An online lab to support a master program in remote engineering

Abstract

Remote Engineering is one of the future directions for advanced teleworking/e-working environments not only in engineering and science (economics, informatics), but also in all other fields affecting society. In the last decade, considerable advances have been made regarding the design and development of remote and virtual laboratories, but it requires a lot of new specialists. As an attempt to improve the situation, several European universities started a joint Master Study Program in Remote Engineering (MARE) including in its curriculum a course of "Rapid Prototyping of Digital Systems" designed by the Ilmenau University of Technology in Germany. This course required an extensive use of laboratory equipment to carry out several exercises and therefore the implementation of an Online Lab turned out to be a good solution to ensure better learning outcomes.