ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION - Winter 2015 - An ECG Lab Project for Teaching Signal Conditioning Systems in a Master’s Degree in Mechatronic Engineering

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Terk

Ongoing technological progress in measurement systems drove the development of an innovative, hands-on teaching program to deepen students’ understanding of recent changes in signal conditioning. The paper presents a lab project connecting theoretical principles with practical issues in signal conditioning systems within a Master’s program in mechatronic engineering. Students design and test a signal conditioning circuit to acquire and monitor ECG signals and apply studied lecture circuits using a general design methodology. Results include evaluation of knowledge improvement and increased motivation via five years of work and student feedback.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background considerations

Course description

Lab project overview

Assessment and student survey

Conclusions

| | Ad | vances in Engineering Edu | cation | | | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | WINTER 2015 An ECG Lab Project for Teaching Signal Conditioning Systems in a Master’s Degree in Mechatronic Engineering FRANCISCO JAVIER FERRERO ALBERTO LÓPEZ MARTA VALLEDOR JUAN CARLOS CAMPO CECILIO BLANCO University of Oviedo Gijón, Spain. AND YURI A. VERSHININ Coventry University Coventry, England ABSTRACT Ongoing technological progress in measurement systems triggered the development of an innovative, hands-on teaching program to help students toward a fuller understanding of recentchanges in the field. This paper presents a lab project that links theoretical principles with the practical issues of signal conditioning systems. This is accomplished in the context of a Master’s Degree in Mechatronic Engineering, though the experience gained could be applied to other curricula. Students designed and tested a signal conditioning circuit in order to acquire and monitor the electrical activity generated by the heart. This lab project contains most of the circuits studied in lectures and presents a general methodology for the design of signal conditioning systems. Five years of lab project work was compiled, and with the help of students’ feedback, we were able to evaluate both the improvement in their knowledge and in their motivation Key Words: Measurement systems, signal conditioning, data acquisition, DAQ, ECG, LabVIEW INTRODUCTION Mechatronics is defined as “the interdisciplinary field of engineering dealing with the design of products whose function relies on the integration of mechanical and electronic components coor WINTER 2015 1 ADVANCES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION An ECG Lab Project for Teaching Signal Conditioning Systems in a Master’s Degree in Mechatronic Engineering Figure 1. Typical block diagram of a basic measurement system. dinated by a control architecture” [1] . Hands-on engineering experiments are needed in order to provide mechatronic students with the technical and research skills they will need as professional engineers. In a modern mechatronic measurement system, information is extracted from the environment using an appropriate sensor or sensors and the signals are then amplified to a suitable level so that they may be digitized and read by a data acquisition system. In order to teach aspects of signal conditioning to mechatronic students, any experiment would require at least a single sensor whose output must be conditioning, data acquisition (DAQ) hardware and a computer to store and monitor the signal, as shown in Fig. 1. The sensor converts a physical phenomenon into a measurable electrical signal. If the signal from the sensor is not suitable for the DAQ hardware it may be necessary to use a signal conditioning. In many cases the signal must be amplified and filtered. Also, isolation and linearization may be necessary. DAQ hardware is what usually interfaces between the analog conditioned signal and a PC. It could be in the form of modules that can be connected to the computer’s ports or cards connected to slots in the motherboard. DAQ software is needed in order for the DAQ hardware to work with a PC. The design of a signal conditioning circuit for the measurement of analog quantities typically poses difficult engineering challenges. Even a simple signal chain with a resistive sensor and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) involves multiple issues that must be resolved before a valid measurement can be made. To resolve these challenges the traditional learning model based only on lectures needs to be updated to incorporate real-world projects to facilitate students’ critical thinking and problem solving skills while accomplishing the course objectives. Students need to get involved and take responsibility for their learning experience; and the instructor becomes a guide. The purpose of implementing this learning from a lab project (LP

FAQs

What teaching goal does the lab project target?

It aims to help students develop a fuller understanding of recent changes in signal conditioning by connecting theory with practical measurement-system issues.

How do students use the lab project in the Master’s program?

Students design and test a signal conditioning circuit to acquire and monitor the heart’s electrical activity, using a methodology covering circuits studied in lectures.

What evidence is used to evaluate the lab project’s effectiveness?

Five years of lab project work, together with students’ feedback, are used to assess improvements in knowledge and motivation, including instructors’ observations as part of the evaluation.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Terk