Enhancing Environmental Awareness of Freshman Engineering Students through Real-Time Monitoring with LabVIEW Software

Parhum Delgoshaei

Virginia Tech

Chelsea Green Divyang Prateek

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech

Michael Sadowski

Virginia Tech

Vinod K. Lohani

Virginia Tech

Abstract

 LabVIEW programming language gradually integrated in a freshman engineering course, EngE 1024, Fall ’07 – Spring ’10  LabVIEW Enabled Watershed Assessment System (LEWAS) developed to remotely monitor water and weather quality parameters in real-time  Monitoring takes place in real-time through a web-based interface and system parameters such as sampling time can be changed remotely  Collected data used to raise awareness of environmental sustainability  System indoor function verified: real-time streaming to EngE 1024 students (Fall ’10) and outdoor deployment to impaired stream (to be completed S’11)  It is anticipated that LEWAS would raise students’ environmental awareness

Real-Time Water Quality Data in Classroom

Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen, pH, Specific Conductivity Water Quality Sonde ENGE 1024 Lecture Internet LabVIEW Web Publishing

• Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Assessment

Access to real-time environmental data can enhance my awareness and curiosity about environmental issues such as the state of an impaired stream that runs through campus .

2010 2009 Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree 0 10 20 30

Percentage

40 50 60

LabVIEW Dataflow Programming

LabVIEW output of temperature probe readings

 Data flow programming approach is suitable for many engineering applications  Data Acquisition (DAQ) activities demonstrate how data can be collected from physical phenomena such as temperature and processed in dataflow  In-Class activity allows students to derive Newton’s law of cooling by applying regression on collected data to arrive at equation relating temperature and time  DAQ extended to processing environmental data

Equipment Setup for DAQ Activity

Temperature, Barometric Pressure, Relative Humidity,Precipitation, Wind Speed compactRio embedded computer: processing, storing, transmitting data (wireless) Weather Station Velocity, Flow, Volume Flow Meter LabVIEW program loaded on compactRio

Live Demonstration in EngE 1024: Virtual Instrument front panel shows real time data from a multi-probe sonde in an indoor laboratory

• •

My knowledge of watersheds and local water quality problems was enhanced by the "Know your Watershed" worksheet.

Rate the LabVIEW programming activities done in this course (in-class, workshop, and homework) in conveying basic programming concepts.

Very Poor Poor 0 10 20

Percentage

30 40 50

Data from impaired stream: outdoor Lab

Satisfactory

Applications in Environmental Monitoring

Good  LabVIEW dataflow is well suited for collection, processing and communication of environmental data and can be used to teach sustainability concepts.

 A new module for EngE 1024 focusing on water quality monitoring of an impaired on-campus stream and its applications in environmental sustainability was introduced in fall ‘09  Water quality monitoring will enable us to explore answers for questions such as: 

What are the natural ranges and the storm, seasonal and annual variability in water quality parameters?



What locations do parameters fall outside the natural range and to what duration and extent?



What are the pollutant loadings from controllable and uncontrollable sources and in the watershed?

Future site of deployment (planned completion, May ‘11). Mounting poles in place, solar panel, batteries and wireless to be installed Virginia Tech’s campus; site indicated by star

Excellent 0 5 10 15 20 25

Percentage

30 35 40 45

Conclusion and Future Directions

• LabVIEW can be used to provide students with real-time environmental data from an impaired on-campus stream and enhance their environmental • awareness The impact of access to environmental data in real-time on student interest and motivation will be investigated when the system is fully • • functional in the field.

Showing the value of environmental monitoring Showing that students have the ability to apply the programming language (LAbVIEW) in real-world application Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy, Feb 3 rd – Feb 4 th 2011, Virginia Tech, National Science Foundation DLR Grant 0431779 and NSF-REU Site Grant 0649070 Contact: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]