The LabVIEW course in the second semester is therefore complementary to this. LabVIEW graphical coding is used by students to send appropriate commands to the Arduino UNO to acquire data from external sensors and act on this information to drive external devices. Students work in pairs in hands-on experiments that are conducted in the project phases of both the first and second semester practical courses. The likely benefits of this programme include the following: • Provide a first exposure of our undergraduate students to modern test measurement and monitoring software (coding) and hardware with widespread applications, by way of “hands-on” tasks. • Increasing the practical and experimental competencies of our science graduates, to make them more competitive and marketable in the outside job market. LabVIEW is used extensively in industry and research and development contexts for process control. Our introductory course sets students on a trajectory to either pursue these topics by independently using the myriads of resources available on the Web, or to take further advanced level courses in these areas. One of the student pairs, pondering the LabVIEW graphical code for their project Another student pair contemplating the Arduino circuitry for their project. Instructor Daniel Janse van Rensburg, LabVIEW programming guru, assisting students with their project. Student group deep in discussion about aspects of their project. Instructor Daniel Janse van Rensburg in the background assisting another group of students. How others could learn from this project The project emphasises the importance of hands-on projects in motivating and enhancing the coding and practical skills of our advanced undergraduate students. It also ensures that they have a minimum of practical skills and are aware of important research tools for experimental research, as a prerequisite for postgraduate studies in research laboratories. In our survey conducted at the end of the course, the overwhelming majority of students indicated that they had benefited from the coding and practical electronics skills acquired from the short course. The survey response sheets are available for scrutiny from the practicals course co-ordinator. Outputs/ innovations derived from the project In the process of preparing this course, the instructor Mr Daniel Janse van Rensburg compiled a 60 page “LabVIEW book” introducing students in step-by-step fashion to this graphical coding. We expect to sustain this short course at least for the medium term, by appropriately budgeting in our Departmental budget for future temporary appointments. Teaching Innovation for the 21st Century | Showcasing UJ Teaching Innovation Projects 2022 38
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