Team-Based Learning for Scientific Computing and Automated Experimentation: Visualization of Colored Reactions

The increasing integration of software and automation in modern chemical laboratories prompts special emphasis on two important skills in the chemistry classroom. First, students need to learn the technical skills involved in modern scientific computing and automation. Second, applying these techniques in practice requires effective collaboration in teams. This work aims at developing a teaching module to help students gain both skills. In particular, we describe a modular and collaborative approach for introducing undergraduate students to scientific computing in the context of automated and autonomous chemical laboratories. Using online collaboration tools, students work in parallel teams to develop central components of an automated computer vision system that monitors color changes in ongoing chemical reactions. These components include three different aspects: image capture, communication, and data visualization. The image capture team collects and stores the images of the chemical reaction, the comm...