1. Each lab session lasts three hours and starts promptly. A brief introduction with demo may be given by the instructor at the beginning of the lab. Everybody has to finish on time, so please time yourself carefully. Doing the pre-lab can save you a lot of time.

2. Preparing the lab is very important, as it will save you time and allows you to work more efficiently. The pre-lab includes reading the lab assignment in advance, answering the questions or doing the calculations, and if necessary reviewing the material in the textbook. All pre-lab preparation must be recorded and dated in the lab notebook prior do doing the lab. The lab instructor will check your pre-lab write-up and sign your notebook at the beginning of each lab.

3. As part of the lab preparation, you can use Spice or Electronic Workbench to simulate the actual experiments you will be doing in the lab. Spice is available in the PC labs or on Eniac, Electronic Workbench is available on the PCs in the RCA lab. You can paste the result of the simulations in the notebook. Make sure you label the graphs and tables clearly.

4. Prelab Quiz. Each week there is a quiz based on your Prelab assignments. This quiz must be taken and submitted on the web by midnight the day before your lab session (see Guidelines for doing the Pre-lab and for submitting the Pre-lab Quiz ).

5. Student partnerships. Each lab is done in groups of two. The team approach encourages interaction and helps with the debugging and data collection. Each student has his/her own lab notebook and is responsible for recording the pre-lab, recording the measurement data. However, only one lab report need to be handed in per group (see Guidelines on writing lab reports).

6. Collaboration:

Students are working in groups of two in the laboratory. This encourages team work and makes the conduction of the experiments more efficient. You can collaborate on the pre-lab and on interpretation of the measured data. However, each student is responsible for writing the pre-lab and recording the data in his or her notebook. Copying of data from other groups or submitting contrived or altered information is in violation of the Code of Academic Integrity and will result in a zero grade for the course. The lab report is a joined effort and each students should contribute equally to writing the report.

7. Each lab notebook needs to be signed and dated by the instructor or TA before leaving the lab. The instructor will check the pre-lab and notebook entries for the current lab assignment. The students are responsible for securing the signature.

8. Toolset. Each group or preferably each students should have tools: Click here for more info.

9. Instruments and supplies: The major instruments you will need are permanently installed in the stations. A selection of wires, cables and connectors are contained in blue boxes and available from the instrument room (one box per station only). At the end of the lab session the contents of the box should be checked, reassembled in the box and returned to the instrument room. Small parts (resistors, capacitors, transistors, ICs) will be available in the bins in the lab area. Capacitors, transistors and integrated circuits (ICs) can be reused and should be left on the table in the same manner as they were obtained (stretch the leads if necessary).

10. Leave your workplace at least as clean and tidy as you found it. Put everything back in its proper place.