Extensions and enhancements to the iLab heat transfer project site

Abstract

The iLab Heat Transfer Project website started four years ago to enable web access to experiments related to movement of heat through transport processes. This thesis details improvements made to the site which extend and enhance the site prior to the project. Software improvements include giving teaching assistants the ability to add their entire class as users simultaneously and creating a method by which feedback data is stored as a full questionnaire instead of database entries. Hardware improvements include the addition of a webcam that streams video and audio of the experiment in real time and the integration of two new thermodynamic experiments complete with remote access. The final improvement is the administrator manual, which is intended to ease the burden on new staff members by bridging their knowledge with that of previous years.