Remote Laboratories for Teaching and Training in Engineering

Typical mechatronic systems are a combination of advanced technologies involving several disciplines. This multidisciplinary approach to the development of industrial applications provides great opportunities for the implementation of e-learning environments and collaborative schemes. Engineering education, in particular, benefits from many of these advances, among which, virtual instrumentation is a useful tool for the development of virtual environments, e-learning spaces and, particularly, remote laboratories. This chapter describes the implementation of web-based laboratories that allow the remote operation of experiments used as training exercises in undergraduate engineering courses. The remote laboratories were developed using LabVIEW® software, and they enable remote control and monitoring of laboratory equipment, allowing engineering students to perform experiments in real time, at their own pace, from anywhere, and whenever is suitable for them. Besides the experimental training that the web-based laboratories provide to students, the system is also a powerful teaching tool since real-time demonstrations of the experiments can be performed, and they also can be simultaneously monitored by a group of students. This approach is highly beneficial for engineering schools in developing countries, as resources can be shared through the Internet. A description of the system and three proposed experiments is presented, together with the experimental results

IVLE4C a Conceptual Learning Environment for Teaching Enterprise Cybersecurity

The authors are working to improve students’ understanding of and classroom experience with enterprise cybersecurity. Central to this effort is development of the Integrated Virtual Learning Environment for Cybersecurity (IVLE4C), a teaching and learning tool intended for use by both teachers and students. The authors are endeavoring to incorporate into IVLE4C best practices from the knowledge domains of education, model-based systems engineering, and cybersecurity. A modern digital enterprise is a large-scale, complex system of systems. Enterprise cybersecurity is a special subset of the larger knowledge domain that merits special consideration when instructing students who lack relevant work experience. This lack of work experience creates a gap in students’ knowledge about the structure, operation, and control of a modern digital enterprise. Our guiding precept – coined Greer’s Rule of Thumb – is that: it is impossible to defend what cannot be visualized and described. Therefore, it is essential to address the student enterprise knowledge gap before attempting to teach the means for assuring enterprise cybersecurity. Viste and Skartveit (2004) propose using an interactive virtual learning environment with reality abstraction models when teaching the structure, operation, and control of a large-scale complex system. The creation of a virtual model enables a modern digital enterprise to be brought into the classroom. This allows for learning that is complementary to experiential learning that occurs during an internship and, possibly, a viable alternative when internships are unavailable or come later in a curriculum path. Once developed, a library of models representing different digital enterprise types can be used to accelerate student enterprise cybersecurity education in a controlled classroom environment. During the presentation, the authors will provide an update on the use of model-based system engineering practices and how they are being integrated into IVLE4C for developing a tailored, enterprise risk management strategy. This approach is consistent with guidance provided in the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. Research shows model-based systems engineering is increasingly being used for developing engineered cybersecurity solutions. An example of this is research performed by Robles-Ramirez et.al. (2020) on the application of model-based Cybersecurity Engineering for Connected and Automated Vehicles. Key is the notion of turning a cyber-attack surface into a trust boundary at targeted levels. IVLE4C version 1.0 is currently being used to teach Cyber Supply Chain Security at UNCW. Version 2.0 is a dynamic data driven web application, that is being developed for teaching Enterprise Security

Development of a computer-based tool to manage via web the teaching assignment

Sometimes, the way a thing has always been done is not the best one, or the most efficient. For instance, in the Department of Electronic Engineering at ETSEIB, the staff has always managed the teaching assignment for the next year using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Each professor has to fill this file and send it to the person in charge of this task. Then, each time this person receives it, he has to send it to the next professor in a predefined list and control that every professor is filling it correctly. This project has the purpose of developing a computer-based tool to make this task easier and faster. The solution has to be able to upload and download files with the teaching information, allow the teaching staff to choose their classes taking into account established criteria and send automatic emails when needed. With this goal, a web application has been designed, developed and tested. For the visual part, HTML5, some Javascript commands, CSS and a very popular framework called Bootstrap, that helps with the task of creating the interface, have been used. Moreover, the server and the functional part have been implemented in PHP language and SQL in order to manage the corresponding database

An Interactive Web-based Application as Educational Tool for SCM Course by Using FOSS

This paper presents the application of free/open source software (FOSS) for teaching and learning one specific topic in Supply Chain Management (SCM) course. In the last few years, there is abundant FOSS for educational tools. However, educator still faces problems to implement such an education FOSS for improving the quality of education i.e. customizing of software function, developing of a specific educational media, and illustrating of a course content. The purpose of this research is to design an educational tool for increasing efficiency in conveying subject matter especially distribution problem. It has a module of real distribution problem in commodity paddy was captured. We crated an interactive Web-based application by using WSDL, PHP and My SQL, and SOAP. The result of the research will be able to improve the pedagogic approach for learning of SCM course. Keywords: Educational tool, FOSS, interactive media, SCM course

Improving the Power Electronics Laboratory teaching/learning process: an interactive web tool

European Higher Education Area; Power Electronics Laboratory; educational methods Resumen: The forthcoming European Higher Education Area implies an important change in the teaching/learning process: it is necessary to get students more involved as well as to promote their independence and active participation. To achieve this objective, the new teaching methodologies aimed at more effective and appropriate learning for professional practice involve the use of audiovisual, computer and multimedia tools on the part of lecturers. Therefore, a web tool, based on a content management system, has been developed for the teaching in Power Electronics Laboratory. Moreover, the use of these multimedia tools makes possible to promote the students independence. Finally, the use of this web tool results in a very significant increase in the motivation students.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Designing an Open Virtual Factory of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises for Industrial Engineering Education

Curriculum of Industrial Engineering program must accomplish the requirement that graduates have the ability to design, develop, implement, and improve integrated system that include people, materials, equipment and energy. However, it is not easy to implement a curriculum that fosters such competencies. One of the strategies to achieve that is using an innovative learning media, so that the problem-based learning (PBL) can be accustomed. In this paper, we design a web-based enterprise resources planning. It is aimed to capture the real problem of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in bottled drinking water industries. The integrated system can be illustrated as ERP application that designed by using free open source software (FOSS). This research aimed to utilize the application to improve teaching methods in IE education. The result of the research can be used to improve the competencies of IE students, especially the abilities to identify, formulate, and solve the activities of the business process improvement in SMEs. Keywords Industrial engineering education, FOSS, innovative learning media, problem-based learnin

Reverse Engineering Environment for Teaching Secure Coding in Java

Few toolsets for program analysis and Java learning system provide an integrated console, debugger, and reverse engineered visualizer. We present an interactive debugging environment for Java which helps students to understand the secure coding by detecting and visualizing the data flow anomaly. Previous research shows that the earlier students learn secure coding concepts, even at the same time as they first learn to write code, the better they will continue using secure coding practices. This paper proposes web-based Java programming environment for teaching secure coding practices which provides the essential and fundamental skills in secure coding. Also, this tool helps students to understand the data anomaly and security leak with detecting vulnerabilities in given code.Cockrell School of Engineerin

A tool-mediated cognitive apprenticeship approach for a computer engineering course

Teaching database engineers involves a variety of learning activities. A strong focus is on practical problems that go beyond the acquisition of knowledge. Skills and experience are equally important. We propose a virtual apprenticeship model for the knowledge- and skillsoriented Web-based education of database students. We adapt the classical cognitive apprenticeship theory to the Web context utilising scaffolding and activity theory. The choice of educational media and the forms of student interaction with the media are central success criteria