New Technologies for Experimentation over the Internet

Engineering education and training programs are increasingly offering Internet access to systems of engineering interest to students or trainees located in geographically remote sites. The goal is to permit the remote user to manipulate a local host system, causing responses that can be transmitted to the user?s computer in the form of numerical data, video images, audio streams, or graphical data. The local systems of interest could involve physical hardware (such as heat-exchangers, tanks that can be filled with liquid, etc.), or simulation software (such as a program that simulates a distillation column, a chemical reactor, an inverted pendulum, etc.). The former is referred to as remote experimentation while the later is referred as virtual experimentation. In all cases the experiment must be carried over the Internet using specialized interfaces or web browsers. This session emphasizes papers that present recent advances in the technology of experimentation over the Internet in remote and virtual modes. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the real-time control manipulation of equipment, and the execution of experiments of engineering relevance using simulation tools. Priority will be given to topics that present research or teaching-related developments that feature the creative use of new or emerging technologies.