Weblabs at MIT

1
Weblabs at MIT A Retrospective Perspective
Clark K. Colton Department of Chemical
Engineering Massachusetts Institute of
Technology Cambridge, MA USA
How did it get started? How was it funded? How
did it work out? What are the challenges for the
future?
2
A Brief History of MIT Weblabs
MIT
Jesus del Alamo
Clark K. Colton
Rest of World
1993-95
Jame Trevelyan University of Western
Australia Jim Henry University of Tennessee
Telerobots on the internet
Process control on the internet with Labview
1995-2000
Others . . .
Microelectronics Weblab
Animation Weblab
Transistor electronic characteristics 15 sec
Flow meter calibration by bucket and stopwatch
2000-02
Microsoft iCampus Grant to MIT (35 projects/5
yr) iLabs Project Jesus del Alamo PI Objective
Demonstrate feasibility of diverse
weblabs http//swiss.csail.mit.edu/projects/icampu
s/projects/ilab.html
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A Brief History of MIT Weblabs
MIT
Jesus del Alamo
Clark K. Colton
Rest of World
1993-95
Jame Trevelyan University of Western
Australia Jim Henry University of Tennessee
Telerobots on the internet
Process control on the internet with Labview
1995-2000
Others . . .
Microelectronics Weblab
Animation Weblab
Transistor electronic characteristics 15 sec
Flow meter calibration by bucket and stopwatch
2000-02
Microsoft iCampus Grant to MIT (35 projects/5
yr) iLabs Project Jesus del Alamo PI Objective
Demonstrate feasibility of diverse
weblabs http//swiss.csail.mit.edu/projects/icampu
s/projects/ilab.html
Microelectronics iLab
iLab Heat Transfer Project
Three labs in three subjects
Three heat exchangers Conduction, convection,
radiation http//heatex.mit.edu
Exchanger performance Process control
Five experiments
http//web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2002/heatexchange-05
22.html
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A Brief History of MIT Weblabs
MIT
Jesus del Alamo
Clark K. Colton
Rest of World
2002
gt200 reports
iLabs Project Steve Lerman Co-PI Center for
Educational Computing Initiatives http//icampus.m
it.edu/iLabs/architecture/
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A Brief History of MIT Weblabs
MIT
Jesus del Alamo
Clark K. Colton
Rest of World
2002
gt200 reports
iLabs Project Steve Lerman Co-PI Center for
Educational Computing Initiatives http//icampus.m
it.edu/iLabs/architecture/
iLabs - Africa Steve Lerman and Jesus del Alamo,
Co-PI Grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York
2005
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10
A Brief History of MIT Weblabs
MIT
Jesus del Alamo
Clark K. Colton
Rest of World
2002
gt200 reports
iLabs Project Steve Lerman Co-PI Center for
Educational Computing Initiatives http//icampus.m
it.edu/iLabs/architecture/
iLabs - Africa Steve Lerman and Jesus del Alamo,
Co-PI Grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York
2005
2008
Funding winding down One Programmer iLab
Archecture Software
Batch In use in Africa Interactive
To be tested at MIT (heat exchanger) and Univ. W.
Australia (fluid mechanics)
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Jesus del Alamo (EECS) PI
Steve Lerman (CECI) Co-PI
Microsoft iCampus Grant iLabs Project
iLabs Software Architecture Development
iLabs Hardware and Implementation in Classes
Carnegie Corporation iLabs in Sub-Sahara Africa
12
MIT Chemical Engineering Dept. Hardware
Carnegie Corporation
13
MIT Weblabs at Other Schools
Microelectronics
Heat Exchanger
Heat exchanger performance Process Control
Brown University University of Texas Cambridge-MIT
Institute (Nigeria) Obafemi Awolowo University
Cambridge-MIT Institute University of Toledo
(Ohio) Ongoing

Sub-Sahara Africa
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Issues and Challenges
Development of Interactive Community
Hardware and Software
Internet Distribution
Utility of specific experiments Narrow or broad
applicability Infrastructure costs Economy of
scale
Quality of components Robustness Initial
cost Maintenance Hardware Maintenance
Software
Batch vs. interactive Simple free
standing Complex shared
Student-grade vs. industrial-grade
architecture
Summary of Student Assessments (Heat Transfer for
Weblabs) The weblab was educational.
The weblab was fun. I prefer the
weblab/hands on experiment.
High agreement Moderate agreement 50/50 split