Engineering Degree Jeopardy!
Category: Senior Projects for 3 semester credits and a required
course, Alex.
ed_keropi said:
hi~ i'm doing one of my fourth year course projects in EE, i need to
design a transducer that can measure the CO2 level in the ocean, and it
needs to be from raw matrials, but the main problem now is that i
cannot even find the gas detector or CO2 detector in the first place,
all the things i can find on the web is already packaged, can someone
help me to identify the sensor or detector for me? it must be a raw
material~ thanks alot!! ps.. need to hand the project in in two weeks
time....please help!!
Alex: The answer is, "You need a ____ sensor to measure CO2 levels in
salt water."
Question: Uuuh.
ed_keropi said:
ya, that's what i mean~ cos the problem is, i just need to find that
one part!! that sensor or detector part!!! without that, i can't do
anything....
(Sorry about not top-posting, Mr. Fields)
C'mon. What happens when CO2 dissolves in water? If you don't know,
ask anyone who's taken a high school chemistry class. Possibly you
might want a sip of Pepsi while you're thinking, it might help you come
up with an answer. Obviously, to measure it you'll need a ____ meter,
and to make one of those, you'll need a ____ electrode.
It's amazing that you've gotten to T-minus two weeks in your senior
project class, and you still don't know what you're going to do. More
amazing that with two weeks left, you still don't even know what you
don't know. And most amazing, you're burning literally days on a
newsgroup trying to get a clue when you've got only three hundred hours
or so (less than two weeks) left.
There comes a time when it's cruel to let someone keep suffering -- you
really should ask for an extension, arrange for some kind of
unavoidable, unfortunate, unverifiable event to happen (no clues from
me -- try alt.slacker.undergrad for advice) that will require the
department head to give you an incomplete, or just submit to the
inevitable and take your medicine as prescribed. There are worse
things in life than having to take senior projects over again. Like
getting a degree in engineering without being able to marshal
information, develop project timelines and milestones, and discipline
yourself to get things done, putting it in overdrive until you know
you're ahead of the ball, and turning the afterburners back on whenever
you get stuck. The real world of engineering will crush you. That is,
unless you have a government job lined up or are planning on working in
your daddy's firm.
It's kind of a shame -- the project could be a fairly simple and
straightforward one, based on your ____ electrode, a couple of high
input impedance, low drift op amps, a chopper for stabilization, and
the analog front end tied to a good resolution A-D conversion and a
neat digital end with a good uC to take care of the display and
housekeeping functions. Nothing bleeding edge, but definitely worthy
of an A, especially with a good manual and writeup. But less than 2
weeks just isn't enough time.
Well, you might just be able to get a proof-of-concept up and running
in that time if you don't sleep, anyway. And there's always hope for
an extension. So, against my better judgment, fill in the blanks by
looking at this:
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/test-kits.html
and then enhance your knowledge by buying a six for a chem major today
and having them enlighten you.
By the way, your message string has umich.edu in there. Tell me you're
not from the University of Michigan. Please.
Good luck
Chris
p.s. -- When you get the thing you're looking for, buy two or three
good ones -- they die at the most inconvenient times. No cheapies or
freebies here. And buy or borrow the additional things you need and
follow the instructions for ____ electrode care and feeding. They
want to be bad, but like any good cat, they'll treat you barely
adequately if you pamper them. But also like most cats, they spend a
lot of their time wondering if there's a way to make your life
miserable when you ignore them, especially if you need both accuracy
and precision. And you will. You will. So watch out.
p.p.s -- I hope I've done you proud, Mr. Fields.