Sensors & Transducers Journal

    (ISSN 1726- 5479)

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Vol. 100, Issue 1, January 2009, pp.161-164

Laboratories of Instrumentation for Measurement

Maria Teresa Restivo, Fernando Gomes de Almeida, Maria de Fátima Chouzal, Joaquim Gabriel Mendes, António Mendes Lopes

University of Porto, Portugal, E-mail: trestivo@fe.up.pt

Preface

The creation of knowledge is one of the essential components of the University mission. But it is fundamental that this knowledge should not be kept imprisoned within the institution itself. It must be transmitted so that society can benefit from it.

The University of Porto, striving to be in the front line of universities at international level, claims full allegiance in its mission to these two components.

The publication of results of the work developed by members of our academic community is a source of enjoyment to U. Porto for the contribution it brings to the fulfillment of its mission.

Such publication deserves even higher prominence when it fills existing gaps in the available literature, while simultaneously opening excellent prospects for the dissemination of know-how, technologies and techniques not only to our own students but also to the public at large.

The multimedia edition of "Laboratories of Instrumentation for Measurement" fully satisfies these requisites, deserving therefore our warmest applause, appreciation and incentive.

This publication also possesses two special features that increase its added value. On one hand, it presents experimental and laboratory activities with an approach as close as possible to reality, even offering remote access to experiments, providing to the reader an excellent tool for learning laboratory techniques and methodologies. On the other hand, the adoption of electronic format makes this work more easily available to a wider public.

The authors should be highly praised for their initiative, as well as for all the sustained effort that culminated in this publication. This e-book fulfils every condition to be a success and hence to contribute to the prestige and the standing of U. Porto, being therefore worthy of its full acknowledgment.

José Carlos D. Marques dos Santos,

Rector

Foreword

Instrumentation is vital for the design and implementation of measuring, monitoring and actuation systems and in data acquisition and processing, playing nowadays a fundamental role in many technological areas, as well as in those of certification, control and information.

The increasing demand of experimental accuracy in all scientific areas makes Instrumentation for Measurement a crucial component, particularly in higher education curricula with a strong technological element, being also essential at research and development level.

The objectives of the present work are:

• to stimulate hands-on activity;

• to contribute to the uniform use of concepts and definitions based on the International Vocabulary of Metrology;

• to introduce the user to the manipulation of equipment and devices for experimental tasks and to methods and procedures for measuring physical quantities of general relevance;

• to promote the critical appraisal of measurement results;

• to explore the working principles and characteristics of the sensors and transducers more commonly used in laboratory and industrial applications;

• to clarify important features of signal conditioning and transmission and data acquisition and processing;

• to introduce the concept of virtual instrumentation together with web monitoring and actuation by providing access to remote experiments.

Nowadays printed technical manuals are often complemented with the inclusion of a CD-Rom. In the present case taking into account that “what I hear, I forget; what I see, I may remember; what I experience, I know for life”, the authors decided to adopt a completely electronic format which allows a more efficient and harmonious integration of a wide range of contents: text, images, sketches, videos, animations, simulations and remote experiments. The text can be easily printed if required.

Moreover, given the contributions of neuro-linguistic programming to education, the authors find that the format adopted is adequate to the diversity of psychological and learning profiles of the large target audience of the developed materials.

Finally, the authors' intention to further explore other topics within Laboratories of Instrumentation for Measurement makes the electronic edition the ideal option for easy and economic updating.

"Laboratories of Instrumentation for Measurement" comprises 13 modules. Each one presents a clearly defined learning objective, the essential concepts and a step-by-step guide for performing the experimental activity, various complementary multimedia contents and a final synthesis. The set of open questions that closes each module is intended to provide formative assessment.

The authors would like to encourage the users to undertake their own analyses and further elaboration of additional questions as an excellent way to achieve deeper learning.

The authors also hope to contribute to the dissemination of experimental activity in engineering education and to facilitate the conception, tuning and exploration of experimental systems for laboratory training. The full technical description of the equipment is provided to make the setups easily reproducible. In addition the access to remote experiments has been made available.

The authors

For more details please download (2.4 Mb): http://www.sensorsportal.com/DOWNLOADS/e_book.pdf