Rutgers Physics Student Response System

Design of the System

This page indexes the description of the SRS system in the Physics Lecture Hall, which enables the instantaneous gathering of responses by students into a computer on the lectern. The system is based on a continuous polling of the keypads at each student's seat, and the setting of the state of the three lights. An elaborate hierarchy clusters these signals, eventually interacting with the higher level program by adjusting an array of student responses and reading an array containing the desired state of the LEDs on each student station. The software for communicating between these arrays and the student stations I call the lower-level software, and is considered a fixed part of the system. The software for communicating between these arrays and the instructor, and perhaps a projected screen for the students, I consider the higher-level software, and I expect there will be many versions available, hopefully written by or in collaboration with a large number of instructors, to provide pedagogic flexibility.

Details of the system:

Also available:


shapiro@physics.rutgers.edu