Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 10:00-11:30am, or by appointment

Course Description: Intended for all engineering, computer science, and science majors. Covers the basics of virtual instrumentation including use of IEEE GPIB, RS232 interfaces, and data acquisition boards. Interfacing of a computer to various instruments for data acquisition and instrument control using a state-of-the-art software platform such as National Instrument's LABVIEW. Emphasis is on the practical aspects of interfacing a computer to various instruments including timing issues, real-time data acquisition and instrument control, instrument status, and acquisition speed.

Course Materials: LabVIEW 8 Student Edition

Note: The laboratory manual will be distributed in class or via the World Wide Web. OPSE 610 web address:

OPSE Lab Open Hours: OPSE lab (642-4956) will be open during Monday 11:30-1pm and Weds. 2:30-4pm or by appointment.

Prerequisites: a 3 credit CIS programming course.

For some classes, you will have "Exercises" due. The Exercises are shorter and less involved than Lab assignments and in most cases, they form the basis of a Lab VI which you would be writing shortly. Exercises are due at the end of class for which they are assigned. If you do not attend the class, you will not be permitted to submit the exercises.  One purpose of the exercises is to BOOST your grade. You should not miss them.

Exams: No written examinations will be given. Instead a Final Project will be submitted.

Grades: Final Project each count as 1/4 of grade. Homework count as 1/4 of the grade. Labs/ Exercises count collectively as 1/2 of your grade (with Exercises worth only 50% of a lab grade). Grades of below 72% will generally considered to be failing. Note: Failing grade in graduate school is "C" and below.  Grades will be posted once a month on the course web page. If there is a discrepancy in the grades, you must notify the course instructor within one week of their posting. After the one week "grace" period, past grades will not be adjusted.

Late Assignments/ Missing Assignments: Occasionally, assignments get "lost" in the email system or are turned in late, or (at the discretion of the grader) are submitted for a re-grade. It is the student's responsibility to maintain copies of all email submissions and return emails with grades. It is the student's responsibility to  check the course web page for inaccuracies in reported grades. After the "grace" period has expired, late/ missing/ re-graded etc. assignments will not be accepted.

Honor Code: For this course, the NJIT Honor code will be upheld. Any violations will be brought to the attention of the Dean of students. It is expected (but not required) that students will help each other with the course assignments. However, if two or more students turn in nearly identical work (ie. plagiarism), the students will all receive a zero score for the assignment and they will be referred to the Dean of Students. You can share ideas, but do NOT share code. If you use someone else's code (with the exception of sample problems from the class notes or  textbook), you MUST cite the source of the code. Otherwise, you are plagiarizing.

Students will be consulted with by the instructor and must agree to any modifications or deviations from the syllabus throughout the course of the semester.

Final Project: (click here to download score sheet) Using LabVIEW, create a VI program that controls an experiment consisting of at least three instruments. (Fewer Instruments can be used if MANY functions are controlled by the VI.) The VI should include:

1. Plotting of data on the screen
2. Saving of data to a file. Saved data must be readable by a spreadsheet program (like Excel or Lotus).
3. At least 3 sub-VIs and at least 1 sub-VI embedded within another sub-VI (Student written).
4. User-friendly instructions and controls
5. At least one imported graphic and at least three different fonts and colors on the user interface window
6. Adequate annotations within the block diagram window of all VIs and sub-Vis.
7. For additional requirements, consult Final Project grading sheet on the course Web Page.

If you do not have an experiment in mind, a suitable one will be provided. For example:

1. Measure the light intensity of two separate Light Emitting Diodes as a function of current. Instruments required: Power Supply, Photodiodes with Voltmeter (or Oscilloscope).
2. Measure current versus voltage characteristic of two diodes and compare. Instruments required: Power supply, Voltmeter (or oscilloscope).

Note that points will also be awarded for creativity and difficulty level of the projects.