Science, Technology, Engineering & Math | News

NYC College Incorporates Data Analysis Software To Support Science Curriculum

• By Sharleen Nelson
• 08/05/13

Students in the department of chemistry at New York City College of Technology will have a new tool to help them analyze, graph, and professionally present data. The department will integrate OriginLab's data analysis and graphing software, Origin, into its Methods of Analysis lab course.

Origin's analytic tools for analyzing peak analysis, curve fitting, statistics, and signal processing will help students understand and process the data generated by scientific instruments in the lab.

The application's interface allows users to customize analysis and graphing tasks using themes, templates, custom reports, batch processing, and programming, and includes a scientific multi-sheet workbook with support for as many as 90 million rows and 65,527 columns per sheet. An integrated Project Explorer feature allows users to streamline workflow and organize Origin projects.

In addition, Origin includes two built-in programming languages designed to automate graphing and analysis, as well as Code Builder, an integrated development environment (IDE) that allows users to write and debug their own code.

"One of the most important skills in Instrumental Methods of Analysis is learning how to process the data that comes from scientific instruments, as well as appreciating that you must process data in detail to gain maximum information from it," said Jay Deiner, assistant professor of chemistry at City Tech, in a prepared statement. "By using Origin, the students learn how to use a sophisticated data analysis program that they may encounter in future work in both academic research or in industry. It also enables them to extract much more information from the data they generate. Finally, it helps students understand that much of science is thinking and data analysis."

New York City College of Technology is the largest four-year public college of technology in the northeastern United States, and a constituent college of the City University of New York. The college is located in downtown Brooklyn and enrolls more than 15,000 students in 62 technical and professional programs. The Department of Chemistry offers courses that lead to an Associate degree in Chemical Technology. The college has an annual operating budget of approximately $2.6 billion.

For more information about OriginLab, visit originlab.com.