Macro-I: a gateway to instrumentation education

Teaching instrumentation is challenging due to the wide range of topics that can-and should-be considered. This paper summarizes an approach to instrumentation education that attempts to remain focused on a systems-level view. The objective of the course focuses on giving students the tools they need to understand and use instruments and to impart enough information to allow students to create useful electronic instruments comprising functional subsystems. A design project is given at the beginning of the course to achieve this goal. Design projects are chosen to provide motivation and affirmation of course content. For example, recent instrument-design projects included an eddy-current device, an environmental station, a particle levitator, a semiconductor-noise-measurement system, and a PDA-based protocol analyzer. The experience has been positive as measured by student responses and their ability to complete useful instruments.