On the Development of an Equipment Data Model A Hydroinformatics Final Project Fall 2013, Dr. Horsburgh Zac Sharp PE, Research Engineer/shop manager, UWRL, PhD Student, USU, and Tyler King, PhD Student, USU

Project Development Introduction and Background Project Objective Database Development Interactive Tools Conclusion Acknowledgements

Introduction and Background Engineering research and data are very useful tools which drive the engineering industry, provide solutions to unique problems, and assist government and other agencies in tracking important variables. Research and data collected are only as good as the instruments, equipment, and personnel collecting them. Keeping track of these instrument locations, functionality, condition, quality assurance, and history is as important as keeping track of the data they collect. This is the purpose of the Equipment db.

Introduction and Background Whether your instrumentation is in a lab or the field it needs to be tracked and taken care of. These are two instances the Equipment data model was designed to contain.

Introduction and Background Here are some example queries the database was designed to answer when properly populated. What equipment are due for maintenance this month? What are the equipment details for this project? Where has this instrument been in the last year? Where was this instrument last deployed? Who worked on a particular project? Which projects used this instrument? How many instruments measure a particular variable? What instruments are in poor condition? What will it cost to replace an instrument? Who sold us this instrument what is their website? When was this instrument purchased? What actions has this employee performed?

Project Objective To develop a relational database for storing, managing, organizing, standardizing, and querying equipment information. The database was designed to be universal and adaptable to different groups collecting various types of data. Two examples for which the generic relational data model was constructed are engineering data collected in a laboratory setting and collected in the field. The development and implementation of tools to interact with the database make it complete.

Database Development Selection of Relational Database Management System Conceptual Model Development Logical Model Development Implementation of a functional relational database

Database Development A list of the tables in the database Actions ActionTypeCV Condition ConditionCV Equipment MakeModel Personnel Projects Sites Supplier Units VariableNameCV Variables

Database Development

Interactive Tools Two different tools were developed to allow many users to interact with the database A tool to insert common information into the data base A tool to extract needed information from the database. Tools were developed specifically for the UWRL but can easily be adapted.

Insert Tool The insert tool is used to insert a table from excel into the database. All headers and column formatting has to be correct.

Insert Tool The code populating headers and values for the insert tool

Insert Tool The code making the connection and writing to the database

Table Generator The table generator is a form the user can use to enter details about a job. It will then generate and populate a table for review in excel. The insert tool can the be used to insert the table into the db.

Retrieval Tool The retrieval tool gets data from the db and returns it to a table in excel. It has three options of data retrieval which answer the below queries. What equipment are due for maintenance/ recertification this month? What are the equipment details for this project? Where has this instrument been in the last year?

Retrieval Tool Once the correct values have been filled out on the retrieval form the information is brought from the data base to a table in excel.

Retrieval Tool The main code for the retrieval tool includes the following “select” queries

Retrieval Tool The following code shows the connection to the database and the placement of the results into an excel table

Conclusion A general, flexible logical relational data model has been developed to meet the requirements of a wide range of equipment management scenarios. An instance of this data model has been physically implemented on a SQL server and populated with the UWRL hydraulics group’s pertinent data. Tools to expand the accessibility of the database to personnel with limited familiarity with SQL have been developed, tested, and are currently being implemented into procedural use.

Questions?