Additional Information

There is no textbook required for this course, however, it is encouraged to utilize textbooks and other resources to further explore the discussed topics.

Prerequisites include differential equations and fundamental solids/materials theory. Please speak with a TA if you do not meet these requirements.

Labs session must be attended during scheduled times.

Students will work in groups to conduct experimentss.

Groups will be allowed to start a lab only if all members of the group are present and there is sufficient time left in the lab period to complete the lab (i.e. DON'T BE LATE).

Although labs will be completed in groups, each student must hand in his/or her own lab report!!!

Lab reports must be submitted according to schedule.

Unexcused late reports will incur a penalty of 10% per 12 hours past the submission deadline.

Data recording, deduction and analysis, and the written report must be the result of individual effort.

Reports that contain correct answers to the questions asked and the proper graphs requested in the procedure sheets for the experiments will constitute standard (i.e. 20 pts.) reports.

Superior (i.e. 30 pts.) reports should contain students’ own individual contribution in the form of analysis and interpretation of the data and innovative experimental procedure. Make sure you state what this additional work is.

Lab Section Roster

A Guide to Success in This Class

Welcome to MAE 315! Although this class has a certain reputation with the student body, success in this class can be easily achieved. The goal of this class is to further your MATLAB skills (to be "resume" worthy), develop your technical writing capabilities, and expose you to a variety of key engineering topics through experimentation. The core focuses, solid mechanics, digital signal processing and FFT, vibrations, and fluid dynamics, are very important topics in the engineering discipline. A thorough understanding of these is necessary both in industry and especially in academia (if you're planning on pursuing a PhD or Master's). This class gives you the opportunity to finally be "hands on" with engineering topics and explore them in depth.

Hard work and dedication in this class will be rewarded. The following guide was constructed to assist with this class and serve as another basis of information in addition to lecture material. Please continue to reference this throughout the semester. If you have any questions, reach out to any of the TA's for help - they should be the first people you contact if you encounter any issues or questions.

A Brief Course Summary

This class consists of four main lab reports/topics (solid mechanics, DSP/FFT, vibrations, and fluids) along with a short introductory MATLAB project. The four topics each require submission of a calculations report (explaining computational findings, plots, etc.) and are followed by a technical report submission (usually due a week after the calculations due date). Data for each project will be taken by TAs and provided to students. This will require you to postprocess it for specified results. These initial results encompass the calculations report, while the technical report for each topic should contain additional background information and results to demonstrate your complete understanding of the topic. Results are typically processed/analyzed through MATLAB, but other programming options may be used after speaking with a TA. The fluids lab (lab 4) is split into two parts which each require a calculations report but only one full technical report covering both parts. These make up a majority of your grade but are supplemented with random in-class quizzes and your lab notebook submissions. Your lab notebook grades are essentially a simple grade of the quality of notes you take during the lab experiments. Do not forget to submit your lab notebook for a grade after every report! These are easy points and can really hurt if no attempt at notes is made in class. Take note of the due dates of every report and calculations. Plan around these due dates and DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE. Procrastination does not work at all in this class. You will not do well and your grade will suffer. Most students perceive this class as not so much conceptually difficult, but rather requiring a large time investment. If you notice any bad potential conflicts with deadlines in other classes, notify your TAs.

MATLAB Resources

MATLAB has an extensive amount of helpful resources for virtually every aspect of it. If you encounter a problem, search for a solution in the MATLAB help search. The internet also holds plenty of helpful resources to common issues. If you have exhausted both of these options and are still stuck, ask a TA for assistance. A student version of MATLAB can be purchased for $50 from Mathworks. All of the Link Hall computers come with a current MATLAB license if you prefer to exclusively work on campus rather than a personal computer. Pirated versions exist, but are not suggested due to potential bugs that may prevent your program from functioning. If you are an MAE student, it is highly recommended you invest in a personal copy of MATLAB as you will continuously use it until graduation.

MATLAB Reference Card (Courtesy of Prof. Dannenhoffer)

MATLAB Website

Mathwork's MATLAB Cheat Sheet (Courtesy of Thor - MATLAB File Exchange)

2014 Guide (Courtesy of Richard Johnson via Mathworks Website)

Old MATLAB Review Presentation

Old MATLAB Review Presentation Code

Old MATLAB Class List of Useful Functions

Please remember to surpress your program outputs. However, it is encouraged to print outputs while programming to avoid and notice any errors.
REMEMBER TO ATTACH YOUR CODE TO EVERY SUBMISSION. This can be done by:

Press "PUBLISH" on the top ribbon of MATLAB.

Click the arrow under "Publish"

Press "Edit Publishing Options"

Find the Output Settings and specifically "Output File Format"

MATLAB defaults to an HTML Output, click "HTML" and change to PDF

Click "Publish" at the bottom of the popup screen to publish as a PDF

Remember to only publish surpressed code (i.e. only have your code output necessary/required information, surpress uneeded items with a semi-colon)

Combine the published code PDF with your calculations or report using PDF merger software (Adobe software in the Link computers can do this)

Technical Report Writing Guide

Each of the technical reports you submit encompass a majority of your grade in this course. They should reflect a professional report you could be submitting for a job or research paper for a technical conference. Written reports should consist of four main components; body, graph, sample calculations and derivations, and experimental data. The body of a report contains the written version of the information you wish to present. It is important that it be concise, logically presented and complete. It should be free of any extraneous material. It is also important that it be pleasing to the eye, easy to read and have a professional appearance. The following requirements are designed to make your reports look nice, if nothing else, it is up to you to do the rest. PLEASE REMEMBER TO SAVE YOUR CODE AND REPORTS OFTEN. Microsoft Word isn't always reliable, so using a cloud based software with autosaving (such as Google Docs) is encouraged.

The best advice for success with this class and specifically writing the reports is avoid procrastination.

Title Block

The first line or lines shall be a descriptive title for your report (not for the experiment). The last line is to have the word "Experiment" followed by the experiment number. The author text shall include your name and lab ID number. The data text should include the date and the data was a collected and due date. For example:

Abstract

An Abstract is a short description of what your report is about. It should include key words to describe the test you did and the results you obtained. Typically, this is 3/4 to a full page in length.

Table of Contents

A table of contents should be included following the abstract but before the introduction. This can usually be automatically inserted if using Microsoft Word or Google Docs and should contain a page number for every section mentioned in this guide.

Introduction

The introduction should define the objectives of the work and the tests run. Pertinent background theory and relevant equations must be included for clarity. Be sure to reference your sources.

Procedure

The procedure section should describe the procedures you used to collect the data. It should be specific enough so that someone with a reasonable scientific background could design a similar experiment to check your results.

Results

This section should describe the results you obtained. If you have graphed results as a way of showing relationships, describe the graphs here. Put any comparisons to theory in this section. Again, reference your sources. This is the most important part of your report.

Conclusion

The conclusion should be based on the results you obtained, but should not include results or any statements like "I think this was a good experiment because".

Appendix

The appendix holds everything which does not belong someplace else, such as calculations, derivations, uncertainty analysis, some tables and graphs, a list of references and the original data sheet.

Graphs, Tables, and Pictures

Graphs are a very good way to show relationships between parameters. You know what they say about pictures. Please observe the following when making graphs.

The use of computer for making graphs is mandatory.

When plotting data points, or points calculated from data, the data points are important and should not be obscured by plotting anything through them. Instead, plot symbols around them. Use a different symbol for each plot and a legend on multi-plot graphs.

The curves themselves should be best fit not connect the dots!

When plotting theoretical relationships or equations do not show the points that you calculated and do not use symbols. Differentiate these plots with, for example, dashed curves.

Label both axes (WITH UNITS), title the graph, and add a legend if necessary.

Graphs could be placed in the appendix if there are numerous plots, but are preferably placed in the results since it will add to the clarity of the report.

Number each figure (includes all graphs pictures and tables) numerically to allow for easy referencing in text. Example: Figure 3 shows an example of necking in an aluminum bar.

Sample Calculations and Derivations

You must include a sample of all calculations used for your data analysis. The results of your analysis should be in tables. If you compare your results to theory, you must show any derivations used and reference your sources.

Data Collection and Lab Notebooks

Ideally, every student will have an opportunity to run every experiment. However, due to COVID the following procedures will be followed:

Experiments will be run by the TAs and recorded. Students are expected to "perform" the experiment before lab. At their scheduled lab time.

While performing the experiment be sure to take careful notes! This can be considered as a log. These will be graded by the TA.

Your lab notebook is meant to be a record of everything you do including lab observations, written math for data analysis, note from research, and anything else you do before you hand in your report. Notebooks including only lab observations will not receive full credit.

Before leaving, have a TA sign and date your notebook.

BE SURE TO INCLUDE AN UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS OF YOUR DATA IN EVERY REPORT!

Instructional Notes

The information provided in this section is based on class notes compiled over the last several years. Certain items are covered by these notes in reasonable detail, however other topic are merely introduced. With this in mind, we strongly urge the students reading this document to consult the listed References before protesting the contents of this site too loudly.

Definitions of some of the terms that will be used throughout lecture. These are terms you will be expected to be familiar with.

Probability and Statistics review: Throughout the semester you will be required to assess the uncertainty in your data. To do this you will need probability and statistics.

Uncertainty Analysis notes: The information on this page should be supplemented with readings from an experimental methods book (See Theory and Design of Experiments by Figliola and Beasley on reserve in the Carnegie library).

Data Acquisition: This section covers some of the data acquisition (DAQ) issues that must be confronted when instrumenting an experiment.

Fourier analysis of dynamic signals: This section reviews some of the terms and basic concepts of fourier analysis that will be used in the vibrations, DSP, and turbulent flows Labs.

Overleaf (Latex) Guide

Latex is a document preparation system for high-quality typesetting and is commonly used when preparing technical reports. Latex does have a small learning curve, however the benefits and ease of use quickly make this a great system to use for this class. A commonly used compiler of Latex is Overleaf. For example, rather than individually labelling all figures by their number, Latex does this automatically. And, if you add in an image at the last minute, it will automatically relabel every image. If you hate using EasyBib or citing sources manually, Latex is for you. It is suggested you find a technical report template and follow it (Overleaf provides thousands of templates to work from). Citing sources is very easy as well. If citing an academic source (highly suggested):

Locate the source on Google Scholar.

Click the quotation marks beneath the article on the search results page.

This will provide an automatically generated source to copy in a variety of versions.

If you are using the bibliography function on Overleaf, click "BibTeX" at the bottom. This should take you to a new page and you should see something similar to the following:

@article{vartabedian2019comparison,
title={Comparison of Complex Multi-Stream Supersonic Nozzle Geometry},
author={Vartabedian, Tyler and Kelly, Seth and Gist, Emma and DiDominic, Dominic and Glauser, Mark},
journal={APS},
pages={NP05--060},
year={2019}
}

Copy and paste this into the bibliography section in your Overleaf project file. To cite a source (so it appears in your references section), use the /cite{} command. To cite the above source, you would type \cite{vartabedian2019comparison}.


If you are referencing an image (such as what was discussed in the Graphs, Tables, and Pictures section), use the \ref{} command and use the \label{} function in your image. Here is an example as to how to plot an image/picture:

\begin{figure}[hbt!]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.6\columnwidth]{imagefilename.png}
\caption{Desired caption here, with \cite{citation} if necessary.}
\label{randomname}
\end{figure}

Most of the above is self explanatory, while the location of the image can be altered by changing the [hbt!] in the first line (this setting is just the "best available" location.) Again, to reference the above image within the text, the following could be used:
Figure \ref{randomname} shows the experimental results for the aluminum test.

Which will appear as:

Figure [4] shows the experimental results for the aluminum test.

University Policies

Academic Integrity

Syracuse University’s Academic Integrity Policy reflects the high value that we, as a university community, place on honesty in academic work. The policy defines our expectations for academic honesty and holds students accountable for the integrity of all work they submit. Students should understand that it is their responsibility to learn about course-specific expectations, as well as about university-wide academic integrity expectations. The policy governs appropriate citation and use of sources, the integrity of work submitted in exams and assignments, and the veracity of signatures on attendance sheets and other verification of participation in class activities. The policy also prohibits students from submitting the same work in more than one class without receiving written authorization in advance from both instructors. Under the policy, students found in violation are subject to grade sanctions determined by the course instructor and non-grade sanctions determined by the School or College where the course is offered as described in the Violation and Sanction Classification Rubric. SU students are required to read an online summary of the University’s academic integrity expectations and provide an electronic signature agreeing to abide by them twice a year during pre-term check-in on MySlice.

Disability-Related Accomodations

If you believe that you need academic adjustments (accommodations) for a disability, please contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS), visit the ODS website: http://disabilityservices.syr.edu, located in Room 309 of 804 University Avenue, or call (315) 443-4498 or TDD: (315) 443-1371 for an appointment to discuss your needs and the process for requesting academic adjustments. ODS is responsible for coordinating disabilityrelated academic adjustments and will issue students with documented Disabilities Accommodation Authorization Letters, as appropriate. Since academic adjustments may require early planning and generally are not provided retroactively, please contact ODS as soon as possible.

Religious Observances Notification and Policy

SU religious observances notification and policy, found at http://hendricks.syr.edu/spiritual-life/index.html, recognizes the diversity of faiths represented among the campus community and protects the rights of students, faculty, and staff to observe religious holidays according to their tradition. Under the policy, students are provided an opportunity to make up any examination, study, or work requirements that may be missed due to a religious observance provided they notify their instructors before the end of the second week of classes for regular session classes and by the submission deadline for flexibly formatted classes. For fall and spring semesters, an online notification process is available for students in My Slice -> StudentServices -> Enrollment -> MyReligiousObservances -> Add a Notification.