Among the practical procedures that are most important in modern chemical Among the practical procedures that are most important in modern chemical laboratories are data acquisition and analysis, quality control and quality assurance (QC/QA), and the use of laboratory information management systems (LIMS). It is important that chemistry and chemical engineering students be exposed to all of those procedures. At present, the faculty teaching analytical chemistry to undergraduates at the University of Pittsburgh are restricted in their ability to provide instruction in QC/QA and LIMS techniques because there are not enough computers to handle the student load, and the existing laboratory computers are not networked to a central database. Eight new computers, a server, printer, and network hardware/ software form the required networked system for use by students in the analytical chemistry/instrumental analysis laboratory. The new equipment allows completion of a project to: 1) modify current experiments and introduce new experiments that utilize the computer network for data analysis and display; 2) establish a centralized database of instructional material and help files; 3) set up a LIMS database and set of procedures; 4) develop laboratory manuals that contain both theory and experiment to teach QC/QA and LIMS concepts and 5) produce computer-based instructional material.
