Enabling Remote Learning and Intercontinental Collaboration at the Tecnológico de Monterrey 

Dr. Manuel E. Macías García, Tecnológico de Monterrey 

Case Study Highlights

The NI platform enables students at Tecnológico de Monterrey and Hangzhou Dianzi University to conduct and share experiments in real time, bridging continents.
The products facilitate scalable integration of diverse sensors and motors, supporting a wide range of electrical machine experiments.
The remote lab provides 24/7 hands-on access to electrical machine experiments using NI LabVIEW and NI CompactDAQ hardware, overcoming time zones and location limits.
Tecnológico de Monterrey’s remote lab won the silver award in the E-Learning category at the Reimagine Education Awards.

HDU campus in China reviewing the remote lab data for experiments

"Two main components—the software LabVIEW (I’m a big fan of LabVIEW) and the hardware, all kinds of data acquisition systems, from very basic DAQ up to more complex ones like CompactRIO—have let us build remote labs that students can access anytime, anywhere. I can turn on the energy, turn on the light, whatever you need—even at midnight—we have exactly the key to go inside and work there, to do everything we need.”

- Dr. Manuel E. Macías García, Associate Professor at ITESM

The Challenge:

The primary challenge was to provide students with hands-on experience in electrical engineering, automation, power electronics, and control systems—despite geographical barriers. Dr. Manuel Macías García aimed to create remote lab environments that let students control and interact with real experiments in real time, whether studying from home or collaborating internationally.

The Solution:

Dr. Macías García’s project, “Remote, Cyber-Physical and Virtual Platforms for Engineering Training,” utilized NI products CompactDAQ and LabVIEW to develop an electrical machines remote laboratory, among other experiment test benches. This setup allows students to perform experiments and gather data remotely, ensuring they receive practical experience without being physically present in the lab.

Implementation 

The implementation involves a CompactDAQ system connected to DC motors, 3-phase induction, synchronous motors, and several sensors to measure these. LabVIEW is used both on the test bench to receive the remote commands, as well as in the client machine to create a user-friendly interface that students or professors can use to interact with the test remotely. This interface allows them to fully control the test bench, run experiments to perform all kinds of analysis in time, frequency, thermographic, phasor, vibration, power and vector, and collect data in real time^.1

LabVIEW was chosen as the solution to tie the hardware and the remote access because it is a powerful graphical programming environment that integrates a wide variety of tools into a single development platform. LabVIEW offers powerful capabilities for advanced mathematical analysis and features an intuitive environment for building professional-grade graphical user interfaces. Most importantly, it excels at communicating with a wide range of measurement and control devices—supporting extensive hardware and software integration for flexible, high-performance data acquisition system development.

Remote electrical machines lab interface with motor parameters and control panel.

Figure 3. Front Panel for the Electric Machines Remote Lab Showing the Connection Diagram

The CompactDAQ platform was used to acquire measurements and control the different energy paths because it is a flexible and compact platform with versatile communication options that support a wide range of sensors and measurements for data acquisition and control. With modules tailored for specific speed, resolution, and signal conditioning, the system can measure everything from temperature, pressure, and displacement to vibration, high voltages, and large currents.

Results

The remote lab is a resounding success. Students from Tecnológico de Monterrey and the partnering Hangzhou Dianzi University can collaborate on projects, share data, and gain valuable hands-on experience. The project won a silver award in the E-Learning category, highlighting its impact on modern engineering education.^2,3

Electrical machine lab interface with waveform and vector plots.

Figure 4. The front panel for the Electric Machines Remote Lab shows vector analysis coming from the remote laboratory.

Benefits 

“To ensure that the knowledge construction process takes place, an important feature of these platforms is that the results are not predefined or guaranteed; they depend on the student’s knowledge and abilities and what he or she does at the time. The Remote Labs give the students total flexibility in the where and when of the laboratory practice. For instructors and institutions to allow the implementation of better practices at a lower total cost and to share the lab resources among the campuses, and for governments, the Remote Labs give them the possibility to cover small and remote locations.” —Dr. Macías García

Lower barrier to access laboratories—Institutions can overcome the growing limitations of traditional labs—limited workspace, high equipment costs, insufficient staffing, restricted hours, and scheduling conflicts—by providing remote, on-demand access to hands-on experiments.⁴ As Omar Romero Sahagún, a master’s student in Energetic Engineering, explains, “With the Remote Labs we have the opportunity of really seeing how everything you are taught in class happens in the laboratory…I believe the greatest impact is that low-income universities could also have access to this type of resources.”

Enhanced learning experience—Students can perform real-time experiments remotely without physical or time constraints, and instructors can seamlessly bring live lab demonstrations into lectures—closing the gap between theory and practice. As Ana Sánchez Villalobos, a Biomedical Engineering student, puts it, “I am not only solving theoretical problems anymore; now it’s something more experimental and practical in terms of work.”

Global collaboration—The platform enables intercontinental collaboration by allowing institutions to share lab resources across time zones. For example, when labs in Asia are idle at night, students in the Americas can access them during daytime hours—and vice versa—maximizing global utilization and learning opportunities.

Conclusion 

The use of NI CompactDAQ and LabVIEW at Tecnológico de Monterrey revolutionizes remote learning and collaboration in engineering education. By providing students with tools to conduct real-time experiments from anywhere in the world, the institution sets a new standard for modern, accessible education. 

“Our vision for the future is the creation of a global network of remote laboratories that allows us to share the laboratory resources that each institution has available, regardless of where they are located in the world.” —Dr. Macías García