Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
June 22, 2008
June 22, 2008
June 25, 2008
2153-5965
7
13.754.1 - 13.754.7
10.18260/1-2--4049
https://peer.asee.org/4049
338
Integrated Auto-ID Technology for Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Studies (I-ATMUS)
Abstract
Automated Identification (AutoID) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies are unique in that their research and development are led by industry rather than academy. Therefore, there is a large knowledge gap between the best practices in industry and theoretical academic work, which should be bridged by the future engineers that are acquainted with such technologies. In order to fill that gap and fulfill the industrial manpower needs, the number of such individuals is to be increased. That can be achieved by developing next-generation laboratory learning environments, which provide hands-on experience for on-campus and off- campus students. For this reason, user-friendly, web-based applications are built as a way to give access to off-site students. A laboratory motorized hardware system is assembled in order to provide RFID technology testing setups. The overall environment is empowered by a programming language that yields remote agent control, RFID data acquisition, and abstract computations. Furthermore, the website contains online teaching modules for AutoID technologies and their application areas. The result of such an implementation is a powerful educational tool that is utilized to support innovative curriculum activities and provide hands-on laboratory experiments to on-campus and off-campus students. This project not only increases the understanding of AutoID technologies and their applications, but also improves students’ attitudes about engineering education and enhances their confidence towards the targeted technologies. Partial support for this work was provided by the NSF CCLI program.
Introduction
The Auto-ID and RFID technologies are becoming more popular than ever while being led by industry rather than academia. As a result, a gap between the corporate practices and theoretical work has been formed. This caused a lack of potential experts in such emerging fields within the market of qualified personnel. The number of engineering students who are acquainted with the target technologies is to be raised to fulfill the manpower demand of the industry. That can be achieved through a next-generation learning environment that can provide remote hands-on laboratory experimentation setups, in addition to on-site setups.
Furthermore, recent research has shown that students learn and retain information best through interactive examples and experiments2,3,4. With the increase in use of technology and the internet, many researchers in all fields are focused on creating web-based laboratories to enhance students’ learning, thus students are able to study and learn anywhere and anytime1,5,6. Another benefit of online virtual laboratories is that researchers are able to stimulate the interest of students with new teaching techniques provided by the web7.
This paper presents the idea of building an RFID learning environment that includes a remotely controlled online RFID laboratory. Specifically, a brief introduction to the RFID technology is given, the concept of hardware and software support of the online RFID learning lab- environment is discussed, and the way of integrating RFID in the remotely controlled system is
Buyurgan, N., & Chimka, J., & Lehlou, N. (2008, June), Integrated Auto Id Technology For Multi Disciplinary Undergraduate Studies (I Atmus) Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--4049
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2008 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015