Introduction to LabVIEW two-part exercise

At the University of San Diego, we wanted to introduce all electrical engineering (EE) students to LabVlEW without adding additional courses. In fall 2001, juniors in electronics performed an "introduction to LabVlEW" exercise designed by two EE juniors. Students performing the exercise obtained the amplitude frequency response of an RC circuit using a manually controlled function generator and a computer-controlled oscilloscope. During summer 2002, two EE seniors improved the LabVlEW program to include measurement of phase, work with a computer-controlled function generator, and have more readable code. In fall 2002, juniors in electronics performed a two-week introduction to LabVlEW. The first week was the same as in fall 2001. In the second week, the two programmers delivered a presentation focusing on the benefits of LabVlEW, a comparison of LabVlEW and other programming languages, and a discussion and demonstration of their enhanced program. Finally, the juniors wrote a simple LabVlEW program.