Research Workshops
At our Murray Hall BeAM location, you are now able to participate in “Research Workshops.” Four of these workshops, “LabVIEW for Data Acquisition,” “An Introduction to Fasteners,” “Gas and Fluid Fittings,” and “Practical Electronics for Everyone,” were scheduled during the summer break. Each course was taught either by UNC faculty or staff experts. Additional instances of these, and other workshops, will be scheduled for the fall semester.
Each one of these workshops filled up within hours, ending up with long waitlists. We strongly recommend that you become a member of our mailing list, so that you will learn of these workshops as they are being offered.
LabVIEW for Data Acquisition
Professor Hugon Karwowski with the Department of Physics, conducted this workshop. His goal was to teach participants the basics of data acquisition, DAQ, hardware interfacing, and data processing techniques, using LabVIEW as a programming tool. The first part of his workshop covered LabVIEW programming techniques, as well as typical hardware used in DAQ. The second part included laboratory exercises, where participants wrote and used LabVIEW to program DAQ tasks. Professor Karwowski also provided consulting help for participants’ research-related needs.
Glenn Walters conducting the course on fasteners and fittings.
Introduction to Mechanical Fasteners
This workshop, conducted by Glenn Walters, Ph.D., Director for the Environmental Sciences and Engineering Design Center, was offered in July. Explaining everything about “screws, rivets, nails, nuts, bolts, pins, threaded inserts, and thingamajigs,” Glenn held his audience riveted with his encyclopedic knowledge of an almost infinite array of mechanical fasteners. The workshop covered basic nomenclature, sizing conventions, drive systems, materials, and selection criteria for the mechanical fasteners most commonly encountered in the typical shop, lab, and makerspace, and was filled to capacity with eager makers.
Gas and Fluid Fittings
This was the second workshop conducted by Glenn Walters’, of the ESE Design Center. “Flangeless, tapered, compression, quick disconnect, CGA, pipe, tubing, hose, micro, HPLC,” were some of the fittings discussed; all part of the “dizzying array of fluid fittings around us.” Participants in this workshop learned how to recognize fitting types, basic details for specifying and ordering fittings, and how to work with a wide array of common fittings. They also learned when it is appropriate to use Teflon tape. Hint: almost never!
Collin McKinney and Matthew Verber from the Electronics Shop at the Department of Chemistry
Practical Electronics for Everyone
Collin McKinney and Matthew Verber from the Electronics Shop at the Department of Chemistry, together conducted this highly sought after, week-long, workshop. The workshop was divided into daily three-hour sessions, covering the following topics:
- 101 Intro to Electronics – How to think in time and frequency, and how to use common electronics instruments
- 102 Amplifiers, Noise, and Filtering – How to amplify, and filter signals. Build some ampflifiers and filters.
- 103 Survey of Sensors – How to use a wide range of sensors to measure common physical properties
- 104 Survey of Electromechanical Devices – How to make things happen! Switches, motors, actuators and drive circuits.
- Put it all Together – Build a functional device. Construction methods, how to design PC boards, and how to solder.
Glenn Walters teaching the Gas and Fluid Fittings course.