Case Study: Johns Hopkins University achieves a hands‑on virtual wireless communications lab with MathWorks' Simulink

Johns Hopkins University Establishes Virtual Lab for Wireless Communications with Simulink

Johns Hopkins University faced the challenge of giving graduate students practical, hands‑on experience in wireless communications without the cost, maintenance, and scheduling limits of a traditional hardware lab. To solve this, ECE Program Chair Dr. Lee Edwards and instructor Robbin Roddewig turned to MathWorks’ MATLAB and Simulink to create a virtual laboratory for their “Introduction to Wireless Technology” course.

MathWorks’ Simulink and MATLAB were used to let students model and simulate everything from modulation schemes and channel effects to a complete 802.11 transceiver, enabling exploration of realistic interference, noise, and carrier recovery. The MathWorks‑based virtual lab is used across most of the program’s ~40 classes each semester, increased student enthusiasm and understanding, made the course more popular, and enabled independent, experiment‑driven learning with the potential to move the course online.

Johns Hopkins University

Lee Edwards

Johns Hopkins University