Remotely Accessible Dynamical Systems Laboratory

Currently, higher education in general and engineering education in particular are undergoing significant structural changes worldwide. The rapidly evolving technological landscape forces educators to constantly reassess the content of engineering curricula in the context of emerging fields. 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.

Stevens Institute of Technology is currently in a phase of dynamic transformations of both its undergraduate and graduate educational offerings. A variety of initiatives to establish distance learning and virtual classroom offerings are currently being launched. In addition, Stevens has recently implemented a new undergraduate engineering curriculum that reflects the latest trend towards enhancement of traditional lecture-based courses with both a design spine and a laboratory experience propagating through the entire educational program. In the course of the curriculum development, it was recognized that the incorporation of design and laboratory components into all engineering courses places a significant strain on the spatial, temporal and fiscal resources of the institute. In order to accommodate the anticipated student enrollment, an open student laboratory approach was developed and implemented.

The remote laboratory system can be accessed at the following URL:
http://dynamics.soe.stevens-tech.edu/

Open Laboratory Approach
The open laboratory approach is founded on Internet-based, remotely accessible experimental setups. It is designed to complement the existing traditional laboratories where students gain valuable hands-on experimental experience during regular laboratory hours. In this open 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 as shown below. The traditional closed educational laboratory setup, where students first spend time in the laboratory facility and then conclude the laboratory by a report written outside of class, is not an arrangement that is particularly conducive to learning. The open, remotely accessible laboratories developed at Stevens appear to be a better alternative where students can return at any time to repeat and refine their experiments. Initially, the first portion of the experiments can be carried out on-site during regular laboratory hours while additional repetitions or extensions of the experiments can then be left for remote exploration. Besides making the laboratories available to students at anytime from anywhere, this open approach also serves as the basis for the affordable integration of laboratory experiences into the lecture environment.

Impact
The open laboratory approach takes advantage of a variety of existing and emerging communication technologies. Its benefits are that:

• larger numbers of students can be exposed to a more comprehensive experimental experience,
• asynchronous learning is encouraged, which is especially suited to fit the needs of non-traditional,
• commuting part-time students,
• it promotes student self-learning,
• it captures the spirit and imagination of the students who nowadays tend to be increasingly
• technologically inclined,
• instructors are enabled to include demonstrations of laboratory experiments into their lectures,
• the strain on laboratory class schedules is alleviated significantly, and
• budgetary constraints are overcome.

Contact
Dr. Sven Esche
Professor
Stevens Institute of Technology
Edwin A. Stevens Hall, Room E-306
Castle Point on Hudson
Hoboken, NJ 07030
phone: 201.216.5559
fax: 201.216.8315

Open Laboratory Approach
The open laboratory approach is founded on Internet-based, remotely accessible experimental setups. It is designed to complement the existing traditional laboratories where students gain valuable hands-on experimental experience during regular laboratory hours. In this open 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 as shown below. The traditional closed educational laboratory setup, where students first spend time in the laboratory facility and then conclude the laboratory by a report written outside of class, is not an arrangement that is particularly conducive to learning. The open, remotely accessible laboratories developed at Stevens appear to be a better alternative where students can return at any time to repeat and refine their experiments. Initially, the first portion of the experiments can be carried out on-site during regular laboratory hours while additional repetitions or extensions of the experiments can then be left for remote exploration. Besides making the laboratories available to students at anytime from anywhere, this open approach also serves as the basis for the affordable integration of laboratory experiences into the lecture environment.

Technical Realization of Remote Laboratory
The open laboratory approach presented here was realized using a client-server network architecture that allows the concurrent execution of multiple experiments using separate experimental setups.
Experiments that require the same setup are queued and executed in the order of the incoming requests. The connection from the laboratory to the outside world is established using a Linux-enabled web server. This server hosts the process queue, the data input and output files generated, and the graphical user interface that was developed using conventional HTML pages, Java applets, and CGI/Perl scripts. The web server is networked to individual data acquisition terminals running Windows NT. These terminals execute LabVIEW VI scripts that control the experiments and report the experimental results back to the web server.

After downloading the main web page of the online laboratory using any web browser, the user first selects a particular experiment from the list of available offerings. Then the user fills out the corresponding input form, which contains some personal information (name, affiliation, e-mail address) as well as the necessary input data for the experiment. Subsequently, the user receives an e-mail message, which provides the estimated execution time for the experiment, the necessary access code and URL where the output data (numerical results in ASCII format, video file in real media format) can be retrieved at any time after the completion of the experiment. The numerical data can finally be imported into any software that the user selects for postprocessing purposes. Replaying the video file requires the RealPlayer software that is distributed by RealNetworks.

Currently, the following four systems have been implemented: a one-degree-of-freedom mechanical vibration system, a duct acoustic system, a liquid-level system and various electrical circuits based on operational amplifiers. Schematics of the currently existing systems are shown below. The development of further experimental setups is presently underway.

Mechanical Vibration System

Muffler System
Liquid-Level System

Electrical System