Elio Sancristobal Ruiz

Towards an Online Lab Portal for Inquiry-Based STEM Learning at School

Nowadays, the knowledge economy is growing rapidly. To sustain future growth, more well educated people in STEM science, technology, engineering and mathematics are needed. In the Go-Lab project we aim to motivate and orient students from an early age on to study STEM fields in their future educational path by applying inquiry learning using online labs. This paper presents an inquiry learning portal where teachers can discover, use and enhance online labs appropriate for their courses and students can acquire scientific methodology skills while doing experiments using the labs. The Go-Lab portal architecture is presented, which contains a repository of online labs, inquiry learning spaces and complementary services. The paper discusses a first version of the portal and our future plans.

Virtual and Remote Industrial Laboratory: Integration in Learning Management Systems

During the last few decades, many industrial remote and virtual laboratories have been designed and implemented at different universities and schools with the goal of providing online experiments that are remotely available to their students from anywhere and at any time. Research into virtual and remote laboratories has shown that the vast majority of these laboratories are built using learning tools and resources that are suited to a specific institution. Thus, different universities implement the software for their particular needs and consume a significant amount of time and energy in the process. This article describes a different approach: the design and implementation of a learning management system (LMS) activity that allows sharing of electronic, control and automation, and electrical remote laboratories from different universities within industrial courses without requiring the teacher to program a single line of code.

Robotics, the New Industrial Revolution

Robots are becoming an important part of the “new social technology” defined by Hirai [1], where finding a robot in any environment is becoming more common. While we are used to finding robots in different environments such as supermarkets, nurseries (e.g., robotic pets), hospitals (e.g., for surgery), or at home (e.g., vacuuming robots), the environment that still has the most robots is industry (e.g., the automotive industry). For that reason, many studies are required to find the appropriate mechanisms to integrate robots at all levels of our society. We must consider issues from many perspectives, such as history, literature, economics, culture, technological developments, electronics, computers, or industry. The conclusions obtained will help us achieve the most positive and beneficial integration of robots with humans.

Spreading remote lab usage a system — A community — A Federation

Experiments have been at the heart of scientific development and education for centuries. From the outburst of Information and Communication Technologies, virtual and remote labs have added to hands-on labs a new conception of practical experience, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics education. This paper aims at describing the features of a remote lab named Virtual Instruments System in Reality, embedded in a community of practice and forming the spearhead of a federation of remote labs. More particularly, it discusses the advantages and disadvantages of remote labs over virtual labs as regards to scalability constraints and development and maintenance costs. Finally, it describes an actual implementation in an international community of practice of engineering schools forming the embryo of a first world wide federation of Virtual Instruments System in Reality nodes, under the framework of a project funded by the Erasmus+ Program.

A Wireless robotic educational platform approach

Along this paper a Wireless Educational Platform approach is presented. The motivations are promoted by the wide range of Internet of Things applications which are being developed day by day. Furthermore, this paper is analyzing the Wireless communications used in the most commonly applications related to educational laboratory environments. Using as basis these two fields, it is introduced an approach of a platform which can be included in classrooms helping teachers when they work on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) educational programs for school students. The presented approach provides system scalability, modular capabilities, reconfiguration possibilities, increased compatibility with a wide range of devices and convenience within educational robotic scenarios.

Flexibility of wireless technologies in learning in robotic laboratories

This article analyzes the use of wireless systems in learning environments and explains the advantages of these when robots are used for educational purposes in recreational and industrial environments. This article reflects the importance that these tools may have in safety, efficiency and productivity of training in learning and e-learning as well as the motivation that this systems cause on the students.

Robotic Educational Tool to engage students on Engineering

The aim of this paper is to summarize the Work in Progress related to the design of a Collaborative Robotic Educational Tool. This tool arises to improve STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) educational programs for school students. The design is intended to cover different specifications such as: scalability, modular capabilities, reconfiguration possibilities and compatibility with the aim of promoting the innovation and the motivation of the students during the learning process. Furthermore, the main objective of the mentioned platform is focused on getting a cost effective tool which can be included easily within educational institutions with a low budget restriction. This platform is intended for students which are able to use textual programming languages. Furthermore, the platform is expected to cost below 100 euros.

Mechatronics and robotics as motivational tools in remote laboratories

In the present times of crisis training is essential, and with that all disciplines that are looking to upgrade knowledge and to allow workers to increase their skills to find a job, improve where they already have or start a freelance career. Regarding engineering disciplines this is even more important owing to the speed at which new technologies are developed and because competition is not only in the products themselves, but also within knowledge and adaptability. This paper shows how the use of mechatronics and robotics in distance education can be a motivational tool to promote retraining of people of different ages (students, workers, students-workers, the unemployed) who with minimal training in engineering want to boost their careers or start new ones.

Rethinking remote laboratories: Widgets and smart devices

Until the last decades, students of distance learning universities had to go to traditional and physical laboratories to acquire practical knowledge and skills. Currently, thanks to the advances in communication and computer networks and the evolution of programming languages, new eLearning tools have emerged that enable the usage of learning methodologies such as blended learning and distance learning. One of them is the remote Web laboratory. A remote Web laboratory is an application which allows students to work with real hardware or instruments. To do this, students only need a computer with an Internet connection. However, emerging technologies and other hardware such as mobile devices, cloud computing and the Internet of Things, require the design of different models to support innovative learning experiences. For this reason, remote labs are being reconsidered to smart device paradigm. Physically, the considered smart device is made of the junction of a controller (computer server) connected to physical equipment on the one hand, and to the Internet on the other hand. This paper describes the process to translate a “traditional” remote Web lab into a set of smart devices which are able to work together in the cloud and the Internet of Things.

Formation in robotics, the key to integration in industrial environments

This article analyzes the impact of the introduction of robotics in industry today and its impact on workers and unions. It offers possible solutions to reduce or eliminate the rejection of human beings with the introduction of robots in the workplace, and concludes that learning and formation are the keys to do it.