EGGG101 Intro to Engineering
Mechanical Engineering Module

Fall 2012

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INSTRUCTOR
Professor Ajay K. Prasad
302 Spencer Lab
Office Hours: MW 10 - 11 am

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TA’s
Andrew Baker, Robert Hopkins, and Matt Lindemer

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Objectives (General)

• To introduce Mechanical Engineering to freshmen.
• To describe the subject areas within Mechanical Engineering.
• To illustrate the diverse career paths that ME’s can follow.

Objectives (Specific)

• To use a wind turbine experiment module to demonstrate the breadth of Mechanical Engineering
• To encourage creativity in the use of experimental apparatus and data-acquisition.
• To foster self-reliance required for open-ended experiments.
• To develop the ability for teamwork.
• To develop effective communication of technical information.
• To develop computer skills for data reduction and plotting.

Wind Turbine Experiment

Students working in teams of 6 will perform a wind turbine experiment. Each group will acquire one set of data, and each group will submit a single lab report. Experiments will run in Gym 1 of Carpenter Sports Building. Click here for the temporary entrance during construction.

Lab Report

Each lab group will turn in a single report for each experiment. Reports must be typed. Reports should be concise but complete. Use your own words; verbatim copying of the handout should be avoided. Do not pad the length of the report unnecessarily.

The report must contain the following sections:

• Title page
• Title of experiment
• Section number; Team ID; Names of group members
• Date experiment was performed
• Date report was submitted
• Objectives
• Theoretical background
• What principle is this experiment designed to illustrate?
• Describe the theory and any relevant equations/derivations.
• Equipment
• Describe all components used during the experiment.
• Include a neat schematic diagram and/or photograph with all parts labeled and dimensioned (as required). Copying sections of a report, or sharing sketches with other groups is not permitted.
• Provide a definition of all symbols used.
• Procedure
  For each objective in a given experiment:
• Initial setup
• Procedure
• Parameters varied
• Results
• Raw data should be arranged in tabular form. Some data may be tabulated in the Appendix.
• A completely worked-out sample calculation is required for repetitive calculations.
• Use MS Excel (or any other spreadsheet program) for tabulation and plotting graphs.
• Error analysis
• What factors contributed to uncertainty in your results?
• Perform an analysis to show how all the individual errors in your measurement contribute to the total error in the final quantity.
• Suggest ways to reduce error in the final result.
• Discussion and conclusions
• What did you learn from this experiment?
• What discrepancies did you notice between theory and experiment?
• What would you do to improve it?
• Appendices
  Include copies of all notes taken during the experiment: (1) Name of data recorder, (2) group members present, (3) date, (4) all data recorded, including brief comments to help you later during data reduction and analysis. Do not use erasers during note-taking (just draw a line through your mistake and proceed).

Grading of Reports

Fulfilling basic requirements listed above (neatness and professionalism is key) will fetch the group an automatic 6 points on a scale of 10. The remaining points will be awarded on the basis of merit including the organization of thoughts, illuminating discussion, and excellence of error analysis.

Lab reports are due no later than one week after performing the experiment. Late reports will be penalized, 0.5 points for every late day. Lab attendance is absolutely necessary. 5 points are automatically deducted from your individual grade if you miss a lab session.

A Peer Evaluation Form may be used to allow students to rank their own contribution, and that of their fellow team members, to the overall lab effort and the resulting lab report. Each individual's ranking is averaged, assigned a numerical value, and used as a multiplier on the team grade, to extract an individual grade. This mechanism will be used to differentiate and appropriately reward individual efforts. (You may be interested to know that companies often use such peer evaluations to calculate annual raises.)

Schedule