Instruments Go Virtual: Experiences on Educational Activities in the Field of Telecommunications at the University of Pisa

This paper illustrates the experience gained on educational activities in the field of telecommunications at the University of Pisa, Italy. The aim that drove the efforts of a team of teachers of telecommunications at the Engineering college was to allow the students to perform experiments, either in their college labs or at home, with virtual or remotely-controlled instruments. Starting from early lab demonstrations based upon single-copy hardware instrumentation, it is shown how the introduction of software interfaces, named virtual instruments (VIs), especially developed with National Instrument’s LabVIEW(TM) environment, greatly improved the effectiveness of experimental activities in the framework of telecommunications engineering courses. The main features of the proposed educational system, the set of available VIs and the operational modes are presented and discussed, together with their utilization in education and the relevant pedagogical benefits. The system is being used in the Laboratory of Telecommunications of the Engineering college of the University of Pisa, Italy.