Team:Michigan Software/Measurement
Measurement
ProtoMetrics
ProtoCat is meant to enable lab researchers to get feedback on their lab procedures; in order to improve efficiency or gather feedback. But how can they quantify which version of a protocol is better? What if a researcher wants to gather feedback about a specific step, or specific product? Ask for the calibration of the equipment that other people are using? And even if they can get it in the comments, how will they get that information in a readily accessible and usable form? This need gave rise to ProtoMetrics, our way to allow researchers to get quantitative metrics on their protocols.
ProtoMetrics allows users to specify three types of questions: Text, Numeric, or Polls. Text and Numeric are relatively straightforward; the former asks for a text response (ex: describe the resulting solution), whereas the latter is for strictly numeric responses (ex: How many grams of product were you able to produce?). Polls allow for a respondent to choose from a selection of responses, which can be used for specific equipment calibration. Once the users have submitted the responses, the publisher of the protocol can download the results in a Comma Seperated Value (csv) file for easy import into Excel, MATLAB, or a similar analysis tool.
