Data-Acquisition System to Benefit Civil Engineering Students

A state-of-the-art data-acquisition system purchased with donations and grant funds will allow students time to explore additional subjects in the Civil Engineering Technology bachelor-degree major at Pennsylvania College of Technology.

Donations from New Enterprise Stone and Lime Co. Inc., Modjeski and Masters Inc., the New Columbia Joist Co., PennTerra Engineering Inc. and numerous Penn College alumni combined with a matching grant from the state Department of Education have enabled the College to purchase the system for the Geotechnical Engineering Technology course.

The system includes an eight-channel data-acquisition unit, expandable to 32 channels with accessory input modules; computer software to manage the collection of data from existing soil-testing equipment; and transducers for measuring force and displacement using the testing devices.

The Windows-based software will be used to gather and analyze data from tests conducted with existing equipment retrofitted with the transducers. Initially, the system will be used for gathering and evaluating data from one-dimensional consolidation test equipment used for running tests on soil-settlement characteristics under vertical loadings.

More importantly, the new system will reduce from about 20 hours to just one hour the time students must spend collecting data for the consolidation tests. The time saved will allow the students to cover additional topics in Geotechnical Engineering Technology something Civil Engineering faculty members in the School of Industrial and Engineering Technologies say is much needed for this relatively new course.

For more information about the bachelor's and associate's degrees in Civil Engineering Technology or any of the more than 100 bachelor- and associate-degree and certificate majors available at Penn College, call (570) 327-4761 (toll-free 1-800-367-9222), or visit on the Web.