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

Hands-on laboratory sessions are one of the pillars of science and engineering education. It is reputed that institu- tions 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 en- abling 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.