At OTH Regensburg, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heiko Unold has spent years finding new ways to connect engineering theory with hands-on experimentation. By integrating the Analog Discovery platform across multiple courses, he has helped create a learning environment where students can move seamlessly between classroom concepts and real-world measurements.
Through live demonstrations, breadboard-based experimentation, and interactive laboratory activities, OTH Regensburg has built a scalable approach to hands-on engineering education. The platform now supports coursework ranging from foundational circuit theory to digital systems, communications, and control engineering.
The Challenge: Connecting Theory and Practice
Engineering students are often introduced to theoretical concepts in lecture courses long before they encounter practical applications in the laboratory. This separation can make it difficult to connect mathematical models and abstract concepts with real circuit behavior.
Traditional laboratory experiences may also rely on fixed training systems rather than the same components, measurements, and troubleshooting techniques students encounter when building and testing circuits of their own. As a result, students may struggle to see how the concepts learned in class translate into practical engineering work.
The Solution: Bringing the Lab Into the Classroom
To strengthen the connection between theory and practice, OTH Regensburg incorporated the Analog Discovery platform into classroom demonstrations, laboratory exercises, and course activities across multiple subjects. Used with WaveForms software, the platform’s measurement, signal generation, power supply, and digital I/O capabilities allow students to work with real circuits using a common toolset throughout their academic progression.
The instructional approach emphasizes:
- Real hardware rather than purely virtual simulations
- Breadboard-based circuit construction
- Live measurements conducted during lectures
- Student interaction through questions and discussion
- Reuse of a common platform across multiple courses
- Progressive development of practical engineering skills
Rather than simply digitizing education, the goal is to preserve authentic hands-on experimentation while making it easier to integrate throughout the curriculum.
Building a Curriculum Around a Common Platform
Rather than limiting the platform to a single laboratory course, OTH Regensburg integrated it across the electrical engineering curriculum, allowing students to build familiarity with the same tools as they progressed through increasingly advanced topics.
Circuit Analysis and Electronics
- AC circuits and resonant networks
- Frequency response analysis
- Diode and transistor characterization
- Operational amplifier applications
Digital and Embedded Systems
- Logic gates and flip-flops
- Counters and multiplexers
- Digital I/O and pulse-width modulation (PWM)
- Data conversion concepts
Measurement, Communications, and Control
- Oscilloscope fundamentals
- Time- and frequency-domain analysis
- UART and SPI communication
- Signal processing and control systems
By encountering the same measurement tools across multiple subjects, students can focus less on learning new equipment and more on understanding engineering concepts and their practical applications.
Example: Bringing PWM from Theory to Practice
One laboratory assignment introduces pulse-width modulation (PWM), a fundamental technique used in electronics and embedded systems. Students investigate LED dimming, observe duty-cycle effects, generate PWM representations of analog signals, export and import waveform data, and reconstruct analog signals using filtering techniques.
The exercise combines signal generation, oscilloscope measurements, digital pattern generation, and hands-on circuit construction within a single workflow, helping students connect theoretical concepts to observable results.
Example: Making AC Circuit Analysis Visible
Another assignment applies the platform to AC circuit analysis using resistors, inductors, and capacitors. Students calculate expected circuit behavior, build physical circuits, capture measurements, compare theoretical predictions with experimental results, and investigate phase relationships using oscilloscope tools.
This approach helps make concepts that are often presented mathematically more visible and intuitive through direct observation and experimentation.
Educational Impact
After several years of implementation, the approach had expanded to include approximately ten developed experiments supported by custom software tools and positive student evaluations.
Reported benefits include:
- Increased opportunities for hands-on learning
- Greater visibility of real-world circuit behavior
- Stronger connections between theoretical and practical concepts
- Consistent tools across multiple courses
- Improved curriculum integration between subjects
The work has also been shared through conference presentations and published scholarship focused on engineering pedagogy and teaching methodologies.
Looking Ahead
Prof. Unold has described a future vision in which students receive a portable experimental kit that supports coursework throughout their degree program, giving them access to the same tools across multiple semesters and subject areas.
While the specific experiments continue to evolve, the underlying goal remains consistent: giving students repeated opportunities to test, measure, and build throughout their education. By using a common platform across multiple courses and semesters, OTH Regensburg has created a model for making hands-on engineering a continuous part of the learning experience rather than an isolated laboratory exercise.
Bring More Hands-On Experimentation Into Your Courses
Explore the Analog Discovery 3 and free WaveForms software to see how portable instrumentation can support classroom and laboratory learning.
