Abstract:

Remote-controlled experiments have long been part of the everyday life of modern scientists, an experience we do not want to deprive our students of and even take it a step further. This digital transformation of the lab and practical training towards fully remote-controllable laboratories offers a wide range of advantages in future teaching of photonics. As main benefits study programs and courses can potentially be shared across institutions all around the globe or made accessible for off-site students.

In the context of the international "M.Sc. Photonics" degree course at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU), the two cooperating projects digiPHOTON and Lichtwerkstatt Jena strive to accomplish this. digiPHOTON is a project funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), in which we have taken on the task of making the content of this master’s degree course accessible to online students. The Lichtwerkstatt Jena is a BMBF-funded project with the goal of building up and establishing a photonics maker space at the FSU to facilitate innovation processes between research, industry, and open maker culture.

In this contribution we want to show our fully remote controllable lab setup of a Michelson-Interferometer for higher education. It was implemented via XRTwinLab – an open-source framework to virtualize experimental setups and make them remotely accessible via extended reality (XR) technology. It consists of pre-built modules that are easy to adapt by teaching staff and research staff, even if no prior experience in software development exists. To ensure platform independence and offer access without specific devices, it is developed using open web technologies. Finally, to facilitate the use of remote labs as close as possible to real lab work, the framework supports immersive technologies, such as virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR). Since optomechanical components frequently used in photonics laboratories are not motorized, we provide 3D-printable attachments. The attachments allow for the addition of actuators and sensors that connect to a wireless network by use of microcontrollers. In the long run, the current GitHub repository used for development is intended as an open library for 3D-models and source code to integrate a broad variety of hardware or measurement devices used in photonics and other research fields.

Right now, we have completed one fully remote-controllable experimental setup for a higher educational practical training. It is particularly important to us that a real experiment takes place, which confronts the students with all the challenges of a real environment, including systematic and statistical error sources like noise or other perturbations. We also believe that a real experiment conveys the learning content more convincingly than a simulation that by design only reflects pre-defined assumptions made by the developers. Discussing the range of functions of our educational lab setup in the context of the possible learning experience in this contribution, we also want to share our first practical experiences with you.

Keywords:

Remote experiment, open source, photonics, STEM, higher education, digital.