LabVIEW: A Teaching Tool for Engineering Courses

Computer programming in languages such as Visual Basic, C++, or JAVA follow a control flow model of program execution. In the control flow model, the sequential order of program elements determines the execution order of a program. A program written in LabVIEW uses a slightly different approach compared to the conventional method known as dataflow programming. LabVIEW stands for Laboratory Virtual Instrument Engineering Workbench. This powerful graphical development system, developed by National Instruments (NI), is a widespread teaching tool and is used in many industries. LabVIEW can be used for data acquisition, machine control, instrument control, and a wide variety of other application needs. Programs written in LabVIEW are known as Virtual Instruments (VIs). A single VI consists of two parts: a front panel and a block diagram. The front panel consists of controls and indicators which include knobs, push buttons, graphs, and many other objects. The controls of the front panel are inputs into the VI while indicators are outputs from the VI. Away from the conventional programming model of line by line code execution, VI programs are based on data flow programming. This paper discusses the use of LabVIEW in the several engineering courses such as data microprocessors, communication, signal processing, programming languages, and digital circuits. Most of the examples presented in this paper were implemented on the microcontroller Stellaris LM3S8962 based on ARM processor. LabVIEW based classwork explained in this paper has been implemented in several courses and has helped students further their understandings on the fundamentals of computer hardware and software.