From Virtual Lab to Virtual Development Lab

The paper introduces the concept of a virtual development lab that was born from cooperation between academia and industry. Shortage of young well-trained engineers and a wish to share the industrial experience that the authors have accumulated over a decade has led one of the authors to teach satellite navigation at a University whilst simultaneously leading an industrial R & D team.The paper presents the results of the use of a virtual lab (VL) that was developed to provide students with hands-on experience in the application of signal processing and automatic control. It is shown that VL has partly bridged the gap between the University training and the needs of industry. However, only an extension of the VL to the virtual development lab (VDL) has allowed the requirements of industry to be fully addressed.VDL is a web-based platform which assists learning by enabling the whole development cycle (design, development, verification) to be conducted in a controlled environment which is similar to industrial one. VDL combines ease of use with real life task setting, thus allowing a student to focus on the essentials of the engineering task. The ease of use is provided by incorporating routine engineering methodology (compilation, linking, testing, and result evaluation) into a graphical user interface (GUI), and a simple and intuitive application user interface (API). Realistic task setting is ensured by the nature of the tasks.The paper provides an explanation of all aspects of the VDL including the initial motivation, the technical and educational framework, its advantages and drawbacks, and the VDL design details. It also provides practical advice for VDL realization. The paper will help future developers of VDLs to deliver this approach.