University of Genoa, Italy Department of Biophysical and Electronic Engineering

1. University of Genoa, ItalyDepartment of Biophysical and Electronic Engineering Infrastructure and expertise on Virtual and Remote Laboratories for Electronics Domenico Ponta, AnnaMarinaScapolla {ponta, scapolla}@dibe.unige.it

2. Outline • Presentation of DIBE • The Identity project team • Past projects and collaborations • Tools and materials available for IDENTITY • Comments on project activities

3. DIBE • University of Genoa • DIBE: Department of Biophysical and Electronic Engineering • ESNG – Electronic Systems and Networking Group • Microelectronics • Computer Architecture and VLSI Systems • The Physical Structure of Perception and Computation • Neuroengineering and Bionanotechnologies • Natural and Artificial Nonlinear Complex Systems • Signal Processing and Telecommunications • Applied Electromagnetics • Interdisciplinay Innovation • Mathematical Physics

4. The project team • Anna Marina Scapolla • Domenico Ponta • Giancarlo Parodi • Giuliano Donzellini • Andrea Bagnasco

5. Projects and collaborations • Partner of NetPro (Network Based Project Learning in Engineering Education), LeonardoDaVinci programme • Partner of KP-Lab (Knowledge Practice Laboratory), Integrated Project, EU 6° Framework Programme • Partner of Ariadne (ET1002, 4001 pioneering work on metadata and knowledge repositories) • Partner Tethys (PIC INTERREG III, Repository of learning objects for Mediterranean cooperation) • Associated partner of the PROLEARN 'Network of Excellence' in the WP Online Experiments

6. Tools and materials available for IDENTITY Digital Design Tool: • Proprietary Simulator for Digital Design DEEDS • Set of board-based remote laboratory experiments E- learning products • Set of guided simulation exercises for Digital Electronics based on Deeds • Set of tutorials for the use of Remote Laboratory • Introductory course (in progress) • Second level course (in progress)

7. Tools and materials available for IDENTITY Analog Electronics Tool: • Use of a non-proprietary simulator (PSPICE) • Set of board-based remote laboratory experiments E- learning products • Set of simulation exercises for Analog Electronics based on PSPICE • Set of tutorials for the use of Remote Laboratory • Course on basic electronic circuits

8. Tools and materials available for IDENTITY • All the above Learning Material is now delivered through the MOODLE Learning Management System • Moodle is a defacto standard in LMS and has been adopted by our university • It offers facilities for: • User management • Student assessment • Cooperation/communication • Full coverage of the pedagogical aspects

9. Tools and materials available for IDENTITY Virtual and Remote Laboratories • Proprietary Simulator for Digital Design: DEEDS • Remote laboratory foe electronics: ISILab

10. DEEDS: Digital Electronics Education and Design Suite Digital systems simulation tool specifically designed for educational applications. The Deeds suite is composed by three simulators: • combinational and sequential logic networks, • finite state machine design, • microcomputer interfacing and programming at assembly level. http://www.esng.dibe.unige.it/Projects/Netpro/Deeds/index.htm

11. DEEDS: The browsers • The Main and the Assistant Browsers are opened, showing an index page (main) and a project assignment) (assistant) • All text and objects in the page can be Active. • By clicking on the schematics, the circuit is loaded in the Digital Circuit Simulator, and can be tested or modified

12. DEEDS: The d-DcS Digital Circuit Simulator with a Timing Window

13. DEEDS:-The d-FsM Simulator: FSM defined by an ASM chart

14. DEEDS: The d-McE mC Component

15. DEEDS: The d-McE mC Emulator

16. Simulation of a “complex” circuit with logic, FSM and Microcomputer

17. ISILab: Sharing Instrumentation Laboratories in Internet VLS - Virtual Laboratory Server • Access control • Gateway to experiment execution • Distributor of GUIs for instruments control • Distributor of documents (theory, assignments, etc.) RLS - Real Laboratory Server • Instruments control • Concurrency management • Monitor and log • one portal - many real laboratory servers • a concurrent multi-user environment • each workbench serves many students • instruments are shared among diverse experiments • choice of test points controlled by the GUI • a modular and scalable structure

18. ISILab: Graphical User Interfaces

19. The Lab Content Management System • Hardware • Circuits under test • Instruments • Software • Instrument Virtual panels • Measure workflows • Pedagogical contents (experiment goal, exercises, guide lines, circuit diagram) • User profiling • Communications (chat, bullettin board) • Assessments (test, deliverables)

20. ISIBoard ISIBoard is a specific motherboard hosting the circuit boards. • 8 slots for the insertion of the circuits under test; • 19 lines to provide the power supply and the connections with the instruments: • 5 lines for power supply; • 3 lines for input signals; • 3 lines for output; • 8 lines for circuit identification

21. ISIApplet • A tool for authoring and automatic generation of instrument virtual interfaces, described by proper XML configuration files: • full panel customization • drag and drop facilities • Java Beans support • images loading via http • events management by Wizard • Only one applet to reproduce different instruments’ virtual interfaces via proper configuration files XML

22. 1 – create a new circuit board and plug it in ISIBoard 2 – describe the experiment 3 – edit the instrument virtual panels

23. ISILab evolution: A Service Oriented Approach Exposing instruments functionalities as Web Services: • the instrument services offer the functionalities of a specific device or of a set of devices that can be considered as a unique element on the base of their commonalities. Thinking the measurement as a process that requires invoking instrument web services in an ordered sequence. • This is a workflow and could be exposed as a web service

24. Remote Laboratories: A Service Oriented Approach (2) We are testing: • Instrument web services. • Composition of measurement workflows. • The “execution service” that coordinates the operations of the real instruments. • Lock/unlock. • Session management. • Instrument services invocation. The prototype has been developed on electronic measurement instruments and experiments, but it is usable with any kind of devices. This approach is also under evaluation in a GRID context (Globus Toolkit…)

25. The Grid-based Architecture Clientside Web Browser Portal Tier Serverside PORTAL Security Service Execution Application Composition Application Measure-WF Composition Service Engine Tier Measure-WF Execution Service Measure-WF Repository Measure-WF Manager Service Resource Tier Globus Toolkit 4 Instrument Services Computing Service Storage Service Instrument Service 1 Instrument Service 2 Driver1 Driver2 Distributed Storage Dev1 Dev2 Hw setup

26. IDENTITY: comments on project activities DIBE’s main task is in design and development of VR-LRC, a learning resources repository to give support to students and teachers Open issues: • How do we relate to the existing repositories (Ariadne, EducaNext…..) • Structure of the VR-LRC (Content management? Which metadata? • Evaluation of efforts necessary to fill the repository (hundreds of documents to catalog) • Interface of VR-LRC with LMSs