Developing Next-Generation Engineers -. IMPACTS

dynamical systems, 2002

Currently, engineering education is undergoing significant structural changes worldwide. The rapidly changing technological landscape forces educators to constantly reassess the content of engineering curricula in the context of emerging fields and with a multidisciplinary focus. In this process, it is necessary to devise, implement and evaluate innovative pedagogical approaches for the incorporation of these novel subjects into the educational programs without compromising the cultivation of the traditional skills. In this framework, modern information technology based on the Internet is rapidly being adopted in engineering education as a tool for enhancing the educational experience of students residing on campus as well as to expand the reach of unique programs beyond the local campus through distance learning. Stevens Institute of Technology is currently in a dynamic phase of transforming all its educational offerings. It has recently adopted a new undergraduate engineering curriculum with both a design spine and a laboratory experience propagating through the entire educational program. A student laboratory that is founded on Internet-based, remotely accessible experimental setups was developed and implemented. In this approach, the students' experimental experience is greatly expanded by allowing them to not only use the experimental facilities in the traditional on-site fashion but also to remotely access the computer controlled laboratory setup of interest through the Internet, thus making the laboratories available at anytime from anywhere. This paper presents an initial assessment of the experiences gained from the implementation of the remotely accessible laboratory into a sophomorelevel core course on dynamical systems and a junior-year elective course on mechanisms and machine dynamics. In addition, it analyzes the advantages and shortcomings of such remote laboratories.

In this paper, the development of virtual and remote laboratory (VR-Lab) for the enhancement of Engineering Technology (ET) program is presented. By utilizing the latest Information Technology, the VR-Lab is established through the setting up of an Internet-based laboratory for interactive learning. Faculties from two Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) collaborate on this project, with the aim of revamping some existing laboratories with virtual and remote functionalities. The objectives of this effort are to improve the learning of underrepresented student population in the ET program; provide a platform to publish the VR-Lab courseware developed in senior projects; promote inter-institutional collaboration by developing and sharing VR-Lab courseware; develop faculty expertise through research and teaching initiatives; and disseminate results and findings of the project to other universities and colleges. In this paper, the authors intend to demonstrate their research plans as well as their latest progress in the NSF Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Type 1 project.

2011

Remote Engineering is one of the future directions for advanced teleworking/e-working environments not only in engineering and science (economics, informatics), but also in all other fields affecting society. In the last decade, considerable advances have been made regarding the design and development of remote and virtual laboratories, but it requires a lot of new specialists. As an attempt to improve the situation, several European universities started a joint Master Study Program in Remote Engineering (MARE) including in its curriculum a course of "Rapid Prototyping of Digital Systems" designed by the Ilmenau University of Technology in Germany. This course required an extensive use of laboratory equipment to carry out several exercises and therefore the implementation of an Online Lab turned out to be a good solution to ensure better learning outcomes.

Advances in Higher Education and Professional Development, 2019

This chapter considers the current state, types, and relevance of modern virtual laboratories, virtual practices, and training in higher engineering education. The four types of virtual laboratories are considering. This work also offers examples of virtual scientific and engineering processes simulation laboratories and virtual remote laboratories, virtual practices, and internship. It analyzes the experience of universities and companies in the virtual laboratories, virtual practices, and internship. Particularly interesting for online learning platforms are the virtual laboratories of edX and the National Platform for Open Education. Finally, the chapter provides recommendations on the development of shared knowledge centers for collective use of virtual installations and laboratories, on ways of remote participation in collaborative work with real unique installations, and on participation in the distributed research unique installations and data processing tools. The authors al...

Design, Control and Applications of Mechatronic Systems in Engineering, 2017

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.

Computers & Education, 2007

Economic pressures on universities and the emergence of new technologies have spurred the creation of new systems for delivering engineering laboratories in education, in particular simulations and remoteaccess laboratory systems. Advocates of simulation argue that physical labs needlessly consume university space and students' time. However, proponents of hands-on laboratories argue that student engineers should be exposed to real environments. Remote laboratories have appeared as a third option. These laboratories are similar to simulation techniques in that they require minimal space and time, because the experiments can be rapidly configured and run over the Internet. But unlike simulations, they provide real data. Studying the relative effectiveness of these modes of delivering student laboratories is complex, for the underlying technology of the laboratory is just one of many possible factors that could influence effectiveness. For example, the interface to the equipment may be of importance, as might the discussions students have among themselves. This paper presents a model for testing the relative effectiveness of engineering laboratories in education that takes account of these and other factors. The results are presented for an assessment study comparing versions of remote labs versus hands-on labs in a junior-level mechanical engineering course on machine dynamics and mechanisms. The results suggest that students learned lab content infor

Advances on remote laboratories and e-learning experiences, 2007

Very often, the concepts of learning and teaching appear somehow mixed together although their use emphasizes who is considered to be at the center of the process. At European level, Bologna Declaration has put the emphasis on the “What students do?” paradigm, shifting the center of the process to the student. Such paradigm also supports life long learning objectives. The remote laboratory concept provides a tool to sustain this shift towards a student-centric teaching approach. However, within engineering education, this ...