Workshop on "Virtual Lab"
13th June 2023
Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC), Ministry of Education (MoE), Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida organized One Day Workshop on “Virtual Lab" on 13th June, 2023 in association with IIT Delhi. Prof. Sanghamitra V Arora coordinated the workshop.
Virtual Labs is an initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Govt. of India (GOI) under the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT).
75 students of ECE/EEE/ECZ and ME departments and 05 faculty members participated in the workshop. Experts from IIT Delhi - Mr. Prateek Sharma (Sr. Field Engineer), Mr. Arpit Sharma (Field Engineer) and Mr. Vikas Pandey (Field Engineer) conducted the session on Virtual Labs. Virtual Lab shares equipment and resources, which are available to a small number of users only.
The aim of the workshop was to introduce participants to the concept of Virtual Labs and to demonstrate the diverse range of experiments that can be conducted in a virtual environment. It was an attempt to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application.
The workshop empowered students to access and utilize virtual labs for self-paced learning.
Mr. Arpit Sharma, IIT Expert began the workshop and briefed about Virtual Labs. An overview of virtual labs and their role in modern education was deliberated. Participants were shown how virtual labs can simulate real-world experiments.
He told about the features and usefulness of Virtual labs and said that the basic purpose of Vlab is to enhance the knowledge of students by providing the remote-access to Labs in various disciplines of Science and Engineering. Remotely triggering an experiment in a real lab and delivering the result to the students via a computer interface would make the students understand the actual lab experiment. Internet-based experimentation further permits use of resources – knowledge, software, and data available on the web, apart from encouraging experiments being simultaneously performed by multiple users.
Mr. Prateek Sharma, IIT Delhi expert, stated that in today’s world mostly the equipment are computer interfaced and have remote access. So, it is possible to design experiments involving every domain of science and engineering which would improve the learning of students. He said these Virtual Labs cater to students at the undergraduate level, post graduate level as well as to research scholars. The session was very interactive and students enjoyed while learning concepts of the labs.
It was then followed by hands on Practice in Labs. Attendees had the opportunity to explore various virtual lab platforms. Students were allowed to do hands-on practice on the Virtual Lab Portal. The students were divided into 2 computer labs, where they performed experiments in Electric Machine Lab, Problem Solving Lab, Image processing Lab, Python programing Lab, Basic Electronics Lab, Digital Lab for ECE/EEE/ECZ students and Metal Forming Virtual Simulation Lab and Mechanical Virtual Lab for Mechanical Students. The students were able to perform at least two experiments on their own in each lab under the guidance of DGI faculty and IIT experts.
Lastly, open house discussion between DGI faculty and IIT experts took place. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions and share their insights. The queries regarding the development of Virtual lab experiments were clarified by the IIT Delhi experts.
Overall, the workshop was a significant step towards revolutionizing science education. The workshop gave the exposure to perform the experiments and clear their basic concepts of Virtual labs utilizing the Vlab portal.