Developing Digital Measurement and Analysis Laboratory in Circuits and Electronics Lab at TAMUK

The paper presents a laboratory development for measurement, analysis, design, and simulation of typical electric and electronic circuits using modern computer hardware and software. It shows computer measurement and data acquisition system using National Instruments (NI) LabView and NI-ELVIS, and gives methodologies for theoretical analysis and design of electric and electronic circuits using MathCad. It presents the development of a virtual laboratory using PSpice, and illustrates how Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and MatLab are used for data recording and/or result comparisons among measurements, theoretical calculations, and simulations. The paper shows the mechanisms and approaches developed for strong correlation between theories and hands-on experimentations using modern computer tools for the purpose of quality education of a laboratory course in electric and electronic circuits. Index Terms – Education, laboratory, electric and electronic circuits, LabView, NI ELVIS, MathCad, PSpice simulation, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, MatLab.