Research IT

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The Afterburner for Your Experiments

A new special interest group has been launched for anyone interested in process datalogging, experimental automation, and the interfaces between hardware and software at the University. Find out more about the aims of the group and how to get involved.

With experimental complexity ever expanding, the role of computers to automate datalogging and control tasks is becoming increasingly prevalent in the value and efficiency of practical work. The Datalogging and Automation Group (DAG) aims to accumulate a community of interested researchers, PGRs and technicians to exchange knowledge on the possibilities of what can be done, how to approach the situation, or even where to start.

Gerard Cloke Browne from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Mark Dunstan, Senior Technical Specialist from the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology, and Abhijit Ghosh, Senior Platforms Research Engineer from Research IT are leading the Datalogging and Automation group (DAG). Group activities will include knowledge sharing across departments, encouraging debate, and providing resource pooling opportunities.

Gerard explained “We believe this group will be particularly useful for researchers and technicians who run long experiments or have several data points they want to collect simultaneously or at short intervals. By automating data collection and processing, it is possible to better understand system functionality and why failures happen whilst also being able to predict failure and correct circumstances; thus saving time, energy and money. Furthermore, the use of automated monitoring reduces the requirement for out of hours experiment monitoring, preserving quality of sleep and therefore life”.

The group is joining the Computation and Data in Research (CaDiR) Teams space starting as online only, with the Teams channel open for discussion on topics around datalogging and automation in and beyond the lab such as:

  • Equipment procurement advice and resource pooling arrangements
  • System integration
  • Live data processing possibilities for enhancing research
  • Human Machine Interface (HMI) and remote monitoring

The CaDiR (Computation and Data in Research) community is the home of special interest groups and user groups from across the University that have a data and/or computational focus. The aim of CaDiR is to provide a hybrid space within the University for these groups to sit so that they can be easily discovered and supported by the research community.