A Virtual Educational Laboratory for Tele communications Engineering

Abstract

A fundamental requirement in 
professional engineering courses is the 
establishment of a large number of 
hands-on activities that allow students to 
practice and validate all of the analytical 
concepts and techniques they have 
learned in theoretical courses using tools 
and measurement systems in a 
laboratory. Unfortunately, fulfilling this 
requirement presents a number of 
challenges. The lack of big capacity 
classrooms with measuring 
instruments—which are often highly 
costly and must be constantly dispersed 
to create several work desks—is likely 
the first of these issues. Furthermore, 
educational labs may only be utilized 
during the hours specified in the 
semester timetable, provided they are 
accessible. It's also important to consider 
the possibility that inexperienced pupils 
might misuse costly equipment and 
cause harm. Since the mid-1990s, a 
group of educators at the University of 
Pisa's Engineering College have 
dedicated themselves to creating 
multimedia teaching activities in an 
effort to address the aforementioned 
issues and facilitate the more efficient 
teaching of technical courses [1]. Within 
the context of the Bachelor and Master 
Degree Programs in 
Telecommunications Engineering, they 
have developed a project to realize an 
educational virtual laboratory that will 
be utilized for professional discipline 
experiments [2]. The suggested teaching 
strategy is predicated on a collection of 
appropriate software interfaces known as 
virtual instruments (VIs), which can 
mimic or simulate hardware instruments. 
This makes it a strong and alluring 
substitute for traditional laboratory 
practice, which necessitates a significant 
amount of (expensive) hardware 
equipment. The objective  
Therefore, the goal of the project is to 
enable students to conduct experiments 
without the need of measuring tools, 
either at home or in their college  
 
laboratories. The team of teachers used 
National Instrument's