Collection

2009 GSW

Authors

Charles Baylis; Randall Jean

: design, construction, and measurement [2]. Dedicatedlaboratory courses have been the successful vehicle to provide the hands-on experiences at someuniversities, such as the University of South Florida (USF) [3], with tremendous success. Whilethe idea of a dedicated laboratory course in microwave engineering is attractive, it is difficult tointegrate such a course into an emerging curriculum with limited resources. The BaylorElectrical and Computer Engineering Department is in a period of significant growth, but atpresent, the department faculty numbers a mere eleven, with only two members presentlyteaching RF/microwave and electromagnetics courses. A second issue that must be tackled ishow to teach both passive and active circuit design

Collection

2009 GSW

Authors

Tzu-Liang (Bill) Tseng; Richard Chou; Yongjin Kwon

: design, construction, and measurement [2]. Dedicatedlaboratory courses have been the successful vehicle to provide the hands-on experiences at someuniversities, such as the University of South Florida (USF) [3], with tremendous success. Whilethe idea of a dedicated laboratory course in microwave engineering is attractive, it is difficult tointegrate such a course into an emerging curriculum with limited resources. The BaylorElectrical and Computer Engineering Department is in a period of significant growth, but atpresent, the department faculty numbers a mere eleven, with only two members presentlyteaching RF/microwave and electromagnetics courses. A second issue that must be tackled ishow to teach both passive and active circuit design

Collection

2009 GSW

Authors

Jerry K. Keska

obstacle is thatthe laboratory and shop base that are required for the constant troubleshooting process can causeboth a financial burden and a tremendous increase to the instructor’s teaching load. These obstaclesoften force engineering educators to make necessary compromises which oftentimes replacelaboratory experiments with virtual experiments and “black board” exercises.One way to reduce some of this burden is through the implementation of miniature mechanical toolswith prototyping sensors and measurement systems as a part of the laboratory class. The students canalso use a prototyping board to construct sensors and electronic transducers, which allows the class toget a better understanding of measurement systems. In order to do this, however

Collection

2009 GSW

Authors

Melissa C Lott; Dr. Carey W King; Dr. Michael E Webber; Dr. Kathy J Schmidt

Center for International Energy & Environmental Policy The University of Texas at Austin Dr. Kathy J Schmidt Faculty Innovation Center The University of Texas at Austin AbstractEstablishing a reliable and sustainable electricity supply is one of the daunting challenges facingcommunities today. Unfortunately, discussions on this topic include wide varieties ofmisinformation, subjective analysis, and biased resources. The Texas Interactive PowerSimulator (TIPS) tries to address these shortcomings by providing a quantitative and transparenttool that teaches the basic

Collection

2009 GSW

Authors

Kenneth W. Van Treuren

thought about thecomputer programming and hardware interface required to achieve this graphic display. Afterteaching freshman engineering for a number of years and observing the skills of recentlyentering freshmen, the question becomes are the secondary or high schools doing all they can tointerest students in a university engineering degree? What skills are necessary to help highschool students develop the skills and make the transition to a successful university academiccareer? Defining the Skills GapFaculty teaching introductory freshman engineering courses indicate that there exists what somewould call a “Skills Gap” referring to the lack of skills that graduating high school students arebringing to their