e-Laboratories for Physics and Engineering Education
In Egypt there is a need to develop and strengthen the educational quality in engineering courses. The number of students enrolled in the Engineering disciplines is increasing, and Egyptian universities face the problem of overcrowded classes and laboratories. There is consequently a difficulty of delivering high quality education, which in turn affects the quality of graduating engineers. The TEMPUS e-Laboratories for Physics and Engineering Education (eLab) project has the broad objective to produce a new generation of engineers capable of performing constructive engineering work in different engineering fields – mechanical, electrical, and civil – in fast-changing business environments.
The eLab project is still in its first year, but builds on a previous TEMPUS project (JEP-34012) in which a virtual reality lab was established at Ain Shams University where students are able to perform virtual experiments in the Mechanical Engineering area.
The project aims to establish a virtual internet-based engineering campus for laboratory exercises, to provide access to the experimental aspect of engineering education that is currently lacking. These exercises will target students in mechanical, electrical and civil departments, as well as Physics education in high schools and students undertaking preparatory engineering courses. The solution developed will include the following features:
Virtual e-Laboratory – several electronic laboratory exercises for engineering education, formulated so that students can access these laboratory exercises from home and go through different experiments to complete a certain lab sheet or homework assignment. The developed experiments will be web-based
- Remote laboratory – access to real, “hard” experiments carried out at the university campus that can be controlled remotely through web-based interfaces.
- The ability for students to communicate interactively with online instructors, and potentially with other students. This allows the eLab to deliver much of the benefit of real face-to-face laboratory participation.
The e-Lab Project is funded under the European TEMPUS programme (517102-1-2011-SE-TEMPUS-JPCR).
For more information please email either Dr Sue Cobb, Dr Richard Eastgate or Tessa Roper