The Union Minister for Human Resource
Development, Government of India today launched Virtual Labs — a collection of
ninety-one virtual laboratories containing hundreds of experiments in nine
disciplines of science and engineering. As part of Ministry of Human Resource Development(MHRD)’s National Mission on Education through
Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT), Virtual Labs is part of a
comprehensive undertaking to provide easily accessible and high quality
education throughout India.
Virtual Labs’
primary focus is to provide graduate and undergraduate college and university
students with the ability to perform their required laboratory experiments
using only the World Wide Web, a standard computer, and an Internet connection.
Virtual Labs allow students to practice and better learn the science and
engineering behind the experiments that they are required to perform. Virtual
Labs also allows the sharing of costly equipment across the country, and in
very rural areas, students will be able to perform experiments that they would
not otherwise be able to access.
Nearly 300
department heads, faculty, and staff representing 152 institutions have been
trained across India. Over 20 Nodal Centres have been
created, institutions who have expressed their interest to champion Virtual
Labs in their organisations and geographical areas.
The Pilot
Phase of the Virtual Labs project started in April 2009. During this phase, approximately twenty labs
were developed as proof of concept. The
Main Phase began in April 2010. So far,
over 80 Virtual Labs have been developed, and are undergoing field trials in
various parts of the country.
Two types of
virtual labs have been developed under this project. In the Simulation Based
Virtual Labs the experiments are modeled using mathematical equations. The simulations are carried out remotely at a
high-end server, and the results are communicated to the student over the
internet. Simulation based Virtual Labs
are scalable and can cater to a large number of simultaneous users.
Using the Remote
Triggered Virtual Labs the actual experiments are triggered remotely. The output of the experiment (being conducted
remotely) is communicated back to the student over the internet. This class of Virtual Labs gives the student
the output of real-time experiments.
Typically, time-slots are booked before conducting such experiments.
All Virtual
Labs can be accessed through a common website: www.vlab.co.in.
At the user end, a PC and broadband connectivity enables the user to access
Virtual Labs.
These Virtual
Labs will be very useful for Engineering College Students who do not have
access to good lab-facilities, High-school students, whose inquisitiveness will
be triggered, possibly motivating them to take up higher-studies, Researchers
in different institutes who can collaborate / share equipment and engineering
colleges, who can benefit from the content and related teaching resources.
Currently 85
Virtual Labs have been developed comprising of 769 experiments. Trainings and
workshops have been held all over India to disseminate knowledge of these
Virtual Labs. Future efforts will involve development of virtual labs in
different subjects and wide dissemination of this knowledge.
A
Collaborative Platform for Development of Virtual Labs has been created that
assists the faculty with authoring and maintaining Virtual Labs. The platform
hosts over 825 experiments developed by many of the partner institutions. The
Collaborative Platform provides the server side architecture for ensuring that
virtual labs run securely, can effectively serve thousands of students
simultaneously, and reserve time slots for experiments that require scheduling.
The Collaborative Platform also provides tools to help teachers monitor their
students’ progress and make changes to the instructional material.
Student
interest in Virtual Labs has also been enthusiastic. The Virtual Labs site (vlab.co.in) has had 233,570 site visits and 1,034,443 page
visits in just the last 6 months. There are over 4500 registered users from 134
countries and handles around 100GB of traffic per month with visitors from
India, United States, Malaysia, Philippines, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada,
Germany, Pakistan and so on.
With the
launch of Virtual Labs Indian students will have easy access to an encyclopedia
of science and engineering knowledge presented in a way that is engaging,
immersive, and enjoyable. Virtual Labs will allow students to explore,
discover, and learn wherever they are and at their convenience.
List of Virtual Labs that are ready
A. Electronics & Communications
·
Virtual Advanced Lab
for Interactive Design and Test in Electronics
·
Virtual Microwave
Laboratory
·
Wireless Lab
·
Engineering Electro-magnetics Laboratory
·
Queuing Networks Modelling Lab
·
Hybrid electronics
Lab
·
RF microwave
characterization Lab
·
Transducer and
instrumentation virtual lab
·
Electronic design
using DSP,FPGA,CPLD and Micro controllers through simulation and direct access
of the hardware
·
Digital Electronic
Circuits Laboratory
·
Digital Signal
Processing Laboratory
·
Fading Channels and
Mobile Communications
·
Basic Electronics
·
Systems,
communication and control laboratory
·
Speech Signal
Processing Laboratory
·
Digital VLSI Design
Virtual lab
·
Signals and Systems
Laboratory
·
Electromagnetic
Theory
·
Virtual Electric
Circuits
B. Computer
Science & Engineering
·
Problem Solving
·
FPGA & Embedded
systems lab
·
Computer Architecture
& organization
·
Advanced Network
Technologies
·
Software Engineering
·
Data Structures
·
Computer Programming
·
Data Mining
·
Databases
·
Computer Organization
·
VLSI
·
Digital Logic Design
·
Speech Signal
Processing
·
Mobile Robotics
·
Computer Graphics
·
Image Processing
·
Pattern Recognition
·
Artificial Neural
Networks
·
Virtual Advanced VLSI
Lab
·
Cryptography Lab
C. Electrical
Engineering
·
Sensors Modeling
& Simulation
·
Industrial Automation
Laboratory
·
PLC
·
Analog Signals,
Network and Measurement Laboratory
·
Real Time Embedded
Systems Laboratory
·
Electrical Machines
Laboratory
·
Creative Design,
Prototyping & Experiential Simulation Lab
·
Ergonomics Lab for
Assessing Physical Aspects of Design
·
Virtual English and
Communication
·
Virtual Anthropology
Lab
D. Mechanical
Engineering
·
Metal Forming Lab
·
Vibration and
Acoustics
·
Micromachining
laboratory
·
Kinematics &
Dynamics of Mechanisms
·
Mine Automation and
Virtual Reality
E. Chemical
Engineering
·
Process control,
reaction engineering and unit operations lab
·
Chemical Engineering
·
Simulation of Control
of Magnetic Levitation System
·
Virtual Lab for Mass
Transfer
F. Biotechnology
and Biomedical Engineering
·
Bioreactor Modeling
& Simulation lab
·
Biomedical and Signal
processing Laboratory
·
Virtual Proteomics
Laboratory
·
Neurophysiology
(pilot)
·
Neuron Simulation Lab
(pilot)
·
Biochemistry Virtual
Lab I
·
Biochemistry Virtual
Lab II
·
Population Ecology I
·
Population Ecology II
·
Immunology Virtual
Lab I
·
Immunology Virtual
Lab II
·
Microbiology Virtual
Lab I
·
Microbiology Virtual
Lab II
·
Molecular biology
Virtual Lab I
·
Molecular biology
Virtual Lab II
·
Cell biology Virtual
Lab I
·
Cell biology Virtual
Lab II
G. Civil
Engineering
·
Strength of Materials
Lab
·
Fluid Mechanics Lab
·
Soil Mechanics Lab
·
Basic Structural
Analysis Lab
·
Surveying Lab
H. Physical Sciences
·
Physical sciences
·
Virtual Advanced
Mechanics Lab
·
Virtual Optics Lab
·
Virtual Electricity
& Magnetism Lab
·
Virtual Heat &
Thermodynamics Lab
·
Virtual Modern
Physics Lab
·
Virtual Harmonic Motion and Waves Lab
I. Chemical
Sciences
·
Analytical Lab
·
Virtual Chemistry Lab
·
Virtual Lab in
“Charge and Particle size Determination in Colloidal Systems”
·
Virtual Lab in
“Absorption Spectroscopy”
·
Virtual Lab in “CD
Spectroscopy”
·
Physics of Biomolecules
·
Physical chemistry
lab
·
Physical Chemistry
·
Organic Chemistry
·
Inorganic Chemistry
MC/GK