Portable Laboratory for Electrical Engineering Education: 
The LAB-VEE Ecosystem Developed in Latin America and the Caribbean

Reymi Then; Maria M. Larrondo-Petrie

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: COED: Spotlight on Diverse Learners
Tagged Division: Computers in Education Division (COED)
Page Count: 16
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--43905
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/43905
Download Count: 116

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Paper Authors

biography

Reymi Then Universidad Tecnológica de Santiago

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A young professional passionate about research, technologies and their teaching. From a very early age, he presented a high interest and understanding of engineering, starting studies and technical work in electronics in 2002. In 2004 he began to study electronic engineering at the Technological University of Santiago (UTESA) and in 2019 he coursed a master's degree in Mathematics at his Alma Mater.

His working experience started back in 2002 and over the years he had the opportunity of getting involve in different technological areas, such as: appliance repair, telecommunications and internet, biomedical, design and construction of electronic equipment and education in engineering and technologies. Since 2014, he works as an Engineering Professor and Researcher at the Technological University of Santiago. In addition, he has also been coordinating the engineering faculty as well in the university.

Since 2019 he has been a member of the National Research Career, and the GITECI-UTESA Research Group since 2016. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Council and Reviewer of the UTESA Engineering Journal since 2018. In addition, joins in 2022 the Smart Adaptive Remote Labs Research Group of the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI).

Throughout his professional life, he has been publishing articles, and participating as a speaker in both national and international conferences on different research topics related to engineering education and the relevance of the use of appropriate tools for it.

Reymi Then is the ideologue and Co-founder of LAB-VEE Educational TechMakers, where he is currently responsible for the design and production of new technologies, hardware design and production, as well as the design and production of academic content.

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biography

Maria M. Larrondo-Petrie Florida Atlantic University orcid.org/0000-0003-2354-4986

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Dr. Larrondo Petrie has a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering and is a Professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science of Florida Atlantic University. She is the Executive Director of LACCEI (Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions, a Titular Member of the Pan-American Academy of Engineering, and a member of the ASEE International Activities Committee. She is a Lifetime Senior Member of IEEE and serves on multiple IEEE Standard Development Working Group on behalf of the IEEE Education Society. She is a registered International Professional Engineering Educator in the ENTER International Registry and ranked Level 5, Engineering Education Researcher.

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Abstract

The need of options to ensure the quality of education, even outside educational institutions, is something that has intensified in the last 3 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This not only impacts theoretical disciplines, also engineering areas have struggled to facilitate students to perform the experiments necessary for their training. Several universities have initiated or increased efforts to mitigate the effects resulting from students taking electrical engineering classes from home without access to university laboratories. Thanks to this, several remote laboratories have been created, which allow students to experiment from their homes with real equipment that is in a real laboratory that they can visualize through a camera in real time. Other universities have been working on creating portable labs that students can take home and conduct experiments as if they were in the traditional laboratory. A review of the developments carried out in Latin America and the Caribbean will be presented about both laboratories.

We are particularly presenting the detailed process carried out by a group of researchers from a university in the Dominican Republic for the creation of a portable electrical engineering laboratory that incorporates all the necessary equipment. The creation of this lab emerged as an R + D + I project that was funded in the period 2018-2021 by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCyT) in collaboration with Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) with a budget greater than US $ 103,000.00 Initially, the project was conceived for the creation of equipment that would complement or replace the equipment used in electrical/electronic laboratories, because in the Dominican Republic the cost of traditional equipment is a high investment that few educational institutions can manage to make. With the arrival of the pandemic, a redesign was carried out, becoming a portable laboratory that has all the required instruments, with a lower cost than the options already existing in the market and that students can transport in their backpacks. To date, it has received 2 capital injections of more than US$28,000.00 from banking and government institutions, and recently the research team has been approved more than US$200,000 to continue researching and developing this subject. The cost of production is around US$250.00 and is expected to decrease it further. To date 3 teachers, 10 students and one company have participated in this project. A spin-off called LAB-VEE Educational TechMaker has been created for marketing and an LMS with didactic content that was implemented in 2021 by a school in the country that impacted more than 60 students. From this implementation, a study has been carried out to measure the level of learning of these students in comparison to others who studied in a traditional way. In 2022 with the return to face-to-face learning, a university in the country is incorporating LAB-VEE in its electricity and electronics laboratories, where a study is also being carried out to know its impact on the academic performance of students.

Citation
Format

Then, R., & Larrondo-Petrie, M. M. (2023, June), Portable Laboratory for Electrical Engineering Education: The LAB-VEE Ecosystem Developed in Latin America and the Caribbean Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43905

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - The need of options to ensure the quality of education, even outside educational institutions, is something that has intensified in the last 3 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This not only impacts theoretical disciplines, also engineering areas have struggled to facilitate students to perform the experiments necessary for their training. Several universities have initiated or increased efforts to mitigate the effects resulting from students taking electrical engineering classes from home without access to university laboratories. Thanks to this, several remote laboratories have been created, which allow students to experiment from their homes with real equipment that is in a real laboratory that they can visualize through a camera in real time. Other universities have been working on creating portable labs that students can take home and conduct experiments as if they were in the traditional laboratory. A review of the developments carried out in Latin America and the Caribbean will be presented about both laboratories.

We are particularly presenting the detailed process carried out by a group of researchers from a university in the Dominican Republic for the creation of a portable electrical engineering laboratory that incorporates all the necessary equipment. The creation of this lab emerged as an R + D + I project that was funded in the period 2018-2021 by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCyT) in collaboration with Korea Advanced Institute of Science &amp;amp; Technology (KAIST) and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) with a budget greater than US $ 103,000.00
Initially, the project was conceived for the creation of equipment that would complement or replace the equipment used in electrical/electronic laboratories, because in the Dominican Republic the cost of traditional equipment is a high investment that few educational institutions can manage to make. With the arrival of the pandemic, a redesign was carried out, becoming a portable laboratory that has all the required instruments, with a lower cost than the options already existing in the market and that students can transport in their backpacks. To date, it has received 2 capital injections of more than US$28,000.00 from banking and government institutions, and recently the research team has been approved more than US$200,000 to continue researching and developing this subject. 
The cost of production is around US$250.00 and is expected to decrease it further. To date 3 teachers, 10 students and one company have participated in this project. A spin-off called LAB-VEE Educational TechMaker has been created for marketing and an LMS with didactic content that was implemented in 2021 by a school in the country that impacted more than 60 students. From this implementation, a study has been carried out to measure the level of learning of these students in comparison to others who studied in a traditional way. In 2022 with the return to face-to-face learning, a university in the country is incorporating LAB-VEE in its electricity and electronics laboratories, where a study is also being carried out to know its impact on the academic performance of students.

AU  - Reymi Then
AU  - Maria M. Larrondo-Petrie
CY  - Baltimore , Maryland
DA  - 2023/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Portable Laboratory for Electrical Engineering Education: 
The LAB-VEE Ecosystem Developed in Latin America and the Caribbean
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/43905
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--43905
ER  -