Right - Professor Tom Diller and junior Riley Allison , connect the heat flux sensor kit as part of a demonstration .
art research tools and being exposed to data acquisition on systems based on a micro controller . That means they are starting to look at more sophisticated electronics and being introduced to ancillary activities that add to their educational experience . None of this was possible 10 years ago .”
In January a group of about 75 students in one section of the required Heat and Mass Transfer course received their heat flux kits . The kits include a Texas Instruments TI432 micro controller with a TI “ launch pad ” board designed and built by ME graduate students that allows for measurements and data acquisition of the sensors . Texas Instruments donated 100 of the controllers for the initial run of sensors . For students like Riley Allison of Goochland , Virginia , a junior in mechanical engineering , the kit , despite its small size , was intimidating at first .
“ I was like , ‘ oh , no ! It goes back to our major where anytime we see wires or anything to do with coding we get scared ,” said Allison . “ This has been a great way to slowly step into that realm of possibilities . We weren ’ t given this kit to simply be a tool ; we were shown how it works and what it is meant to do , which is great because so often you are given something and told to do a task without ever knowing how or why .”
A heat flux sensor measures more than temperature – it measures the heat transfer between objects . With the kit , for instance , students can place their hand on a piece of metal ( which is provided ) and measure the heat transferred from the body to the metal . Doing the same test with another substrate , such as wood , would result in a drastically different result because of the heat transfer properties of the material . Students can also directly measure the heat transfer from their skin at a variety of locations around the body and determine , for instance , how many calories they are burning .
“ Having the kits means students have to go out and do the work themselves with real hardware and analyze the data using industry-standard software ,” said Wicks . “ The depth at which they dive into the
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software is really a positive experience because it gives students some real-world application to the software they might not otherwise get until they were graduate students .”
“ I ’ ve been on two co-op experiences and the Mat- Lab software is always present ,” Allison said . “ We are using the software with this heat flux kit to a much greater degree than I used it in those co-ops and it ’ s been an awesome opportunity to see how everything ties together in a very important way .
Diller and Wicks agree they want to see students like Allison leave Virginia Tech as a problem solver . “ As engineers we are trained to use the tools available to solve problems and problems aren ’ t always defined ,” said Diller . “ Students can ’ t escape – if they need to code , they will learn how to code and solve the problem ; if they need to understand electronics , they ’ ll have to learn – not knowing isn ’ t an excuse , it ’ s an opportunity . The idea is that we are allowing the students to not be blocked by saying ‘ I can ’ t do this ,’ or ‘ I don ’ t know how ’. They ’ ve had exposure to it now and that allows them to feel comfortable with the unknown and go off and explore .”
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