Synchronous Experimentation via Web Access to Laboratories

To enhance the experiential learning aspects of engineering students and their access to scarce research equipment, a Machine Vision Laboratory was designed to be completely accessible via the Web 24/7. The student remote PC only required Internet Explorer 5.5 and NetMeeting 3.01 in order to fully utilize 2 workstations equipped with spectrometry and machine vision hardware and software, as well as controls for an X-Y translation stage used to position test samples. A detailed system design and integration with safety features is described herein. The student access times were typically spread out between 7 AM and 11 PM. The favorite login times were between noon and 2:30 PM and also between 4:30 and 5:30 PM, while the mean lab session length was about 55 minutes.