E80: Experimental Engineering

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E80, Experimental Engineering, is a sophomore-level, semester-long required course, in which students conduct multiple experiments covering a number of engineering disciplines. These experiments are a training ground for a final project: a field deployment where student teams measure phenomena of their choice.

Experimental Engineering is an essential part of the engineering curriculum at Harvey Mudd College, and has been offered as a course for over twenty years. Its predecessor E54 - which had more experiments and no field experience - was also offered for more than 20 years. In 2008 the course was revamped to change the field experience to flying fully-instrumented model rockets. In 2017 the course was revamped again with yet another new field experience: deploying fully autonomous underwater robots.

The primary purpose of the course is to teach:

  • basic instrumentation and measurement techniques,

  • analysis and presentation of data,

  • technical report writing,

  • how to use of experimental results for engineering design purposes,

  • the beginnings of professional practice.