Meetings

We meet regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays 10:30-noon in 108 Keck. The meetings are mandatory (see "Grading," below). The meetings will involve some lecture material, but will consist mostly of LabVIEW programming and work on your projects.

You may work in the lab outside of lab hours to use LabVIEW or to work on your projects. However, for safety reasons, you must be in the lab space with at least one of your groupmates; you may not ever be in the lab space alone.

Homework

We will have four homework assignments done at the beginning of the term. They are designed to get you up to speed using LabVIEW in order to complete your design projects.

During the course, you will work in teams of two or three, and you should do your homework with your teammate(s). Submit a single homework for each team. Every team member must be able to intelligently reproduce and discuss the contents of your submitted work.
You may discuss the homework with other teams in the course, but you may not discuss with students who have completed the course (unless, of course, they are your TAs), nor may you consult any course materials from previous terms.
Your homework submission must include a PDF with written explanations and all pertinent LabVIEW VIs. Include screen shots of your VI in action (demonstrate test results, sources of error, etc.)
While typed documents are preferred, you may scan and submit legible handwritten documents. MS Word documents are not accepted for homeworks, prelabs, or lab reports.
Your team must email your completed homework to caltechbe189@gmail.com. The subject line of the email should read "hw#: lastname1, lastname2, lastname3," where # is the number of the homework that is being submitted.
Each homework has a defined due date and time. For homework submitted after this time, you will receive a score of (your score)/2^{(number of days late)}.
Extensions are granted on a case-by-case basis. If you need an extension please email the instructor as soon as possible to make arrangements. Extensions are typically only granted for reasons related to health or family.

Design projects

You will complete two major design projects in the course. You will construct a pulse oximeter (and a simple pulse monitor en route to your final design) and a real-time PCR device. These projects are done in teams of two or three. You will submit a total of two prelabs and four lab reports.

Lateness, extension, and collaboration policies for prelabs and lab reports are as for the homework.
Prelabs are to be completed by yourself and submitted individually. You may discuss with your classmates, but your submitted work must be prepared solely by yourself. Email the documents to caltechbe189@gmail.com. The subject line of the email should read "prelab#: lastname, firstname," where # is the number of the prelab that is being submitted. You may include scans of handwritten responses (though typed responses are preferred), but the prelab must be submitted as a single PDF, along with any pertinent VIs and code.
A single lab report should be submitted for your team. Your team must email your completed lab report to caltechbe189@gmail.com. The subject line of the email should read "lab#: lastname1, lastname2, lastname3," where # is the number of the homework that is being submitted. It must include a PDF with written explanations and all pertinent LabVIEW VIs. All lab report submissions must be typed.

Grading

30% of your grade is determined from homework and 70% of your grade is determined from your prelabs and lab reports. Attendance is required, and you will lose 1% of the total points awarded in the course for each unexcused absence.

Course communications

You are free to contact the course staff at any time, but we encourage you to use the class Piazza page for questions course topics and homework. Most of our mass communication with you will be through Piazza, so be sure to set your Piazza account to give you email alerts if necessary.