Carlson, C., & Day, D. (2017, June), Transformation of an Introductory Computer Engineering Course Utilizing Microprocessors and a Focus on Hardware Limitations  Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--29041

\bibitem{asee_peer_29041}
  Carlson, C., \& Day, D. (2017, June), \emph{Transformation of an Introductory Computer Engineering Course Utilizing Microprocessors and a Focus on Hardware Limitations}
  Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Columbus, Ohio.
  10.18260/1-2--29041

Charles Carlson and Dwight Day.  "Transformation of an Introductory Computer Engineering Course Utilizing Microprocessors and a Focus on Hardware Limitations".  2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio, 2017, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2017.  https://peer.asee.org/29041 Internet.  15 Dec, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_29041}
  Charles Carlson and Dwight Day.
  "Transformation of an Introductory Computer Engineering Course Utilizing Microprocessors and a Focus on Hardware Limitations".
  \emph{2017 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Columbus, Ohio, 2017, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2017.
  https://peer.asee.org/29041 Internet.  15 Dec, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_29041
author = "Charles Carlson and Dwight Day"
title = "Transformation of an Introductory Computer Engineering Course Utilizing Microprocessors and a Focus on Hardware Limitations"
booktitle = "2017 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2017"
month = "June"
address = "Columbus, Ohio"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/29041}
number = {10.18260/1-2--29041}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In today’s world, we are surrounded by microprocessors embedded into almost every electronic device we use. It is no surprise then that the area of embedded system design has seen tremendous growth in recent years. For the fall semester of 2015, the authors’ institute transformed its introductory computer engineering course with the goals of advancing the course’s curriculum and improving student retention in the department. The growing field of embedded systems was one of the motivations for the transformation. The focus of the class shifted from hardware design to microprocessor based systems, specifically utilizing the Arduino platform. The idea of using Arduinos in introductory engineering courses is not a new idea, however, for our transformation we wanted to make sure that students still understood the limitations of hardware, which is something that can be easily overlooked in simple microprocessor designs.  Another motivation for the transition was to give students more practical experience with the interplay of hardware and software. Thus, the course is heavily based on practical laboratory experiments. With the Arduino platform, students gain insight into microcontroller programming with hands-on learning. Coupled with the Digilent Analog Discovery’s logic analyzer, students gain understanding of not only software, but of the timing limitations of hardware as well. A survey has been used measure the effectiveness of the transformation. Retention rates will be used as well once more data has been collected in the upcoming semesters. The survey measured the student’s confidence in the core topics of the class. The survey was first conducted in the follow-up computer engineering course before the majority of the students had taken the new version of the introductory course. Therefore, a control group was created to which future semester survey results will be compared to. Only preliminary survey results are presented in this paper, since the transformation has only been implemented for the last three semesters.
Preferred presentation - poster session

AU  - Charles Carlson
AU  - Dwight Day
CY  - Columbus, Ohio
DA  - 2017/06/24
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Transformation of an Introductory Computer Engineering Course Utilizing Microprocessors and a Focus on Hardware Limitations
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/29041
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--29041
ER  -