Virtual Labs for Improving Lab Accessibility

Laboratory experiments are a vital part of engineering education, which historically were considered impractical for distance learning. This book presents a guide for the practical employment of a heat transfer virtual lab for students and engineers. Inside, the authors have detailed this virtual lab which is designed and can implement a real-time, robust, and scalable software system that provides easy access to lab equipment anytime and anywhere over the Internet. They introduce and explain LabVIEW in easy-to-understand language. LabVIEW is a proprietary software tool by National Instruments, and can be used to develop fairly complex instrumentation systems (measurement and control). Fridman and Mahajan combined Internet capabilities with traditional laboratory exercises to create an ef cient environment to carry out interactive, on line lab experiments. Thus, the virtual lab can be used from a remote location as a part of a distance learning strategy. With this book, you'll be capable of executing VIs (Virtual Instruments) speci cally developed for the experiment in question, providing you with great ability to control the remote instrument and to receive and present the desired experimental data.

Ella Fridman, PhD, was assistant professor and graduate program director at University of Toledo until 2008 when she died in a car accident. She started as junior scientist at the Institute of Thermophysics of the Ukrainian Academy of Science. In 1989 Ella Fridman became a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and continued to work in the same Institute as senior scientists until 1990 when she immigrated to the United States.