The Mach-Zehnder Interferometer — A smart remote experiment based on a software template

Abstract

Hands-on laboratory sessions are one of the pillars of science and engineering education. It is reputed that institutions find it difficult to provide enough laboratory setups that cover all taught scientific topics due to logistical and budgetary limitations. With the recent advances in web technologies enabling real-time interaction, remotely accessing physical devices became possible, and so the rise of remote experimentation as a solution to the mentioned limitations. The development and deployment of remote laboratories is still a tedious process for lab providers, given the need to write new applications for each new lab. In this paper, we propose a software template for lab providers that will alleviate some of their concerns by following the Smart Device Paradigm and Specifications and abiding to software engineering rules to produce a reusable and flexible solution. We will show how this in-progress template can be used for implementing a remote Mach-Zehnder Interferometer.