This project incorporates data acquisition systems (DAS) into this institution's mechanical engineering laboratory. The DAS systems, consisting of four individual workstations, are interfaced to already existing laboratory equipment. Each workstation consists of a personal computer, data acquisition interface, printer, plotter and related software. This equipment assists students with data acquisition, computational analysis, and presentation of results for a variety of laboratory experiments. Students are freed from tedious manual data collection and analysis and focus their energies on the interpretation of results and parameter variations and responses. Students are actively involved in the setup of experiments, the interfacing of transducers, the use of off-the-shelf software, and the development of software for data presentation and analysis. This award is being matched by an equal sum from the grantee.
