Experimental Methodology
Experimentell metodik

MVK030F, 7.5 credits

Valid from: Spring 2014
Decided by: FN3/Per Tunestål
Date of establishment: 2014-03-13

General Information

Division: Energy Sciences
Course type: Third-cycle course
Teaching language: English

Aim

The course focuses on general research skills and aims to give a deeper understanding of the experimental method. It provides students with basic knowledge about fundamental concepts and techniques that are applied across a wide range of experimental research fields.

Goals

Knowledge and Understanding

For a passing grade the doctoral student must

• Understand the most basic concepts in science theory and how they apply to research in practice.
• Understand the difference between experimentation and passive observation.
• Understand the limitations of intuitive experimental procedures, such as changing one factor at a time or running trial-and-error experiments

Competences and Skills

For a passing grade the doctoral student must

• Be able to plan and carry out experiments that result in explanatory knowledge.
• Understand the principles of statistical hypothesis tests and apply the most common tests.
• Have basic functioning knowledge of Design of Experiments (DoE).

Judgement and Approach

For a passing grade the doctoral student must Be able to judge the quality of the reasoning and scientific results of other researchers.

Course Contents

The course is built around examples and exercises as well as a small research project where the central concepts and techniques are applied. It covers central concepts related to science theory and the experimental method, basic statistics (applied), basic design of experiments, as well as a methodology that guides the participant through the three stages of experimental enquiry: Planning, Data Collection, and Analysis & Synthesis.

Course Literature

Andersson, Ö.: Experiment! - Planning, Implementing and Interpreting. John Wiley & Sons, 2012. ISBN 9780470688250.
More information about the course book may be found at: http://www.amazon.com/Experiment-Implementing-Interpreting-Oivind-Andersson/dp/0470688254/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392804939&sr=8-1&keywords=experiment+andersson

Instruction Details

Types of instruction: Lectures, exercises, project

Examination Details

Examination formats: Written exam, written report, seminars given by participants. To pass the course the student must pass the written exam at the end of the course and participate in the project work. This involves planning and carrying out a small “research” project. The project results are to be presented in a short paper, which will be peer-reviewed by other participants. Finally, the results will be presented at a final workshop. To pass the course, students must also participate in a compulsory exercise and attend a majority of the lectures. Exercises may be carried out using Microsoft Excel or Mathworks Matlab.
Grading scale: Failed, pass
Examiner:

Admission Details

Admission requirements: Admitted to research education.
Assumed prior knowledge: Qualified for research education in engineering, natural science or medicine.
Selection criteria: The course is aimed for participants from the fields of engineering, natural science and medicine. Within this group, admission takes place on a first-come, first-served basis.

Further Information

Application via mail to: oivind.andersson@energy.lth.se

Course Occasion Information

Contact and Other Information

Course coordinator: Öivind Andersson <oivind.andersson@energy.lth.se>