Dr. Stephen Giblin from e-SI-Amp partner NPL was awarded the best paper award at the NCSLI workshop and symposium (August 2017, Maryland, USA). 

NCSL International (NCSLI) (from the founding name “National Conference of Standards Laboratories”) is a global, non-profit organization whose membership is open to any organization with an interest in metrology (the science of measurement) and its application in research, development, education, and commerce.

Their annual conference, this year held in Maryland, near Washington DC, USA is focussed on the test and measurement industry, with specialist training sessions, presentations on new developments in metrology, and a large exhibition space.

The paper, titled “From Counting Electrons to Calibrating Ammeters” was based on work by NPL, PTB, NTT, KRISS and focussed on new technology for making traceable measurements of small DC electric currents.  It included three case studies of small current calibrations, highlighted the role of noise and drifting instrument offsets and showed how the Allan deviation is used as a statistical tool for designing a calibration cycle to correctly eliminate drifting instrument offsets from calibration data. Stephen delivered his paper to the conference and a copy was disseminated to all conference attendees.

Attending this conference stimulated discussion with several members of the test and measurement community with whom we hope to develop closer links.

If you would like to know more about this work (or would like a copy of the paper) contact stephen.giblin@npl.co.uk.