Design and implementation of a virtual on-line lab on optical communications

ABSTRACT

The paper describes the design and implementation of a virtual lab for on-line lab training on optical communications, part of the ‘Optical Communications’ course offered at the Dept. of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Educators, School of Pedagogical & Technological Education (ASPETE), Athens, Greece. The virtual lab is based on the OptiSystem 16 software tool while the on-line component was implemented by using the MS-Teams tool of MS-Office. The lab includes a synchronous and an asynchronous part. Since the virtual lab was offered for the first time, students’ response was evaluated on the basis of the submitted lab reports to allow for proper corrective actions during the subsequent academic year. Results were encouraging in that 79% of the students achieved a passing grade, however, 60% of students either failed or attained a low passing grade, which leaves room for improvement. Further analysis revealed a lack of a proper background in mathematics, physics and essential signal quantities. Future actions will include an investigation of the optimum combination between the physical and the simulation lab, development of short notes and multiple-choice questions, a closer association between the lab work and relevant small tasks/projects and a more systematic feedback process.

KEYWORDS:

• Engineering education
• lab education
• virtual labs
• on-line labs
• optical communications

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dimitris Uzunidis

Dimitris Uzunidis received his B.Sc. degree in Telecommunications and Ph.D. degree in Optical Networking from the University of Peloponnese in 2009 and 2016, respectively. He is currently working as a PostDoc researcher in the CoNSeRT Laboratory of University of West Attica, Athens, Greece, in the field of deep learning. He works also as an adjunct lecturer at University of West Attica and ASPETE. He has more than 40 published works in international conferences and journals and his research interests include: analytical modelling of optical networks, numerical simulation and network optimization, deep learning algorithms as well as application of convolutional neural networks in human and animal activity recognition.

Gerasimos Pagiatakis

Gerasimos Pagiatakis holds a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering degree (National Technical University of Athens, Greece, 1985) and a PhD degree in Optical Electronics (Imperial College, London, UK, 1990). From 1992 to 1996, he worked with the Hellenic Organization of Standardization (ELOT) and the Hellenic Development Company (ELANET). From 1996 to 2005, he worked with the Hellenic Organization of Telecommunications (OTE) where, among others, he was actively involved in the development of the first WDM and optical access networks in Greece as well as the development of the Athens Olympic Games' telecom network. Since 2005, he has been an Associate Professor and a Professor at the Dept. of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Educators, School of Pedagogical & Technological Education (ASPETE), Athens, Greece. He is the author or co-author of 55 international journal and conference papers, 3 books and 1 book chapter. His primary research interests are in optical communications and optical waveguides.