any discipline? Your conclusions should look to the future.
References
The references section may not be necessary for every lab report. If you are using materials from any
source or are reference external material anywhere in the document, you need to include a references
section. External sources include, but are not limited to, academic reports, news reports, Wikipedia
entries, information from a friend, etc. If a reference is included in this section, it should be cited in the
text using numeric/bracket notation [3]. The number in brackets refers to the corresponding number
document in the references section. We will not enforce a particular reference style, but we require that
your reference is uniquely obtainable from the information. For example, a website URL is appropriate.
GRADING RUBRIC
The grading rubric presented in this section is intended to (1) provide transparency about grading and
(2) illustrate how a good technical report is written. If you satisfy every requirements of the grading
rubric, you will get a perfect score for the lab report. Any requirements not satisfied will be explicitly
noted on a grading sheet that will be returned with your graded report. The rubric is shown in Figure 2.
Section
Structure
(14 points)
Abstract
(7 points)
Introduction &
Motivation
(12 points)
Experimental Design
(8 points)
Analytical Methods
(8 points)
Results & Discussion
(30 points)
Conclusions
(6 points)
References
(5 points)
Deliverables
(10 points)
Total
Requirement
Points
Uses pre-defined template (this document) and uses the correct formatting...........................................................
2
Report is less than 5 pages (without figures and tables) .........................................................................................
5
Includes an appropriate title, author name, lab section, and e-mail address ...........................................................
1
Includes an Abstract ..............................................................................................................................................
1
Includes Introduction & Motivation ......................................................................................................................
1
Includes Experimental Design ...............................................................................................................................
1
Includes Analytical Methods .................................................................................................................................
1
Includes Results and Discussion ............................................................................................................................
1
Includes Conclusions .............................................................................................................................................
1
Abstract is less than 120 words ..............................................................................................................................
3
Briefly describes motivation of report ...................................................................................................................
2
Briefly describes methods and results in the report ...............................................................................................
2
Includes the report motivation for readers .............................................................................................................
3
Describes what problems / question are addressed in the report ............................................................................
3
Briefly describes the experimental and analytical methods used in the report .......................................................
3
Briefly summarizes the results of the report ..........................................................................................................
2
Outlines the rest of the report’s structure ...............................................................................................................
1
Content (text and/or diagrams) allows the reader to reasonably
replicate the experiment .........................................................................................................................................
8
Content (text and/or diagrams) allows the reader to reasonably
replicate the analysis ..............................................................................................................................................
8
All requested figures (from the lab assignment) are included
(Note: each figure will be individually listed on each lab’s grading sheet) ...........................................................
4
All figures are appropriately labeled.......................................................................................................................
1
All requested figures (from the lab assignment) are correct and described in the text
(Note: each figure will be individually listed on each lab’s grading sheet) ...........................................................
10
All requested discussions / answers (from the lab assignment) are included
(Note: each answer will be individually listed on each lab’s grading sheet) .........................................................
5
All requested discussions / answers (from the lab assignment) are correct or reasonable
(Note: each answer will be individually listed on each lab’s grading sheet) .........................................................
10
Summarizes the results of the report ......................................................................................................................
3
Connects results to a bigger picture, a broader understanding, or a future importance ..........................................
3
References are used (or not used) appropriately for the
content of the report ................................................................................................................................................
5
Additional deliverables (MATLAB files, “.wav” files, etc.) defined in the lab assignment
work and appear correct..........................................................................................................................................
10
100
Figure 2
CONCLUSIONS
These guidelines have illustrated the preferred structure of an ECE 3500 lab report and the rubric that
will be used to grade them. We discussed the seven sections of a lab (Abstract, Introduction &
Motivation, Experimental Design, Analytical Methods, Results and Discussion, Conclusions, and
References) and described the 100-point rubric used for grading reports. These guidelines are intended to
not just help you write ECE 3500 lab reports, but also lab reports for your following classes and technical
reports for your careers. The specific structures and requirements of technical reports will change
throughout your careers, but the overall organization and tips in these guidelines should always relevant.
If you have additional question on how to write an effective lab report, please contact the lab teaching
assistants or myself at any time.
REFERENCES
1.
2.
3.
“AIP Conference Proceedings.” (http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/proceeding/aipcp/info/authors,
last accessed August 1, 2014).
“How
Engineers
can
Improve
Technical
Writing.”
(https://www.asme.org/careereducation/articles/business-writing/how-engineers-can-improve-technical-writing, last accessed
August 1, 2014).
J.B. Harley, “ECE3500: Lab Report Guidelines and Template (Fall 2014),” University of Utah,
2014. (http://www.ece.utah.edu/~ece3500/ece3500_labguide2014.docx, last accessed August 3,
2014.)