Data Acquisition Using LabVIEW and MATLAB for Mechanical Engineering Laboratories

Data acquisition is an integral part of research and has many uses within the industry.Having a basic understanding of data acquisition systems and the capabilities or where they could be applied will create more opportunities for engineering students when they are ready for research or industry.To gain this understanding through engineering education, students could take a module in a lab class where they learn to implement a data acquisition system using LabVIEW and process the data using MATLAB.The purpose of this student paper is to show the importance of data acquisition in engineering education, illustrate where data acquisition can be implemented into the current engineering curriculum, and display some of its applications by demonstrating the process of collecting and post-processing temperature, flow rate, and pressure data in an example of heat/mass transfer experiment.