Information
about
Our Facilities
 W.
M. Keck Design Center
A network of modern computers is centered around a cluster of
dual-boot Windows/LINUX workstations in the Keck Design Center Hub.
The workstations are used extensively throughout the curriculum for
analysis, simulation, and design, and run a wide range of
state-of-the-art engineering applications and software tools.
When it's not being used for simulation, a large space is also
heavily used for informal group work and individual study.
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 Electronics Laboratory
The Electronics laboratory primarily houses ENGR-2120 (Electric
Circuits Laboratory) and ENGR-2164 (Electronics I Laboratory).
In these courses, students learn about electronic instrumentation
like the Oscilloscope, the Digital Multi-Meter, and the Function
Generator. Projects begin with Kirchoff's Laws and continue
through audio preamplifiers, power amplifiers, and even a simple
analog to digital converter.
The lab is also often used to house several dual-boot
Linux/Windows workstations for simulation and general purpose work,
including printing images from the Oscilloscopes or putting them
into lab reports. There are often several Senior Design
groups who use the room for storage and workspace.
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 Digital/Microcomputers Laboratory
This laboratory is the primary location for ENGR-3181 (Design V),
ENGR-4165 (Digital Logic Design Laboratory), ENGR-4369 (Embedded
Microcomputer System Design).
It contains advanced electronic instrumentation, including
high-speed mixed signal oscilloscopes (both a two channel analog
scope and a 16 channel digital logic analyzer in one unit), function
generators, and Digital Multi-Meters. State of the art digital
design software is also available.
Development systems used in these courses include Altera UP2/UP3
Field Programmable Gate Arrays (Complex Programmable Logic Devices),
68HC11 based systems, and OOPIC+ based robots. Robotics
projects such as line-followers, wall-followers, and fire-fighting
robots are utilized in both Senior Design and the other design
courses.
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Controls Laboratory
The controls laboratory contains a number of classical "plants" such
as the coupled tanks, the ball and beam, the ball and hoop, and the
light box. This lab houses the core feedback control class (ENGR
3355/3155) as well as electives in Mechatronics (ENGR 4367) and
Thermal Fluids Applications (ENGR 4373). Junior Design (ENGR
3182) utilizes this room as well.
 
When not being used for coursework, the eight general purpose PCs in
the lit laboratory are available for students.
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Thermal Fluids Laboratory
The thermal fluids laboratory primarily houses the Fluid Dynamics
Laboratory (ENGR 3123) and Heat Transfer Laboratory (ENGR 4126).
Junior Design (ENGR 3182) and some senior design groups utilizes
this lab as well. The lab contains four lab stations that consist of
workbench table, data acquisition system (panel to connect
instruments and National Instruments equipment) and computer. The
lab also contain two wind tunnels, a hot-film anemometer station, a
thermocouple welding station, and a pressure differential
calibration station.
Fluid mechanics is the study of how fluids (liquids and
gases) flow based on the forces acting on them. Students learn
about fluid statics, the study of fluids at rest, and fluid
dynamics, the study of fluids in motion. In Heat Transfer,
students learn how heat (thermal energy) is transmitted due to a
temperature difference from a "hot" source to a "cold" source
based on the three modes of heat transfer (conduction,
convection and radiation).
The structure of the heat transfer and fluid mechanics
laboratory courses reflects the role that experimentation plays
in engineering design. In general, engineering experiments are
designed and conducted to obtain specific information needed to
facilitate a design, unlike scientific experimentation that is
conducted to explore and discover new knowledge. Each laboratory
project is motivated by a design problem. Analysis of the
problem will indicate a need for information that will be
obtained through experimentation and/or computer modeling.
Students run a variety of experiments in the lab, and use
“design of experiments” to interpret the functional
relationships amongst test variables. Students use the lab
stations when working on computer modeling.
The primary focus of Junior Design is the examination,
testing, and recommendations of design improvements for an
ordinary household appliance. Groups use the data acquisition
stations to conduct their experiments and must specify proper
instruments and test plans. Groups must calculate the
appliance's efficiency (the ratio of useful work/energy to
supplied work/energy), perform uncertainty analysis for
measurements, and compare advertised and actual performance of
appliance.
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Chemical Engineering Laboratory
 The
Chemical Engineering Laboratory houses Engineering Electives in
Chemical Engineering ,
as well as research in Chemical Engineering and Senior Design
Projects.
Equipment in this laboratory includes a Gas Chromatograph Mass
Spectrometer (GCMS), an autoclave, a shaker table, an oven for
performing reactions at elevated temperatures, and of course Data
Acquisition (DAQ) equipment for recording data from experiments.
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Information
about
Our Research Laboratories
Thin Films Lab - Principal Investigator Dr. Kelly-Zion
 The
Film Evaporation Lab at Trinity University, motivated by the
significance of fuel films to hydrocarbon emissions from
direct-injection, spark-ignition engines, studies the evaporation of
liquid films composed of multiple hydrocarbon components.
This lab is
working to better understand the transport mechanisms controlling
film evaporation, and through precise measurements, to provide
experimental data that can be used to validate computational models
of film evaporation. Since engine designers rely heavily on
computational models, it is expected that better characterization of
film evaporation can lead to the design of more efficient and
cleaner burning engines.
Robotics Lab - Principal Investigator Dr. Nickels
Dr. Nickels
works on robotics,
both planetary and space-related. He has developed several
Trinity-based robotic platforms for his work on computer vision.
He has worked extensively with NASA (both Johnson Space Center in
Houston TX and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena CA) on the visual
control of robot manipulators.
Dr. Nickels'
current platform, shown here, is a nonholonomic system designed for
basic intra-office navigation and control. It is called CAPEK,
after Karel Capek, the Czech playwright who coined the term robot (or, more
precisely, robota).
He has several hardware and software platforms
available for student projects as well as his own research. He
utilizes Linux, QNX, and bare microcontrollers for various projects.
HVAC Lab - Principal Investigator Dr. Terrell, Jr.
Dr. Terrell,
Jr's work
 is
funded by the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning
Engineers (ASHRAE)
and the Texas Space Grant Consortium (TSGC).
He is interested in the heating and cooling of open
cavities. He is also, in collaboration with the University of
Texas, investigating MPCM (Micro Encapsulated Phase Change Material),
a novel material that encapsulates a phase changing material in
small granules, increasing the heat capacity of the cooling fluid.
Dr. Terrell, Jr. was awarded a New Investigator's Grant by the TSGC
for this work.
Equipment in the HVAC lab includes two fully
instrumented primary refrigeration loops, one constructed by a
Trinity University Senior Design team (sponsored by ASHRAE).
Another Senior Design group is designing and constructing a
secondary loop to interface with this primary loop.
All equipment in this lab is interfaced with Data
Acquisition Hardware and Labview software.
Dynamic Structures Lab - Principal Investigator Dr. Leifer
Dr. Leifer is interested in Gossamer Structures - those
that are made with ultra lightweight materials. He investigates
how they move in earth gravity, and in some cases, in zero gravity (for
30 seconds at a time, on NASAs KC-135).
Dr. Leifer and his students utilize multiple high
speed cameras in a process called videogrammetry to reconstruct
motion in three dimensions.
Dr. Leifer's students are also interested in using
videogrammetry to study the motion of humans in automobile
accidents. His work is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute (HHMI).
Sustainability Lab - Principal Investigator Dr. Glawe
Dr. Glawe studies advanced materials, from sustainable
materials such as Compressed Earth Blocks to space-age materials
developed utilizing biomimetic nanotechnology. She collaborates
with a team of chemists and material scientists at the Air Force
Research Laboratory.
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Information
about
Our Shops
Machine Shop
Our machine shop contains all the standard machine tools for
mechanical design.A full-time mechanical technician supervises the
shop, gives safety training to students as required, and helps in
fabrication.
  
In these pictures you can see our 4-axis mill, sanding and grinding
machines, a band say, and a drill press.
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Electronics Shop
 Our electronics shop, staffed by a full-time electronics
technician, supports our instructional classrooms, design
laboratories, and research activities.
Facilities include soldering, cable fabrication, PCB layout and
design, and component interfacing.
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Design Workroom
 The
Design workroom is used for several design courses, and as workspace for student
organizations.
Equipment in this room includes sheet metal forming equipment, pipe
benders, and other mechanical tools. Two industrial-scale
distillation columns are used in Chemical Engineering classes.
An Instiron materials testing machine is used to investigate
stress/strain curves of various materials.
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