Enabling remote design and troubleshooting experiments using the ilab shared architecture

12th Biennial International Conference on Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Challenging Environments; and Fourth NASA/ARO/ASCE Workshop on Granular Materials in Lunar and Martian Exploration Honolulu, Hawaii, United States March 14-17, 2010The MIT iLab Project is dedicated to the goal of increasing laboratory experimentation opportunities for engineering students worldwide. Since its inception in 1998, the project has furthered this goal through the development of individual remote laboratories, or iLabs, as well as a distributed software infrastructure designed to streamline the implementation and sharing of remote laboratories. iLabs are designed to complement traditional, hands-on laboratories by providing practical educational experiences where they would not otherwise be available. Such remote labs, developed and hosted by MIT and other institutions within the iLab Consortium, have been successfully used by instructors at schools across the educational spectrum and around the world. While certainly valuable, many of the original experiments available through the iLab platform provide a limited experience in that they are observational in nature. They only provide students the ability to study the behavior of a pre-defined system under test. Such labs have proven to be valuable additions to engineering curricula, but do not have the flexibility that is inherent in a traditional laboratory experience. To address this, the MIT iLab Project has begun focusing on the development of iLabs that provide students with the ability to design or troubleshoot experimental systems. Through two particular remote labs, focusing on electronic control system analysis and basic electronics test and measurement respectively, the project is designing remote labs that provide a more flexible learning experience for students and are more attractive to instructors in a broad set of disciplines.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (award 0702735)Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology CenterMicrosoft CorporationCarnegie Corporation of New YorkMaricopa County Community College District. Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Cente

Collaborative development of remote electronics laboratories in the ELVIS ilab

Remote laboratories represent a significant value to engineering curricula in a variety of cases. Whether it is a complement to a hands-on experience or a substitute when a traditional lab is not feasible, remote laboratories can be a valuable educational resource. Since 1998, the MIT iLab Project has worked to increase the quality and availability of remote laboratories. Using the iLab Shared Architecture, developers of new labs can leverage a set of generic support functions and then share those labs easily and with minimal administrative cost. More recently, the iLab Project, in partnership with Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, Makerere University in Uganda and the University of Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania and in coordination with the Maricopa Advanced Technology Education Center (MATEC), has focused on building iLabs around the National Instruments Educational Laboratory Virtual Instrumentation Suite (ELVIS) platform. The ELVIS is a low-cost, small-footprint unit that contains most of the common test instruments found in a typical electrical engineering lab. By coupling the ELVIS with iLabs, a variety of remote electronics laboratories can be built and shared around the world. Using this common hardware/software platform, participants in the iLab Project at different levels of the educational spectrum have developed experiments that meet their individual curricular needs and are able to host them for use by other peer institutions. Not only does this increase the variety of ELVISbased iLabs, but it also spurs the creation of teams that can then build other, more diverse iLabs and substantively participate in project-wide collaborative development efforts. Through such coordinated efforts, iLabs can provide rich practical experiences for studentsMaricopa County Community College District. Maricopa Advanced Technology Education CenterCarnegie Corporation of New YorkMicrosoft CorporationNational Science Foundation (U.S.) (award 0702735)Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology Cente

Collaborative Virtual 3D Environment for Internet-Accessible Physics Experiments

Abstractâ??Immersive 3D worlds have increasingly raised the interest of researchers and practitioners for various learning and training settings over the last decade. These virtual worlds can provide multiple communication channels between users and improve presence and awareness in the learning process. Consequently virtual 3D environments facilitate collaborative learning and training scenarios. In this paper we focus on the integration of internet-accessible physics experiments (iLabs) combined with the TEALsim 3D simulation toolkit in Project Wonderland, Sun's toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Within such a collaborative environment these tools provide the opportunity for teachers and students to work together as avatars as they control actual equipment, visualize physical phenomenon generated by the experiment, and discuss the results. In particular we will outline the steps of integration, future goals, as well as the value of a collaboration space in Wonderland's virtual world

Collaborative virtual 3d environment for internet-accessible physics experiments. iJOE, 5(S1):65–71,

Abstract-Immersive 3D worlds have increasingly raised the interest of researchers and practitioners for various learning and training settings over the last decade. These virtual worlds can provide multiple communication channels between users and improve presence and awareness in the learning process. Consequently virtual 3D environments facilitate collaborative learning and training scenarios. In this paper we focus on the integration of internetaccessible physics experiments (iLabs) combined with the TEALsim 3D simulation toolkit in Project Wonderland, Sun's toolkit for creating collaborative 3D virtual worlds. Within such a collaborative environment these tools provide the opportunity for teachers and students to work together as avatars as they control actual equipment, visualize physical phenomenon generated by the experiment, and discuss the results. In particular we will outline the steps of integration, future goals, as well as the value of a collaboration space in Wonderland's virtual world

Three Online Neutron Beam Experiments Based on the iLab Shared Architecture

Students at MIT have traditionally executed certain experiments in the containment building of the MIT nuclear reactor as part of courses in Nuclear Engineering and the third year laboratory course for Physics majors. A joint team of faculty and research staff from the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory (MIT-NRL) and MIT’s Center for Educational Computing Initiatives have implemented online versions of three classic experiments; (a) a determination of MIT reactor coolant temperature through measurement of thermal neutron velocity, (b) a demonstration of the DeBroglie relationship of the kinetic energy and momentum of thermal neutrons and study of Bragg diffraction through a single copper crystal at various orientations, and (c) a measurement of beam depletion using a variety of shielding filters. These online experiments were implemented using the LabVIEW® virtual instrumentation package and the interactive version of the iLab Shared Architecture (ISA). Initial assessment of the online experiments indicates that they achieve comparable educational outcomes to traditional versions of the labs executed in the reactor containment building

Three Online Neutron Beam Experiments Based on the iLab Shared Architecture

Students at MIT have traditionally executed certain experiments in the containment building of the MIT nuclear reactor as part of courses in Nuclear Engineering and the third year laboratory course for Physics majors. A joint team of faculty and research staff from the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory (MIT-NRL) and MITâ??s Center for Educational Computing Initiatives have implemented online versions of three classic experiments; (a) a determination of MIT reactor coolant temperature through measurement of thermal neutron velocity, (b) a demonstration of the DeBroglie relationship of the kinetic energy and momentum of thermal neutrons and study of Bragg diffraction through a single copper crystal at various orientations, and (c) a measurement of beam depletion using a variety of shielding filters. These online experiments were implemented using the LabVIEW® virtual instrumentation package and the interactive version of the iLab Shared Architecture (ISA). Initial assessment of the online experiments indicates that they achieve comparable educational outcomes to traditional versions of the labs executed in the reactor containment building

A Versatile Internet-Accessible Electronics Workbench with Troubleshooting Capabilities

The MIT iLab Project was established to expand the range of laboratory experiences available to students in science and engineering education. iLabs are online laboratories that enable students to conduct real experiments remotely. Recently, the iLab Project has focused on building remote laboratories around the NI-ELVIS platform, an all-in-one electronics workbench. This paper will detail our recent efforts in expanding the capabilities of ELVIS-based iLabs by enabling students to test and debug digital and analog circuits. This work will enable students to perform remote experiments characterizing digital logic elements. By merging switching capabilities with the Digital Multimeter available on the ELVIS, students will have the ability to examine and troubleshoot circuits. These added capabilities will provide educators and students with unparalleled flexibility and significantly enrich the remote laboratory experience

A Versatile Internet-Accessible Electronics Workbench with Troubleshooting Capabilities

The MIT iLab Project was established to expand the range of laboratory experiences available to students in science and engineering education. iLabs are online laboratories that enable students to conduct real experiments remotely. Recently, the iLab Project has focused on building remote laboratories around the NI-ELVIS platform, an all-in-one electronics workbench. This paper will detail our recent efforts in expanding the capabilities of ELVIS-based iLabs by enabling students to test and debug digital and analog circuits. This work will enable students to perform remote experiments characterizing digital logic elements. By merging switching capabilities with the Digital Multimeter available on the ELVIS, students will have the ability to examine and troubleshoot circuits. These added capabilities will provide educators and students with unparalleled flexibility and significantly enrich the remote laboratory experience