A laboratory development area with a high potential
for the future is the expanded use of computers integrated with lab
instruments. In this environment students can learn to use instruments either directly, or via computer control. They also can learn about system design
issues involving computer-controlled instrumentation. Currently such systems
are used in one senior-level design course (EE 413), but the potential exists
for a broader deployment that includes some lower level courses.
Computer-controlled instrumentation could provide a
number of advantages over a traditional approach. Automated acquisition would
save student time during an experiment. This would permit a greater depth of
study, allowing either more measurements and/or experiments to be made within
one lab period. Computer-based acquisition also improves the accuracy of data
plots, eliminates transcription errors, and reduces the possibility of
“fudging” measurements to match the expected theoretical results. Improved
visualization of experimental data and more professional quality lab
reports could also be achieved using this approach.
When
considering this style of lab environment, an
awareness must be given to the 'Garbage-In / Garbage-Out' mentality. This can
be guarded against in a number of ways. For example, requiring critical
assessments and interpretation of data, and asking for interpolated values and
extrapolated values. These kinds of requirements force a closer examination of
acquired data and it’s meaning, as do comparisons against theory or
estimation of model parameters from the collected data. It would also be possible to
predefine limits on measurements in such a way that faulty circuits yield no
acquired data at all. With this type of configuration, students can't ignore
errors in their experimental setups.
A site license for LabVIEW has been procured to
support the development of computer-based data collection. To date, some
development has been done in the LabVIEW environment to support an experiment
on BJT characteristics. Another on-going effort is the development of an
inexpensive parallel port interface for use with LabVIEW. This will be
suitable for acquisition, processing and display of digital signals. This is a
step towards an integrated workbench suitable for both analog and digital
experiments.
Currently CSC, CPE and EE students use computers
interfaced to digital instrumentation in the Digital System Design Lab (Rm.
20-100). We would also like to expose the CSC students to some analog
instrumentation via the computer-based lab benches described above. This could
be done on a small scale by introducing 2 such benches into this lab. This
meets a practical need, allowing simple measurements to be made during
debugging. It also has the broader educational impact of introducing this type
of instrumentation to Computer Science students.
