Virtual Labs IIT Roorkee

What is Virtual Environment ?

Freedom for user to move in any direction and can do list of works not necessary sequentially.

What is Virtual Labs ?

Virtual laboratories allow students around the world to login to a computer based system and perform real time experiments in 3D environment.TheVirtual lab presents a unique opportunity to boost the quality of engineering education, deepen understanding, and provide the necessary practical skills to young minds through cost effective outreach and distance learning activities.The virtual Lab workbench, a grand venture of the National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) of the Ministry of Education(MOE),Government of India, to ensure that the students of each and every technical institute of India get an easy and effective access to the expensive laboratory instruments through virtualization of the lab equipment's available in various higher level Institutes.This venture provides any student with an opportunity to operate the instruments unavailable in their institute and conduct experiments from the comfort of his home through the medium of internet.The virtual Machine workbench is created and maintained by the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Roorkee.

Objective of the Virtual Labs

Rapid changes in the field of engineering technology have increased the need for universities to provide engineering and engineering technology students with meaningful and relevant practical experiences; however, in India, limited available resources in the provision of laboratory hardware and infrastructure have been the principal impediment in achieving this objective.One approach that can be implemented to overcome this problem is to expand learning activities to take advantage of online computer based technology.The Virtual lab presents a unique opportunity to boost the quality of engineering education, deepen understanding and provide the necessary practical skills to young minds through cost effective outreach and distance learning activities.

The Philosophy

Today most equipment has a computer interface for control and data storage.It is possible to design good experiments around some of this equipment which would enhance the learning of a student.Internet-based experimentation further permits use of resources, knowledge, software, and data available on the web, apart from encouraging skillful experiments being simultaneously performed at points separated in space (and possibly, time).

Salient Features

• Modeling the physical phenomenon by a set of equations and carrying out simulations to yield the result of the particular experiment.This can, at-the-best, provide an approximate version of the 'real-world' experiment.
• Providing measured data for virtual lab experiments corresponding to the data previously obtained by measurements on an actual system.
• Remotely triggering an experiment in an actual lab and providing the student the result of the experiment through the computer interface.This would entail carrying out the actual lab experiment remotely.
• Virtual Labs will be made more effective and realistic by providing additional inputs to the students like accompanying audio and video streaming of an actual lab experiment and equipment.