Building "my First NMRviewer": A Project Incorporating Coding and Programming Tasks in the Undergraduate Chemistry Curricula

Abstract

This paper presents a programming project named NMRviewer that allows students to visualize transformed and processed 1H NMR data in an accessible, interactive format while allowing instructors to incorporate programming content into the chemistry curricula. Using the MATLAB graphical user interface development environment (GUIDE), students can build an NMR viewer software program via three main features: a display window, an open file dialogue, and a stack plot option. The experience is designed so that students acquire basic notions of flow diagrams, control loops, Boolean logic rules, and further aspects of the syntax of coding in MATLAB. By building and using the NMR viewer, students can improve their skills and understanding of basic concepts of programming, a discipline often undervalued in current undergraduate chemistry curricula. Importantly, the described NMRviewer is designed for Bruker's data and the Windows operating system, although the tools provided in this project allow students to build their own viewers adapted to their needs.