An undergraduate course - Internet-based instrumentation and control

In this paper, the objective, strategy and implementation details of a new undergraduate course, Internet-based instrumentation and control, are presented. The course has a companion laboratory that is supported by the National Science Foundation. It is offered to senior-level undergraduate engineering students who are interested in sensing, instrumentation, control and Web programming and want to learn more about the integration of these technologies for solving real-world engineering problems. It will also be offered to gifted high school seniors as a vehicle to attract them to engineering disciplines. Preliminary assessment of the first offering of the course is encouraging and has shown that the course has achieved success in helping students to understand concepts and master basic technologies for developing Internet-based automatic systems.