Engineering - Electrical (55) Engineering education is closely linked to advances in Internet, global communication systems, computers, etc. There is one area in engineering education, however, that is still dominated by classical teaching/learning methodology: the laboratory. The purpose of an engineering laboratory course is to teach future engineers to interact with the "real hardware"in all its imperfection. Any attempt to replace the "real hardware" in a student laboratory with the most elaborate simulation software results in the loss of realism and prevents students from gaining important practical skills and experiences. The technology in this project utilizes advanced space-qualified laser positioning hardware equipped with computer interfaces facilitating remote operation and status display of its components. All aspects of operation of this hardware are controlled by a designated computer through a number of actuators and extensive monitoring/data acquisition. We gain global accessibility of the "real hardware" via the Internet thus allowing remote users nationwide to perform any experiments in real-time and collect feedback information representing properties of the actual devices. This brings to a student laboratory the most valuable aspects of the "real hardware"-based experiments. The choice of laboratory, laser steering and position control systems for space communication make it attractive to many engineering programs. Successful implementation of this technology can upgrade engineering laboratories nationwide to the level of leading engineering schools and result in significant improvement of the quality of engineering education and reduce variability between universities. SUNY Binghamton has a well-established record of successful research in the area of pedagogy of university education. Its distance learning facility, Enginet, operates within a network made up of a consortium of five State University of New York campuses. These resources are utilized for effective dissemination of the results of this project. Being prompted by revolutionary changes in information technology, this project is realizing the integration of this technology in education. Implementation of the Internet-accessible laboratory will not only give students access to the most advanced hardware, but provide them with an additional opportunity to utilize Internet, computer graphics, and digital imaging, thus preparing them for the challenges of their profession.
