AOE3054 - Appendix 1 - Logbooks & Lab Reports

Careful logging of all the details of an experimental test, and the reporting of that test in written form is an integral part of high quality engineering work. The report is written to be a public document. Its purpose is to communicate what was learned to the rest of the company, the profession or (in the case of open research) the whole world so that others can use and benefit from the knowledge you created (and give you the credit). This is how progress is made. Of course, it also makes reporting scary - if you report bad data and thus incorrect conclusions, a lot of people will know or, even worse, will be mislead. This is where the logbook comes in. The logbook is a private document, recorded before and during the test. This is where you write down why you made all the decisions you did, what you forgot (and remembered) to do, what you did and didn't believe and why. It is where you put, or reference, all the results, photos, recordings of conditions, and even irrelevant details that, just maybe, may not end up being so irrelevant. The logbook is the private documentation that allows you to be confident about your results and what they mean, and to defend those results if there is ever a question.

During each of the experiments in AOE 3054, your group is expected to record a logbook, in electronic form. For three selected experiments you also write up an individual lab report on your results. The following are general guidelines for the preparation of these documents.

A logbook is like a detailed diary of your group's preparation for and activity during an experiment. Until fairly recently, logbooks used to be pencil and paper affairs. This had a drawback - data files, photos and plots generated during the experiment could only be referenced from the logbook and had to be stored elsewhere. This is no longer the case; the diary narrative of an experiment or test, and all of the other media and analysis generated by the test can be stored together or hyperlinked in a single digital document, written, for example, in Microsoft Excel.

Before attending your first experiment you will need to make sure you are familiar with Microsoft Excel (i.e. how to enter text, data, perform calculations, copy text and formulas, make basic plots). You should also download and examine the sample logbook for experiment 6 from the link on the right so you can see the kind of reporting that is expected.

All logbooks that are submitted for credit must be prepared using the logbook template (2024 Spring version). This includes a worksheet with many suggestions for items to include in your logbook, and some hints on what can earn the highest scores. A CANVAS version of this worksheet is also used by your instructor to grade your logbook (individual items are rated as:

• outstanding (O),
• satisfactory (S),
• incomplete (I)
• fail/missing (F)

with +/-'s, which convert to percentages as follows;

• O=100%,
• O-=95%,
• S+=90%,
• S=85%,
• S-=80%,
• I+=75%,
• I=70%,
• I-=65%,
• F=0%,

Your filenames should contain the team number, last name of all the students in the team (in alphabetical order, capitalized, no space, names separated by underscore) followed by "_E" followed by the experiment number, and followed by "_Prep" for the preparation logs or "_Comp" for the completed logbooks. So, for example, Team 4 with students called John Myung, Jonas Reingold, and Tony Levin would submit their completed logbook on the static response of a beam experiment in a file named "Team4_Levin_Myung_Reingold_E2_Comp.xlsx".

Logbooks are prepared as a team (i.e. a group of 2-4 students) and grades are assigned for the entire team. It is your responsibility to ensure that all the members of your team participate equally in the production of the logbook. NO COLLABORATION is allowed between teams. Similarly, you are NOT ALLOWED to use any material from previous offerings of AOE 3054 (including your own if you are re-taking the class). YOU MUST START YOUR LOGBOOK FROM A FRESH COPY OF THE LOGBOOK TEMPLATE FOR EVERY EXPERIMENT. Any violation will be transmitted to the Honor Court.

As far as possible a completed logbook should include everything about a test, including rough work and things that weren't successful. It also should include, in embedded form, all non-spreadsheet materials. For example:

• Photographs taken with the digital cameras (of equipment, set ups, visualizations, etc). It is usually best to take photos at the lowest resolution to avoid excessive file sizes. To insert a photo into your logbook, select the cell where you want the photo to go approximately, go to the 'Insert' menu, chose 'Picture' and then 'From File'. If you want to change the size of a photo, click on it and drag one of the corner handles. Don't drag the handles on  the sides as this will change the aspect ratio and distort the picture, which is usually undesirable. Note that the picture toolbar also gives you options to crop and to compress the size of pictures in your spreadsheet. Follow View/Toolbars/Picture to turn on the picture toolbar.
• Diagrams drawn using the drawing tools (found at the bottom of the Excel window if the Drawing toolbar is turned on). These may be used to illustrate set ups you put together, dimensions you measured, problems encountered, etc. Note that you can use these tools for measuring things in photos since the lengths of these lines can be read off by right clicking on them, selecting 'Format AutoShape', and then clicking on the 'Size' tab. The dialog box then displays the length and width of the line. To draw objects of precise sizes you may need to turn off 'Snap to Grid' (click on the 'Draw' button in the bottom left of the window, select 'Snap' and make sure the 'to Grid' icon is not highlighted).
• Hyperlinks, such as to relevant manual items. To make a hyperlink, click on the cell where you want the link to be and hit <CNTRL>K and type or paste in the web reference (e.g. copied from the URL box in the browser).
• Other objects (Matlab programs, LabView programs, MS Word documents, etc.). Many Microsoft program items can simply be pasted in (like sections of a Word document with equations), but sometimes you may have to use 'Paste special...' to get the effect you want. All file objects can be embedded by going to Insert>Object... and then selecting the 'Create from file' tab. It is a good idea to save your logbook before embedding objects or pasting in items from other programs.

One critical item in spreadsheet format that you may want to paste into your logbook is the uncertainty calculation table you will meet in class. You should adapt this to the particular uncertainties you want to calculate.

Logbooks are submitted at the end of the experiment by the team. Transfer your logbook to the instructor by CANVAS. It is your responsibility to confirm that the logbook is properly uploaded in CANVAS by the due date.

Specific suggestions for the preparation of laboratory reports are found at the end of each chapter in this manual under the heading 'Recommended Report Format'. You will be required to write full reports on three of the experiments you conduct this semester (the first, third and fifth). You will receive feedback (along with your grade for each report) from your instructor on how to improve the report. While grading is done in CANS, the grade sheet that is used to determine report grades can be seen here. There is a sample report that you can download (but not copy from) written using experiment 6 as an example, see the link in the left-hand frame. The report is based on the sample experiment 6 logbook.

General requirements common to all reports are listed below.

A. Preparing and Submitting Reports 

1. All lab reports must be submitted with a standard report template. This template (based on the AIAA standard conference paper template available here along with other information and material under Conference Resources Section) provides you not only with the formatting and structure required for the report, but it also contains some information regarding the content. A sample report following the AIAA guidelines is also provided to further illustrate proper report formatting.

2. The text of your report should be single spaced and use 10-point Times Roman (or Times New Roman) font throughout as per the standard template.

3. Lab reports must be submitted electronically (via CANVAS). It is your responsibility to confirm that the report is received by the due date. Your TA may additionally require you to submit a paper or PDF copy (in the case of PDF submission, you will be required to upload both the DOCX and PDF copies on CANVAS). Your TA will specify where and how paper copies should be submitted. PDF copies would be submitted in addition to the Word documents (see below) through CANVAS.

4. Reports must be submitted through CANVAS in electronic format in Word (.docx). If you use LaTeX, make sure that you can convert your report succesfully to Word.

5. Your filenames should contain your last name then first name (both capitalized, no space) followed by "E" followed by the experiment number. So, for example, a student called John Myung would submit their first submission report on the static response of a beam experiment in a file named "MyungJohnE2.docx".

6. Electronic copies of lab reports should be in Word (.docx) format. Do not add any password protections to your Word (.docx), as your instructor will need to be able to read, edit and add comments to the file to grade it.

7. If you experience computer problems please contact your lab instructor or the course organizer in advance of the report deadline. Allowances for computer problems of this type reported on or after the report due date are not normally granted.

8. Your instructor will grade your report (in Word (.docx) or on paper) adding comments and a grading rubric in CANVAS that gives you feedback on how you did and what your grade is. You should look at the grade sheet (download the Excel version of the grade sheet so that you know what is expected. Your report receives a percentage grade. Individual items are rated, outstanding (O), satisfactory (S), incomplete (I) or fail/missing (F), with +/-'s, which convert to percentages as follows;  O=100%, O-=95%, S+=90%, S=85%, S-=80%, I+=75%, I=70%, I-=65%, F=0%).

9. Reports are due 1 week+8h after the end time of your lab after the experiment was performed. Reports received after the deadline are counted as one day late. Late reports are accepted with a penalty of 20pt for every day.  No reports are accepted more than 3 days late. Exceptions to this rule are normally only made in the case of documented excuses (e.g. note from the health center, court papers, letter from the athletic department etc.), and are granted by the course organizer, not your lab instructor. As an example of how the report submission deadline works, suppose your lab meets at 8 am on Thursdays. Reports submitted up to 4 pm on Thursday (of the following week) are accepted as on time and given the full grade earned. Reports submitted between that and Friday 4pm are graded, but 20pt is subtracted from the overall grade. Reports submitted Saturday and Sunday are also graded but receive 40 and 60pt deductions respectively down to a minimum grade of zero. Reports posted from the Monday onwards are ignored and receive a 0.

10. Once your report is submitted, make sure you obtain the CANVAS submission confirmation and check the file(s) on CANVAS are uncorrupted. If you have any doubts, contact your TA PRIOR to the submission deadline.

B. Honor Code
Report writing must be the work of the individual student. Copying from other students, from old reports, or from any other material that is not your own constitutes an honor code violation. You are required to complete the title page (first page in the report template) and sign the honor pledge. If you wish to include material from the lab manual you must rewrite it in your own words.
You are NOT ALLOWED to consult reports from other (current or former) students (this is applicable to homework and logbooks as well). The only exception here is the suggested phrases included in inverted commas in the 'Recommended Report Format' sections.
Material copied and placed in quotes is not an honor code violation (if the source is cited), but is treated as though that material were missing.
All reports are cross checked (with this and previous years reports) for unauthorized copying by using publicly available software called WCopyfind. You can read about WCopyfind at http://plagiarism.bloomfieldmedia.com/wordpress/software/wcopyfind/ .

C. Consistency with logbook
The results presented in your report must be consistent with those submitted with your team's logbook (though conclusions and interpretations are whatever you think is appropriate). Of course, preliminary analysis in a logbook may turn out later to be in error. In that case, report on the corrected version, and add a footnote of explanation in your report.

D. Figures
Your lab report will undoubtedly contain a number of figures. Figures should be numbered consecutively and all figures must be referenced from the written report. For example, "It can be seen in Figure 3 that ..." Note that "Figure" is capitalized here since, in this sense, it is a proper name. You may wish to put all figures in order at the end of the report since trying to satisfactorily integrate figures into the text in a Word document can use up a lot of valuable time unnecessarily. Alternatively, you can insert images within the text to make your report easier to read. Whatever approach you chose, figures should be either all in an appendix or all in the text. Do not mix and match.

Each figure must include an explanatory caption located beneath the figure (e.g. 'Figure 3. Photograph of the Clark Y Airfoil Mounted in the Test Section of the 3-foot Open Jet Wind Tunnel'). Figures must be self-explanatory so, as far as possible, the reader can understand the figure without referring to the text where you describe it (you still need the text though). In many cases this means adding labels - labels can easily be added to photographs or other figures using the drawing tools in Word or PowerPoint.

Graphs can be drawn in Excel and copied into Word. However, note that the default form of graphs produced by Excel, while fine for the preliminary analysis of a logbook, is not suitable for reports. The file 'HowToPlot_Excel2016.xls' gives a specific example of how to turn a basic Excel plot into a report quality graph (right click on this link, select 'Save target as...' and then open the file in Excel). The following requirements are illustrated in this example:

• Measured data should, in general be plotted as distinct points, with no lines, since it is the points that were actually measured. Lines should generally only be added if they represent something else, e.g. a regression fit or the result of a theoretical prediction. If lines linking the points are necessary to distinguish different sets of data on the same plot, they should be straight lines between the points - never connect measured data points with curved lines.
• Color should be avoided unless absolutely necessary, as reports are almost always printed or copied in black and white. Colored backgrounds in particular detract from the clear presentation of the data.
• Grid lines should only be used if needed, in which case they should be included for both axes, and shown in gray or as dashed lines so as not to be confused with axis lines, or annotations on the plot.
• Axes should have proper scales and show major and minor divisions. A proper linear scale is one in which both major and minor divisions are in units of 1,2 or 5 x 10ⁿ, where n is an integer. Tick marks should point outwards and at least 5 major divisions should appear on each axis. If reasonable, axes should cross at zero. If not reasonable a note should be made in the figure or axis title (e.g. "note false origin on displacement axis").
• Axes titles should include the name and/or symbol of the plotted quantity and its unit, in a font consistent with the rest of the report.
• The legend should appear within the axes, if possible without obscuring data. There should be no box drawn around graphs.
• If estimates of the accuracy of the data are available and comparable in scale to the size of the quantity, the error magnitudes can be shown using error bars.

E. Tables
Data essential to the report (such as uncertainty estimates and results of key calculations - not lists of raw data) may best be presented for clarity in the form of tables. Each table must include an explanatory caption located above the table. Tables should be numbered consecutively and should appear in the body of the report, or immediately following the references. As with figures, all tables must be referenced from the written report and referred to using a capital "Table X." Abbreviations and symbols may be used, if defined in the text or in a list of symbols. The tables should be complete in themselves; i.e., explanatory notes should be placed in captions or footnotes rather than requiring the reader to refer back to the report text for explanatory material.

F. References
References should be listed after the conclusions section. List here all books, reports, etc. referred to in the text (including the lab manual). Include names of authors, title, name of journal or publisher (in the case of a book), volume number, page number and date1 used or consulted in preparing this laboratory report. There are several reference lists in this manual, any of which may be used as a model. In the text, references should include only the authors' name(s) and the date, e.g. Smith (1987), Jones and Launder (1974), Davidson et al. (1990).

G. Other items.
You may be instructed to, or wish to, add the following items to a report:

(a) Abstract The abstract should be written as a single paragraph 100 to 200 words in length. It should be a summary (not an introduction) and complete in itself (no references to other parts of the report or the work of others). The abstract should indicate the subjects dealt with in the report and should state the objectives of the investigation. The most important observations and conclusions of the experiment must be stated in summary form. Readers should not have to read the report to understand the abstract.  The abstract, though it appears first in the report, should be written last by the author, after all other parts of the report have been completed.

(b) List of symbols and definitions All symbols which appear in the report should be included in this listing. Also, the units to be used with any dimensional symbol must accompany that symbol in the listing. "Definitions" here refer to any basic mathematical relations that define quantities to be used in the report.
Example:

SYMBOLS AND DEFINITIONS
H  total enthalpy, CpT + u2/2, m2/s2
i	hot-wire current, amps
l	distance measured along shear layer, mm
Re	Reynolds Number, V D/
T	temperature, oC

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1 Arrange the references in alphabetical order by author or by order they appear in the text (in which case you will need a number next to each reference).