Achievement

A new course was designed to serve the needs of the IGERT program. Experimental Modal Analysis was taught for the first time in Spring 2010 and all the IGERT fellows enrolled. The course covers the fundamentals of signals, filters, and system identification and discusses the basic techniques currently employed in model updating. The current experimental part includes 5 projects using equipment purchased with IGERT funds including electromagnetic shakers and their amplifiers, an impact hammer, a variety of sensors and data recording and processing capability. A number of test structures were built for use during the course. The course concluded with a mini-conference where the students presented papers based on experiments they carried out. These papers will be submitted to the International Modal Analysis Conference (IMAC). Course feedback has been very positive. We believe that this course will become a regular and popular feature of the graduate program for years to come.