1. 1. Introduction A remote experiment on hydrogen fuel cell testing Biao Han, Xu Yang, Ashraf A. Mousa, Linfeng Zhang Renewable Energy Research Laboratory Department of Electrical Engineering University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT,06604 In the utilization of sustainable energy, hydrogen is a promising energy carrier and fuel cells with hydrogen as fuel can generate electricity with zero emission. Therefore, the concepts and theories in fuel cells should be instilled among students. Although tradition lecture is still a main teaching strategy to transfer knowledge, active learning, e.g. experiment, is a more effective way to help students better understand the relevant theories. At present, remote laboratory is very attractive due to its low cost and easy access. The students can remotely perform experiment from anywhere and at any time. This may substantially engage more students in engineering, inspire their interest, and boost their creativity. 4. Conclusion 2.Labview provides a webserver which is also capable of doing remote control. Why we don’t use that? There are two reasons. First, the webserver implements remote control by transfering the control panel to the user’s browser. Therefore it will require a lot of data transfer. This will become a problem if we are experiencing a poor internet speed. In our system no more than 20 digits ASCII code needs to be transferred every refresh time(we set it 1s) so it won’t need to transfer too much information. Another reason is that the webserver’s control doesn’t have an identification capability which will not be safe. One advantage of this system is that we don’t need to wait for a long long time in the lab during a fuel cell test. We can simply monitor and control it at home through the internet. Another advantage is that it makes students learning much more simple and convenient. Labview 8.2 provides the capability of TCP/UDP communication via specified ports. Our program is running by a server-client mode. The server program is in charge of acquiring data from the fuel cell, record it and transfer it to clients while the client program is responsible of viewing data, and sending commands to the server if the operator is an administrator. Once the command is sent to the server, the server will operate relays and transistors through a Minilab® 1008 to connect or disconnect the DC power supply. There is an identification method in the server program that can prevent unauthorized personnel from modifying the system. Also the server program is capable of handling 20 clients as visitors and 1 administrator at the same time. 2. Experimental setup 3. Results and discussion 1. The system works well and we can operate the system wherever and whenever we want. Acknowledgements The present study was supported by the Department of Energy through grant no. DEOE0000427. By selecting “client”, logged in and the client1 light is lit at server side. Then the data is displayed on the waveform chart. By selecting “adminstrator”, it asks for password. Typing in correct password then we are logged in. The data is displayed on the waveform chart and we can cut the power supply by pressing the button. Client Interface: