
ME395: Laboratory I
ME395: Laboratory I introduces students to address six to eight engineering problems, posed by fictitious clients through one-page letters. Students acquire necessary information through a combination of largely pre-set experiments and literature searches. While most of the work is conducted in 3-4 person teams, two of the laboratories require individual data analysis and reporting. The course focuses on the analysis and interpretation of measured and derived data including comprehensive uncertainty assessments. Based on the interpretation of the data considering these uncertainties, the clients’ requests, and engineering ethical considerations, students learn to prepare 5-10-page reports. Integrated technical communications instruction is a hallmark of this required undergraduate course. The course accompanies foundational engineering sciences courses and covers topics that include dynamics and vibrations, material properties, thermodynamics, and fluid mechanics. Additional topics may be offered by individual instructors.
Included and interwoven in all laboratories are elements of laboratory safety and procedures as well as error analysis and increasing complexity of reporting throughout the semester. Core topics and labs include the following examples.
- Electronic data acquisition and instrument calibrations: Students learn the role of the components of an instrumented experimental setup, how to operate it, how to analyze the data, how to determine the uncertainty of each instrument and the resulting measurements, and how to calibrate instruments.
- Vibrating beams: Mechanical vibrations of a steel ruler are analyzed using strain-gauge sensors and resulting data is analyzed and interpreted in the context of a simple model. Validate model parameters are then the basis for projections to address the client’s needs.
- Tensile and fracture tests of metals: Beginning with measurements of quantities such as yield strength, Young’s modulus, and fracture toughness, the students will address an organizational problem that might include failure analysis, material identification, or other design-related requests. Measurements are performed following commonly used ASTM standards.
- Analysis of a thermodynamic cycle: Students will analyze the heating of cooling performance of a heat pump or refrigeration system that are both emulated with a professional-grade simulator setup for a vapor-compression refrigeration cycle. Using their laboratory results, students project the performance of a similar system under different operating conditions.
- System identification and controls: This laboratory uses an electric motor, integrated into an electronic control system and students will characterize motor parameters, set up control models and determine performance features for the motor system to meet the client’s specifications.
- Internal and external flows: A blower system introduces students to non-dimensional relationships and how these can be used for design purposes based on measurements on scaled-down models in the test range of all relevant non-dimensional numbers. Wind tunnels are available to acquire lift and drag data on balsa wood models that students build based on the client’s needs. Projections to large-scale applications require students to deal with incomplete similarity and the challenges of augmenting their measurements with data from the literature.

ME495: Laboratory II
ME495: Laboratory II is a distinctive capstone course in engineering problem solving, typically involving three unique engineering projects that mirror real-world tasks and are executed by small teams of 3-4 students. Each project integrates elements such as model development, experimental characterization, investigative troubleshooting, experimental model validation, analysis, design, and various forms of technical communication. This approach significantly contrasts with traditional laboratory courses at many other institutions, which usually emphasize conducting experiments and writing lab reports to confirm specific theories from the general engineering curriculum. In ME495, laboratory experiments serve to underpin both analytical and empirical model development and broader engineering problem solving, thus constituting just a part of the comprehensive engineering experience. The exact nature of the projects varies each semester, based on the instructor. Examples of such projects include:
- Redesign to reduce resonance in a flexible electric vehicle drive shaft: Students are presented with a hypothetical near-production electric vehicle which is experiences an unwanted vibration in the drive train with the overall task of redesigning a portion of the system to mitigate the problem. Students are given a scale benchtop model of the drivetrain, with electric motor, flywheels, bearings, and a torsionally flexible shaft. They are tasked with reproducing the vibration in an active braking scenario and characterizing the frequency response and resonant properties of the system. The build a linear analytical transfer function model as well as a nonlinear simulation model to aid them in redesigning the system. In constructing the model, the students must identify various physical parameters requiring them to devise experiments to isolate and measure the values and must validate the accuracy of their model against experiments. They use their validated models to perform a parameter sensitivity study to identify the design parameters with the biggest impact on the resonance amplitude and also to vary values of the most likely candidates to improve the response and meet a design specification. Taking into account the practicality of making such a change (cost, development time, impact on other aspects of vehicle performance), the students present, in poster form, a redesign recommendation which they can verify using their model(s) in the original active braking scenario.
- Water bottle rocket launch and flight model development: Students are given the task of designing and constructing a water bottle rocket representing a new, sustainable method of launching high-altitude weather balloons. Such a launch system requires accurate prediction of flight to determine the appropriate launch parameters (water mass, air pressure, and launch angle) to accurately achieve a specified flight height, time, and distance to landing. This experience focuses on accurate prediction and flight parameter selection using a (primarily) analytical model of the fluid dynamics, air drag, flight trajectory, and impact of external factors such as parameter precision and wind. The students are given a standardized pressurization and launch apparatus but must construct their own rocked to aid in the development and validation of their model. They first conduct wind tunnel experiments on scaled rocket models to explore the impact of nose cone and fin geometry on rocket drag and spin. They then construct their own rocket out of standard 16 to 20oz beverage bottles and other simple materials accounting for factors such as shape, stability, distribution of mass, nozzle geometry, etc. Using elements of analytical first principles models presented in class such as time-varying flow in an accelerating reference frame, adiabatic gas expansion, and air drag, students build a complete predictive model of the multi-phase launch and flight under varying levels of assumptions along with code to execute their model and produce flight predictions. By launching their rocket in the field, they can evaluate the impacts of their assumptions, identify unknown parameters, and validate the accuracy and the range of conditions over which their model is accurate, enabling them to refine and improve their model. They then use their model to determine the appropriate set of launch parameters in an extremely fun and exciting end-of-semester (and often end of their undergraduate program!) launch competition where they attempt to land their rocket closest to a ground target at a distance that is not disclosed (range 100’-200’) until just before the competition.