Virtual Labs project is an initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India under the aegis of National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT). This project is a consortium activity of twelve participating institutes and IIT Delhi is coordinating institute.
Virtual Labs Nodal Center is established at CMR Engineering College, Hyderabad in the year 2019 under the able guidance and motivation of Dr. A. S. Reddy, Principal, CMREC. Dr. Anuj Kumar Goel, Prof. and Dean, IIIC is Virtual Lab Nodal Center Coordinator.
Virtual Labs are intended to augment the learning of engineering subjects through performing experiments. The experiments are designed either as simulations or as remote triggered. A remote triggered lab allows a user to connect to real equipment using a web browser. There are currently around 150 and labs and 1500 experiments at various stages of development and deployment. They are currently hosted at vlabs.ac.in. Virtual Labs is an initiative of Ministry of Human Resources, India.
Simulation Based Virtual Labs: In these Virtual Labs, the experiments are modeled using mathematical equations. The simulations are carried out remotely at a high-end server, and the results are communicated to the student over the internet. This class of Virtual Labs, at best, mimics the real-world scenarios/experiments. Simulation based Virtual Labs are scalable and can cater to a large number of simultaneous users that can use the experiments parallelly.
Remote Triggered Virtual Labs:Â In these Virtual Labs, the actual experiments are triggered remotely. The output of the experiment (being conducted remotely) is communicated back to the student over the internet. This class of Virtual Labs, gives the student the output of real-time experiments. Remote Triggered Virtual Labs are difficult to scale and can cater to a limited number of users. Typically, time-slots are booked before conducting such experiments.
Objectives:
- To provide remote-access to Labs in various disciplines of Science and Engineering. These Virtual Labs would cater to students at the undergraduate level and post graduate level.
- To enthuse students to conduct experiments by arousing their curiosity. This would help them in learning basic and advanced concepts through remote experimentation.
- To provide a complete Learning Management System around the Virtual Labs where the students can avail the various tools for learning, including additional web-resources, video-lectures, animated demonstrations and self-evaluation.
- To share costly equipment and resources, which are otherwise available to limited number of users due to constraints on time and geographical distance.
