N03: Hands-on Workshop on Assessing and Reporting Measurement Uncertainty – 3 Day

Abstract

This NIST short course covers the propagation of measurement uncertainty using the methods outlined in the JCGM Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement from a statistical perspective. The short course will provide participants with a working knowledge of the computational methods needed to assess measurement uncertainty, hands-on experience in the application of these methods, and scientific and statistical insight into the interpretation of the results.

The Hands-on Workshop on Assessing and Reporting Measurement Uncertainty is a 3-day course that will be held at the Measurement Science Conference in Anaheim, CA. The course consists of lectures, short exercises, and hands-on applications covering many aspects of the propagation of uncertainty using examples from NIST work.

The exercises and hands-on applications will use functions for uncertainty analysis from the software package, metRology, written for the open-source R statistical computing environment. The functions can be accessed directly in R (use of RStudio is recommended), or via an Excel graphical user interface that is available as a free Add-In, metRology for Microsoft Excel.

Participants should bring their own laptops, if possible. A laptop for use during the short course can be provided (sharing may be required). If you would like to borrow a laptop, please let one of the instructors know as soon as possible. All software except Microsoft Excel is free.

Topics Covered

• Importance of uncertainty analysis
• Different statistical approaches for uncertainty analysis
• Essentials of the GUM approach
• Measurement functions
• Type A and Type B methods for evaluating standard uncertainties
• Degrees of freedom
• Sensitivity coefficients
• Propagation of standard uncertainties
• Effective degrees of freedom
• Expanded uncertainties
• Software for propagation of uncertainty
• Interpretation of results