Indusoft Inc. donates software to lab

Cleveland State University engineering students taking EEC 447 are now using Indusoft Web Studio, an award-winning piece of software that, according to engineering lecturer Lucian Fogoros, "acts as the eyes of the industrial process."

Last spring, Austin-based Indusoft, Inc. donated copies of its Web Studio software, valued at $250,000, to CSU's Electrical and Computer Engineering Lab. Students were allowed to install the Web Studio on their personal computers and use it without any restrictions both in and out of the lab.

Now, the readers of Control Engineering magazine have selected Web Studio as the winner of the Engineers' Choice 2012 award for HMI (human-machine interface) software.

HMI software, as its name implies, allows people to program, control and get information from all types of machinery, from home automation to an electricity-producing wind farm.

In the lab, Fogoros' students were tasked with using Web Studio to interact with an industrial conveyor belt. Prior to new technology, an interface to industrial machinery would have been large, expensive and at the site of the machine.

With the software, students were able to program and collect real-time data from the conveyor belt remotely, using a laptop, a tablet or smartphone.

"For students, it's a real-world application," Fogoros said.

He added that the software comes with nearly 300 drivers that allow it to work with technology produced by most major manufacturers, giving CSU engineering students hands-on experience with technology they may encounter during their careers.