V. Judson Harward

Mapping forest vegetation using landsat TM imagery and a canopy reflectance model

Abstract Estimates of mean tree size and cover for each forest stand from an invertible forest canopy reflectance model are part of a new forest vegetation mapping system. Image segmentation defines stands which are sorted into general growth forms using per-pixel image classifications. Ecological models based on terrain relations predict species associations for the conifer, hardwood, and brush growth forms. The combination of the model-based estimates of tree size and cover with species associations yields general-purpose vegetation maps useful for a variety of land management needs. Results of timber inventories in the Tahoe and Stanislaus National Forests indicate the vegetation maps form a useful basis for stratification. Patterns in timber volumes for the strata reveal that the cover estimates are more reliable than the tree size estimates. A map accuracy assessment of the Stanislaus National Forest shows high overall map accuracy and also illustrates the problems in estimating tree size.

Internet Accessible Remote Laboratories: Scalable E-Learning Tools for Engineering and Science Disciplines

Limited resources and other factors pose major challenges for engineering, technology, and science educators ability to provide adequate laboratory experience for students. An Internet accessible remote laboratory, which is an arrangement that allows laboratory equipment to be controlled remotely, addresses these difficulties and allows more efficient laboratory management.Internet Accessible Remote Laboratories: Scalable E-Learning Tools for Engineering and Science Disciplines collects current developments in the multidisciplinary creation of Internet accessible remote laboratories. This book offers perspectives on teaching with online laboratories, pedagogical design, system architectures for remote laboratories, future trends, and policy issues in the use of remote laboratories. It is useful resource for graduate and undergraduate students in electrical and computer engineering and computer science programs, as well as researchers who are interested in learning more about the current status of the field, as well as various approaches to remote laboratory design.

A Versatile Internet-Accessible Electronics Workbench with Troubleshooting Capabilities

The MIT iLab Project was established to expand the range of laboratory experiences available to students in science and engineering education. iLabs are online laboratories that enable students to conduct real experiments remotely. Recently, the iLab Project has focused on building remote laboratories around the NI-ELVIS platform, an all-in-one electronics workbench. This paper will detail our recent efforts in expanding the capabilities of ELVIS-based iLabs by enabling students to test and debug digital and analog circuits. This work will enable students to perform remote experiments characterizing digital logic elements. By merging switching capabilities with the Digital Multimeter available on the ELVIS, students will have the ability to examine and troubleshoot circuits. These added capabilities will provide educators and students with unparalleled flexibility and significantly enrich the remote laboratory experience.

Sharing Laboratories across Different Remote Laboratory Systems

An educational remote laboratory is a software and hardware tool that enables students to remotely access real equipment located in the university as if they were in a hands-on-lab session. In order to be able to increase the curricula of universities, software infrastructures and toolkits that make the development and maintenance of remote laboratories easier arose, such as the MIT iLab project, the Labshare Sahara project, or WebLab-Deusto. Making different systems collaborate at infrastructure level is highly desirable so as to successfully share laboratories with different characteristics. This contribution summarizes the integration of WebLab-Deusto laboratories inside the iLab Shared Architecture, as well as the integration of iLab batch laboratories inside WebLab-Deusto.

Dynamic virtual environment for multiple physics experiments in higher education

The transportation of a campus classroom and/or laboratory into a three dimensional virtual representation has changed remote learning, specially in engineering education. Our first collaborative virtual environment, a proof of concept, provides full functionality of one physics experiment, though there are still some performance issues to be resolved. The next step for integrating TEALsim and iLabs in Suns Project Wonderland is porting our system from Wonderlands version 0.4 to 0.5. Our goal is a system redesign in order to support adding flexibility to multiple physics simulations. The performance improvements in Wonderland 0.5 will allow a large number of avatars in our future scenario, where they will be able to run even more physics experiments, through a new 3D user interface.

Three online neutron beam experiments based on the iLab Shared Architecture

Students at MIT have traditionally executed certain experiments in the containment building of the MIT nuclear reactor as part of courses in Nuclear Engineering and the third year laboratory course for Physics majors. A joint team of faculty and research staff from the MIT Nuclear Reactor Laboratory (MIT-NRL) and MITs Center for Educational Computing Initiatives have implemented online versions of three classic experiments; (a) a determination of MIT reactor coolant temperature through measurement of thermal neutron velocity, (b) a demonstration of the DeBroglie relationship of the kinetic energy and momentum of thermal neutrons and study of Bragg diffraction through a single copper crystal at various orientations, and (c) a measurement of beam depletion using a variety of shielding filters. These online experiments were implemented using the LabVIEW® virtual instrumentation package and the interactive version of the iLab Shared Architecture (ISA). Initial assessment of the online experiments indicates that they achieve comparable educational outcomes to traditional versions of the labs executed in the reactor containment building.