Aug. 18, 1998
Contact: Leila Belkora
(312) 996-3457
[email protected]
REMOTE-CONTROL LAB MAKES EXPERIMENTS FUN FOR STUDENTS WORLD OVER
It's midnight, and the lights are out at the University of Illinois at Chicago's engineering research facility. In a room housing a collection of computers and instruments known as the Interactive Electronics Laboratory, a computer responds to a command from a high school student in Australia.
Using an assortment of transistors, resistors, diodes and switches, the computer wires together an electrical circuit as specified by the student. It then applies a test voltage and measures the resulting current and voltage at various points around the circuit. Seconds later, a graph shows the results of the experiment on the student's screen, helping her understand the function of the voltage applied to one of the transistor's gates.
This scenario is now possible thanks to technology developed by UIC associate professor of electrical engineering David Naylor and research programmer Stephan Werges. Their unique instructional laboratory allows students anywhere in the world to experiment with real circuit elements - not simulations - through a web-based application ( http://www.mal.uic.edu/marble ).
"There's nothing else like it on the Internet," said Naylor. "Other remote-control experiments tend to be very specialized, like those to operate an astronomical telescope in a limited way, or else the applications are not publicly available. The system I'm currently using in my class deals with electronic circuits, but in principle it could be an opto-electronics lab, a micro-electro-mechanical systems lab or a number of types of labs."
Although advanced students will eventually have to learn to wire circuits themselves, said Naylor, the Interactive Electronics Laboratory offers distinct advantages over a traditional laboratory set-up, beyond the benefit of focusing students' attention on the subject instead of the equipment. Students can learn at their own pace, from any computer with a web browser. They can modify circuits more quickly than they could at a workbench; in a hands-on lab, it takes about half an hour to change a transistor and repeat an experiment, said Naylor, while the interactive lab can do it in a few seconds.
And, students with disabilities will be able to use the interactive laboratory on par with their non-disabled peers.
"The software for the java applet - the program display - has a lot of 'hooks' in it," Naylor said.
"The hooks connect to additional software tools to help people with disabilities."
Students do not need to understand the behavior of electronic devices to run the program; Naylor hopes students will use the program in part to just "play around" and learn through trial and error.
"It came as a shock to me to learn that many students don't enjoy their laboratory experience," said Naylor, who says he loved his own electronics classes in school. "I noticed that many have had a bad experience in the past with equipment not working properly. Their focus is on doing the minimum required - they have limited time but also a fear of the equipment. I want to encourage them to explore the subject in more depth."
The system includes a server that physically runs the experiment, a client that passes along circuit drawing instructions and data, electronic devices and software tools. Werges has worked two years, full-time, to write the software.
The Interactive Electronics Laboratory uses a specialized programming language known as "SPICE," which is widely used in the electronics industry, to encode students' choice of electrical circuit in computer-readable form. All the students see, however, is a palette of electronic devices from which to chose by a click of the mouse button.
Naylor hopes teachers at high schools, community colleges and universities will develop instructional material based on his technology and that they will be able to use the interactive laboratory in conjunction with standard electronics textbooks.
"Many of my colleagues are excited about the laboratory," he said. "Their first response is generally that it's 'kinda neat,' but they don't get the full impact until they see it being used. Then they see its potential."
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