3 posts tagged with "Chemistry"

Principal Investigator Andrew Ault of LSA Chemistry sought to modernize the QCM Cascade Impactor, an Air Particle Analyzer used to measure aerosol concentrations. The original instrument was a decades-old analog system that presented significant limitations: it offered no flexible control over sampling parameters, provided no real-time feedback during operation, and outputted data solely on printed receipt tape. To address these issues, the development team engineered a complete digital overhaul. By integrating Digital IO cards and relays with a custom LabVIEW application, the team replaced the obsolete controller with a system that enables precise instrument control, real-time frequency monitoring, and the generation of electronic results for easy analysis.

The lab wanted to run experiments that involved taking spectroscopy measurements at a large number of intervals of movement of a delay line stage. This required running separate control programs for the spectroscope and the delay line, with a lab worker manually tending the experiment the entire time to trigger each delay line stage move and subsequent spectroscope measurement, an extremely tedious and time-consuming process. The Research Software Programming team developed a program to control both pieces of equipment, automating this experimental process. The program allows extensive configuration of the experiment parameters, as well as the analysis and display of the results, all in a single piece of software.

The lab needed a way to track color changes in a selected area, and was also interested in prototyping a wearable device that could handle the same task. They explored existing apps, and could not find anything that would meet their needs, so we created a small, custom iPhone app to handle their data collection.