Simulation tools, computers, and the Internet are transforming our instructional methods and the ways students learn. This project integrates existing measurement equipment, computers and simulation software, with new power supplies, multimeters, and function generators in the main undergraduate Electronics Laboratory allowing the instruments to be controlled by computer and accessed via the Web. Using the LabVIEW environment and computer network, students will simulate, measure, and collect data automatically in a wide variety of experiments and easily share data across the network with team members and instructors. The new laboratory will be heavily used in over nine different undergraduate laboratory courses in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Curricula. By using LabVIEW's Internet components, and existing Win NT server, the stations will be configured to be controlled through the Web as we investigate remote laboratory experiences for non-traditional students, local High Schools, and junior college pre-engineering students. This project goes beyond simply automating data collection, but rather will provide a laboratory course sequence, which builds on student's measurement and communication skills throughout the curriculum. Specifically, the goals of this laboratory curriculum are: (1) to improve the quality and the capability of the Electronics Laboratory in support of critical measurements on electronic circuits and devices, (2) to provide the capability to efficiently analyze and interpret real data against simulation and theory, (3) to teach new measurement techniques including data acquisition concepts, (4) to facilitate team projects with an integrated measurement and communication network, and (5) to enable remote access to state- of-the-art electronics measurement facilities to benefit non-traditional, high school and pre-engineering students.
