On-Line Undergraduate Laboratories in Signal and Image Processing, Communications, and Controls

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Engineering - Electrical (55) Arizona State University is fully developing and evaluating a web-based undergraduate laboratory tool in the areas of undergraduate digital signal processing(DSP), communications, image processing and controls. We have already developed and successfully tested a prototype laboratory tool (J-DSP) for use in the undergraduate DSP class. This web-based prototype supports capabilities for online signal processing simulations and provides laboratory experiences to distance learning and on-campus undergraduate students. The tool is based on a collection of novel Java applets that support a user-friendly object oriented environment. This exemplary Java software supports a simulation environment that enables students to establish and execute experiments from any computer platform that is equipped with a web browser. This work provides significant extensions of the laboratory prototype to the other areas (communications, image processing and controls), an assessment and dissemination strategy that includes test sites, and a plan to sustain development, dissemination, and evaluation after the CCLI project. The prototype lab and the proposed extensions represent perhaps the first comprehensive effort to provide on-line lab experiences in distance learning environments. We anticipate that this novel concept can be extended to different types of subjects at different levels of education, e.g., on-line experiments at levels and topics ranging from high-school physics to community college science labs and college-level engineering subjects. The prototype J-DSP along with its proposed extensions to "hot" systems topics such as communications, image processing, and advanced controls will enable new web-course developers to seamlessly integrate online experiments to their web-course content.