During the summer of the pandemic, after the initial government lockdown prevented our students from accessing our labs, MEE gave lots of consideration to why we put on practical classes, given they are some of the most resource intensive teaching to deliver. We are now fairly comfortable with our conclusion that practical classes are critical to the effective training of engineers and are irreplaceable. When we were forced to temporarily suspend access to our workshops and laboratories, the team in MEE developed categories of tactics that can be deployed to deliver remote practicals. While some of these tactics have advantages over face to face teaching, such as simulations being flexible for the student and easily scalable to large cohorts, mostly we are attempting to mitigate the loss of the in-lab learning by replicating it as closely as possible. Of the tactics we developed, only two provide students the ability to particulate in performing “real” experiments, which we called “Performing procedure in an alternative environment” and “Synchronous remote participation”. Performing procedure in an alternative environment is great, and we have had a great deal of success with posting physically compact and somewhat inexpensive activities out to students to perform at home. But this approach generally isn’t feasible if the kit is too big, expensive or dangerous to post. And big, expensive and dangerous experiments are part of what makes Engineering fun.
There are two broad methods that can be used with synchronous remote participation. The first is to have a staff member working with students to live stream an experiment conducted in the lab. But this generates an inherent tension. Working with small groups of students allows active participation is extremely costly in staff time in order to repeat multiple times for large cohorts. Broadcasting a smaller number of repetitions to large groups of students reduces the ability for everyone to participate.
Figure 1: left) a computer controlled wind tunnel in the Fluids Engineering lab in the Diamond and right) interface on the computer to control wind tunnel and read instrumentation.
The second method, and the one that we are particularly excited about, is allowing students to participate in conducting real experiments remotely using telemetry, i.e. the ability to measure things remotely. But how can this be achieved? Some of the more sophisticated experiments we run in The Diamond involve a computer for data acquisition or control of the equipment. For example, in our Fluids Engineering lab, we have computer controlled wind tunnels, as shown in figure 1. Students come into the laboratory to test aerodynamic specimens, such as aerofoils, by interacting with the computer connected to the wind tunnel, as illustrated in figure 2.
Figure 2: Illustration of a student accessing the computer controlled experiment in the laboratory.
When students were not allowed to come into the laboratory, it seemed a reasonably quick win to use the Universities remote desktop infrastructure to allow students to access the same computer that controls the wind tunnel from a remote location, as illustrated in figure 3. We even set up a webcam so the experiments could be viewed while it was running. The experience isn’t quite a visceral as being in the same room, hearing the fan whir, but it’s pretty good. It allows students to dictate the procedure, see realtime cause and effect and generate real experimental data.
Figure 3: Illustration of a student accessing the same computer controlled experiment in the laboratory, from a remote location.
But many experiments aren’t that sophisticated and rely on students operating controls, such as a valve, or instrumentation, such as a thermometer, that isn’t connected to a computer. Part of the justification for stand alone controls and instruments is pedagogical. There may be a particular sensation you get from specific equipment or a technique that is commonly in industry that students would benefit from being exposed to. But one of the major reasons is cost and simplicity. Buying multiple copies of computer controlled equipment, as well as the computers themselves, is more expensive. Having to turn on a computer
The work presented by Dr Krys Bangert, senior engineering technician in the Fluids lab of the Diamond, at
#dryLabsRealScience network on the 3rd of March challenges the idea that turning existing experiments from stand alone to computer connected has to be costly and complex.
Before lockdown, Krys was involved with a project led by Dr Adam Funnell, the academic lead for computing, control and electronic engineering in The Diamond, where Bioengineering students build their own low-cost IoT
bioreactors. Here, IoT stands for “internet of things”, which is a popular term used to describe the embedding of computers and internet connectivity into objects that wouldn’t have traditionally contained this, such as a
doorbell or
flipflops. Because of the upsurge in demand for all manner of IoT products, hardware and software technologies to support these devices are being increasingly accessible, both financially and in terms of the learning curve.
Figure 4: Student built bioreactor
These bioreactors are capable of measuring temperature and pH, and controlling lighting, stirring and heat. Any other parameter, such as flow rate, pressure...etc, that can be measured with a digital sensor could be incorporated into a system such as this.
The “brains” that control the flow of data and the operation of the reactors is the ESP32 programmable chip. These are low cost (around £20 at the time of writing), low power computers which are popular with hobbyists. The crucial feature of this particular microcontroller is that it comes with wifi and Bluetooth connectivity, meaning that it can be communicated with remotely.
Building on this approach, we considered how other teaching activities we run could be adapted to provide to students remote access to real experiments. In the Fluids Engineering, we have 20 “hydraulic benches”, which supply water from a reservoir using a pump, onto which a variety of fluid mechanics experiments can be conducted. Our vision is to use the capability of IoT to adapt the benches so that all of the existing instrumentation, both analogue and digital, is modified, so that controls and instrumentation are accessible remotely. The intention isn’t to remove the analogue measurement and physical operation, but to allow these to coexist with digital control and sensing, so either can be used.
Figure 5: Hydraulic benches left) Existing and right) proposed
Our strategy here is not limited to use during a pandemic or to replace face to face access to laboratory equipment. Remote labs are less effective and enjoyable and their face to face equivalents. The objective of the IoT hydraulics bench is to maximize student access to the specialist facilities. Post covid, students could make use of the lab 9am-5pm, while others could be using it 5pm-9am, while we are not there. There are opportunities to enhance the experience of University of Sheffield students to reinforce activities they have performed in the lab, use the learning to revise for labs or catch up on classes they have missed. But as well there is opportunity to open the laboratories up to students all over the world, for the purposes of public engagement or widening participation. Can you think of any other uses for a remote access lab?
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