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EECS iLabs: ready whenever, wherever...

The MIT EECS iLab is busy! It's 2 am and students in 6.002 are logging in to complete their lab assignments--doing real lab experiments in real time. iLabs, which allow students to perform experiments remotely from any Internet-enabled computer, are increasingly used in Course 6 classes. In fact the system capacity on the iLab at MIT now allows for greater than 2,000 users per week on more than 15,000 experiments per week. Pictured below: EECS sophomores Nancy Foen and Alejandro Ojeda work on 6.002 lab experiments from Simmons Hall.

students working on 6.002 lab experiments from dorm laptops at any hour

Ten years ago, EECS Junior Lane Brooks (now about to give his PhD thesis defense), working with EECS faculty member Jesús del Alamo, conceived of and built--in just six months--a working prototype of what was then called the MIT Microelectronics WebLab. This web-enabled microelectronics device characterization laboratory was sponsored at the time by Microsoft, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Agilent Technologies and MIT's Class of '55 Fund for Excellence in Teaching and the Class of '72 Fund for Educational Innovation.

EECS iLabs receiving input from students logging in 24-7

The byline of the WebLab, "If you can't come to the lab....the lab will come to you!" has paid off over ten years in increasingly wider application and use. Now four other MIT departments, Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nuclear Engineering and Physics have developed experiments based on the iLab architecture. Even more astounding is the fact that 19 universities on five continents are either using or developing their own iLabs.

Student doing an iLab experiment for 6.002 from dorm laptop

Rather than replace existing hands-on labs, the goal of iLabs is to increase the number of laboratory experiences available to students and to provide access to unique labs—those in unusual locations, that use expensive equipment or require rare materials. Moreover, iLabs allow more lab exposure time and provide students with other integrated features such as graphing, simulation, collaboration and tutoring as well as access to content developed by a worldwide community of scholars.

EECS iLabs under the supervision of MIT research engineer James Hardison

Setting up and maintaining an iLab is lots of work--from the issues of user scalability and handling of peak load to the need for the expertise of a domain specialist. James Hardison, an MIT research engineer (pictured right) with the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives has helped set up the current EECS iLabs and maintains most aspects of the lab's current and upcoming projects.

graphs resulting from iLab experiment for 6.002 being fed to logged in laptop by student in dormitory

“Our iLabs have become steadily more featured and more reliable over the past several years; allowing us to entertain lab assignments from courses anywhere in the world. It’s amazing to see the impact that iLabs has already had on engineering education worldwide.” —James Hardison, research engineer with the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives (pictured above and below).
James Hardison, MIT research engineer in charge of EECS iLabs
MIT EECS iLab facility's video tracking camera system used for monitororing realtime experiments

The iLab Project is currently sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the National Science Foundation, the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology and by the MIT Class of 1960 Fund. Video hosted by MIT Tech TV.

 
 

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