11 Skills and Attributes: Project and Program Effectiveness
Leadership Objective: Devise a vision, document and build it, present it, and publish it
Evidence: Presentation of Remote Lab Web Services at ASEE Conference (2009-2010)
At the end of my second year I had a research project idea that I took from envisaging to publishing and presenting. The idea was to develop a website that lets students acquire measurements from lab instruments remotely in real time, using standard browsers (e.g. Safari on an iPhone) without plugins. The idea met a need of my research advisor, Professor Eric Pop, who taught the theoretical solid-state electronics course, ECE 440. Professor Pop set the guidelines and let me loose with the support of another undergraduate student and the crticial counseling of a graduate student with lab instrument experience.
We christened our website and lab setup the "Remote Lab." I designed and programmed most of the Remote Lab, sharing my knowledge and working with my undergraduate research partner on the software. I coordinated with my graduate partner when needing hardware assistance. Over the course of the summer of 2009 we completed our Remote Lab software and lab setup, ready to submit an abstract to a conference. My abstract was accepted in fall 2009. I progressed the Remote Lab project by writing a paper on it and implementing its use as part of an ECE 440 assignment. I also made the software I wrote available as open source for others to use and build on.
While I developed a student assignment with Professor Pop, I also wrote the final paper and presentation for the Remote Lab study at the ASEE 2010 Conference. My presentation was received well by Web technology enthusiasts, university educators, and solid-state researchers. It was fulfilling to make it through all stages of a research idea that I largely shaped.