News from MIT (Jud is now a member of this group!)
Mark in TEDI
Subject: RE: iLab-LabView information
Dear Mark,
Phil asked me to contribute notes on recent developments, and I've
persuaded Jim Hardison to sit here with me while we bring you up to
date.
There is nothing going on in Singapore direcdtly related to iLabs
right now despite Phil Long's mention. Our collaboration with
Singapore may lead to a bridge between iLab and Grid architectures
eventually but at the moment it is all in the planning stage.
Our ELVIS work here is focusing on making each ELVIS instrument (e.g.,
oscillloscope, digital multimeter, signal generator, etc) accessible
through standard LabVIEW and an iLab batched lab server in addition to
the standalone ELVIS app that comes shrink-wrapped. We plan to use the
iLab version in the standard second year MIT circuits course (6.002).
We also plan to use it in a lab that we are building as part of a
small subcontract from a much larger NSF award to build a next
generation curriculum for two year community college electronics
programs. The prime on this is a consortium of such programs called
MATEC. The nice thing about this is it is an interesting combination
of MIT iLab technology combined with curricular materials from
elsewhere. We also hope this ELVIS LabVIEW work may provide a common
infrastructure for future labs developed by our three African partner
universities: Obafemi Awolowo University, Makerere University, and the
University of Dar es Salaam. OAU has already developed two ELVIS based
labs (an OpAmp lab and a digital logic lab), but their initial
approach to using the ELVIS while iLab-based, took a very different
approach to the one we described above. What are you folk doing with
the ELVIS?
Meanwhile, the MIT nuclear reactor has been building two LabVIEW-based
neutron beam experiments for over a year. The simpler is a comparison
of the neutron absorption properties of a variety of materials
including aluminum and polyethylene as I recall. The more
sophisticated one uses a copper crystal to diffract the neutron beam
by neutron energies illustrating the wave-like properties of the
neutrons (deBroglie diffraction as I believe the wonks call it). They
are having noise problems but once they are solved, we should be able
to make the lab remotely accessible quite quickly using the iLab
interactive architecture.
Finally, the standard MIT 2nd semester physics course will be using an
interactive iLab to allow students to explore properties of a magnet
in a Helmholtz coil driven by alternating current. The first trial
should be late this semester with a larger trial this spring.
Hope this helps. Let me know if we can supply any more information.
The article is close to final form. You should see a new version from
Meg by tomorrow. Thanks for your contribution, and I hope you will
comment on the current text. It sounds as if the work at UQ continues
to build. Phil and I are going to meet this week to try and see how we
can encourage NI to be more supportive. Who do you usually work with
from NI?
All the best,
Jud (and Jim)
-----
Judson Harward, Principal Research Scientist
Associate Director, Center for Educational Computing Initiatives
Bldg 9-317, MIT
j...@mit.edu, 617-253-7896
Ray White
The NI ELVIS platform that Mark passed on to me from MIT (many thanks) is currently being used to assist in the development of part an engine performance analysis system. I'm not entirely sure of the extent of the work performed so far on this project but I am looking to work with the Electronic Engineering guys to integrate it into a possible project next year involving wireless sensor design. I will keep you updated on this.
In response to the question regarding our contact at NI Oceania, we have organised our site license through Mr. Ganesh Ganeshkumar the Sales Manager/Snr. Applications Engineer for this area. At the campus LabVIEW launch on Wednesday (which was attended by approximately 50 people) his Managing Director Mr. Matej Krajnca announced that they were looking to provide internship oportunities for UQ students and possible funding for a students fees for a year but I don't have the full details yet. However, it would be great if we could get some assistance with the Hardware from NI as we are currently in the process of upgrading an array of Undergraduate laboratory practical experiments throughout the Engineering Divisions whilst also trying to build a repository of DAQ/instrumentation equipment for development purposes. This additional equipment would be available to the increasing number of personnel who are trying to improve research & experimental equipment and have now seen the versatility of (an have access to) LabVIEW in conjunction with iLAB. The equipment would enable them to prototype their solution without having to fund it first; A kind of "try before you buy" scenario and then, once finalised, provide some more "food" for iLab.
If you can encourage any further support from NI it would greatly assist this initiative and ultimately iLab, and would be a most welcome move.
Best regards,
Ray
Ray White
Instrumentation Laboratory Manager
School Of Engineering
The University Of Queensland
St Lucia, 4072. Australia.
* +61 7 3365 3989
* +61 7 3365 4799
* ray....@uq.edu.au
* www.uq.edu.au
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