Laboratory Equipment
Groups with two students in each were formed. Each group and each graduate assistant was issued the following equipment for use during the semester.
The notebook computer was configured to dual-boot both Windows 2000 Professional and Red Hat Linux and was pre-loaded with most development tools and applications needed for the assignments.
The equipment was used for in-class laboratory sessions, at-home exercises, and design projects. The at-home exercises and design projects were designed so that they could be completed using just the equipment in just one "kit." In-class laboratory assignments usually required the collaboration of two or more groups to conduct experiments using equipment from multiple kits.
The following equipment was available at each site, Blacksburg and the Northern Virginia Center. This equipment was used for in-class laboratory assignments, validating student projects, and testing and debugging assignments.
The graduate assistants used their kit as a shared resource for some in-class laboratory exercises. For example, the graduate assistant's notebook might be configured as a server to be accessed by clients developed the students. Network Instrument's Observer network monitoring tool was also available on the graduate assistants' notebooks.