Design and development of desktop application client software for running ILAB experiments.

Abstract

The project was about the design and the development of desktop application client software for running iLabs experiments. In the past years, internet labs were accessed through web browsers which required installation of additional software, and also consumed much RAM hence some students couldn't run them on some of their computers. They also needed old server technology which is incompatible with current browser versions. This brought the need to design a new system to eliminate these shortcomings. A desktop application was designed using open source tools like C# windows forms with some controls fixed i.e. the frequency and amplitude knobs, while other controls were generated according to the lab specifications. A data socket was used to acquire real time lab data to be displayed on the waveform graphs. The student was given provision to take screenshots and generate a lab report. The development of this application called for a new server software design to interact with. With this new system, a student can access the lab with any computer at any time when their scheduled time has reached. Student researcher work was reduced as redesign of lab interfaces was eliminated through the dynamic interface design. Despite the fact that problems of the old iLabs architecture have been eliminated, a recommendation is made to the fellow student researchers to design a fully functional service broker that will enable students register, schedule and do assessment for labs.