Goal
The International Digital Image Correlation Society (iDICs) recognizes the need to have trained and vetted DIC practitioners. Therefore, iDICs has developed a certification program where industrial and research institutions can send their personnel to become certified DIC practitioners. The certification is broken down into three levels:
Level 1 – Competent Basic User,
Level 3 – Master Level User.
The Level 1 – Competent Basic User is expected to understand and demonstrate most of the information contained in the iDICs A Good Practices Guide for Digital Image Correlation. It is expected that a Level 1 user should be able to independently conduct standard 2D-DIC and stereo-DIC measurements when the measurement requirements are provided.
The certification emphasizes:
- System setup and data acquisition, highlighting important choices between 2D-DIC and stereo-DIC
- Understanding the basic principles of DIC and how they interact with the images and the resulting data quality
- Understanding calibration techniques and the resulting parameters
- Knowing basic post-processing techniques for assessing uncertainty, including noise floor and
bias errors
- Understanding the common pitfalls of DIC measurements, how to identify them and how to
correct the problems
- Knowing the basic reporting requirements for DIC measurements
The Level 1 Exam
The certification exam includes both a written exam (30% of total score) and a practical exam (70% of total score). The goal of the Level 1 written exam is to test the general knowledge of a Level 1 user regarding the basics of DIC, and it is taken directly from the Good Practices Guide (GPG). The goal of the Level 1 practical exam is to test the ability of a Level 1 user to set up and conduct a DIC measurement in conjunction with a mechanical test, and to perform basic post-processing operations to evaluate data quality. The Level 1 practical exam tests many of the principles contained in the GPG. At the end of the certification exam day, each user is expected to submit a brief written report (based on a supplied template) that covers the practical portion of the exam. The written exam and the practical exam report will be graded by the examiners, and the examinees will be notified by email as to their exam results.
Level 1 Requirements
The Level 1 certification is not intended for inexperienced examinees but rather is designed for a semi-experienced examinee to demonstrate their knowledge of the basics of DIC. To that end, the certification exam is expected to be the last step in the Competent Basic User’s training process. That training process should include:
- Training by DIC vendors (optional but recommended)
- Practical on-the-job training and experience (either 80 hours plus additional training, or 120
hours without added training)
- Refresher course (optional but recommended, DIC 101)
- Certification exam (passing grade required)
For the practical on-the-job training requirement, each examinee is expected to submit a completed Experience Form (email: certification@idics.org to obtain form) when registering for the certification exam. The refresher course is highly recommended as it covers all the key aspects of the Good Practices Guide on which the entire certification exam is based. This half day class includes both the material in the guide as well as important examples.
Equipment for the Practical Exam
A detailed equipment list will be sent to each examinee when registering for the certification exam. Each examinee will receive a printed copy of the iDICs “A Good Practices Guide for Digital Image Correlation” to use during the open book written exam, although examinees may bring their own copy if they prefer. Additionally, examinees are allowed to bring any other supplementary material that they typically use when conducting DIC measurements in their own labs, such as field-of-view calculators, data analysis scripts, etc. Vendors may be willing to supply a DIC system for performing the practical exam for examinees of their systems, but this must be coordinated between the examinees, the vendors and iDICs ahead of time. If the examinees are not using a commercial DIC system, they might need to bring their own system hardware. Finally, each examinee should bring a laptop computer (with a DIC analysis license) for analyzing DIC images and writing the test report that will be due at the end of the examination day. Please contact certification@idics.org if you have questions regarding this requirement.
Experience Record
Experience Record
