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Transformation of an Introduction to Microcontroller Course

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Conference

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Columbus, Ohio

Publication Date

June 24, 2017

Start Date

June 24, 2017

End Date

June 28, 2017

Conference Session

CoED: Embedded Systems and Robotics

Tagged Division

Computers in Education

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--29040

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/29040

Download Count

517

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Paper Authors

biography

Jeffrey J Richardson Purdue University, West Lafayette (College of Engineering)

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At Purdue, Professor Richardson teaches courses in electric vehicle technology, prototype construction / project development and management, and courses in embedded microcontroller sequence. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Professor Richardson routinely mentors undergraduate students through his various applied research projects across the university campus. Current research projects include the creation of systems to support autonomous electric vehicles and the creation of a GPS based navigation system to assist students with visual impairments navigate and orient themselves to Purdue’s campus.

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Abstract

This paper outlines the curriculum changes made to a freshman introduction to microcontroller course. The course has undergone a transformation from a standard two hour lecture with a two hour laboratory experience each week to now include an additional arrange one contact hour to the laboratory portion of the course. The additional time requires the students to work outside of their normally scheduled laboratory session in pairs to tackle weekly challenges that go beyond the traditional laboratory activities. These challenges expand upon the concepts covered in the course and require the students to complete small or simplified versions of real-world problems. The outside activities also require the students enrolled in the introductory microcontroller course to complete challenges while working with students enrolled in other freshman courses such as the introduction to analog course. These outside activities take place in a dedicated laboratory for the outside activities. The dedicated laboratory is also utilized by sophomore and junior students working on similar problems and forces all the students to interact with each other. It is believed that this interaction can illustrate to the freshman students the types of things they will be doing during their future studies and help to retain the students in the program. This paper discusses the changes to the courses, the laboratory environment, and the actual challenges that the students complete.

Richardson, J. J. (2017, June), Transformation of an Introduction to Microcontroller Course Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--29040

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