Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine Co, Oklahoma State University; Bear Turner, Oklahoma State University; Alan Cheville, Oklahoma State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

prepares students for open-ended team projects in the second course. This paperdescribes an easily adaptable model for a “pre-capstone” course that prepares students for ateam-based capstone experience in electrical engineering. The course is broadly adaptable sinceit has many similarities with the structure, outcomes, and grading methods of other capstonecourses nationwide1.Outcomes for the pre-capstone course were chosen based on observed deficiencies in studentperformance in solving open ended projects as part of a team in the second capstone course. Thecourse was structured on a cognitive apprentice model. In the cognitive apprentice model,experts model behaviors or skills for novices who then practice the skills on their own.Continuous

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Wagdy Mahmoud, University of the District of Columbia

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2007-2290: INCORPORATING SYSTEM-LEVEL DESIGN TOOLS INTOUPPER-LEVEL DIGITAL DESIGN AND CAPSTONE COURSESWagdy Mahmoud, University of the District of Columbia IEEE Senior Member Page 12.875.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Incorporating System-Level Design Tools into upper-Level Digital Design and Capstone CoursesAbstractThis paper describes the efforts to incorporate system-level digital design tools and state-of-theFPGA boards in the capstone design course sequence. This paper provides the details of twocapstone projects in the areas of digital communications and image processing. This paper alsodetails the challenges

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Min-Sung Koh, Eastern Washington University; Esteban Rodriguez-Marek, Eastern Washington University; Claudio Talarico, Eastern Washington University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2007-515: CLASS PROJECTS WITH GRAPHIC USER INTERFACES INMATLABMin-Sung Koh, Eastern Washington UniversityEsteban Rodriguez-Marek, Eastern Washington UniversityClaudio Talarico, Eastern Washington University Page 12.362.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Class Projects with GUIs in Matlab Min-Sung Koh, Esteban Rodriguez-Marek, and Claudio Talarico School of Computing and Engineering Sciences Eastern Washington University Cheney, Washington 99004 USA Email: {mkoh

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Chang, USMA; Grant Jacoby, USMA; Lisa Shay, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

on coursecurriculum as well as relevant proposals derived for future work in cooperative platforms.Background: Find PartnershipsOur approach begins with a scoped summer internship with a robotics designer andmanufacturer, iRobot in Burlington, MA. We chose iRobot because of the mission needs of theUS Army they are currently meeting in designing and building robots to destroy IEDs. Werequested iRobot to challenge two students to design and build something meaningful for thecompany that they could also continue to work on back in USMA in hope that the endeavorwould meet course requirements to fulfill a two semester capstone multi-disciplinary seniordesign project. The main goal of this negotiation was to set the stage for a

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Thomas Richter, Technische Universitat Berlin; Sven Grottke, Technische Universitat Berlin

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2007-1733: LEARNING ABSTRACT INFORMATION THEORY ON VISUALDATA: AN INTEGRATED COURSE ON WAVELET-BASED IMAGECOMPRESSIONThomas Richter, Technische Universitat BerlinSven Grottke, Technische Universitat Berlin Page 12.1007.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Learning Abstract Information Theory on Visual Data: An Integrated Course on Wavelet-Based Image CompressionAbstractWe describe the implementation of and our experiences with a capstone course on wavelet basedimage compression held at the University of Technology Berlin in the years 2002 to 2006. Thiscourse has been designed as an “integrated project”, which means that it combines

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ismail Jouny, Lafayette College

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

curricular innovation to produce ECE graduates that can work in anenvironment that may rely on outsourcing a portion of its operations, and also make theknowledge base of these graduates stronger in areas that are not likely to be outsourced,or perhaps should not be outsourced for security reasons or for physical and logisticalconstraints. IntroductionThis paper focuses on changing the electrical and computer engineering (ECE)curriculum in response to outsourcing. The assumption is that outsourcing of certain ECEfunctions will continue in the short term and may perhaps strengthen to include moredesign related ECE projects [10]. Outsourcing of several technical responsibilities to theFar East is not only an

Conference Session

Digital and Embedded System Design

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Clint Kohl, Cedarville University; Keith Shomper, Cedarville University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

concludes with some lessons learned through the Senior Design Capstone experiencefrom which this multi-threaded software was designed, written, debugged, revised and releasedfor experimentation in DLD. CedarLogic's 10,000+ lines of code is written in C++ and utilizesthe wxWidgets GUI library and OpenGL to render the graphics. CedarLogic can be freelydownloaded at http://sourceforge.net/projects/cedarlogic .Background and NeedDigital Logic Design is a foundational course for many engineering and computer sciencestudents. The first author has been teaching a freshman level Digital Logic Design course forover twelve years. The course includes laboratory projects in which students physically wire upTTL gates on a breadboard, use the CedarLogic software

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Doug Sterk, Virginia Tech; Tim Thacker, Virginia Tech; Elizabeth Tranter, Virginia Tech; Richard Goff, Virginia Tech; Janis Terpenny, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

unique in their integration intothe Center’s diversity strategic plan, which specifies the goals, commitments, and results for eachpartner campus in the areas of student recruitment and undergraduate program development.Through the CPES Education Program, REU and LSAMP REU participants have theopportunity to apply for short-term travel scholarships, which enable their continuedparticipation in Center-related research during the academic year. This has proved an effectivemechanism for continued engagement of undergraduates in Center programs, and occasionally,for integration of summer research into the student’s undergraduate capstone design project(s).The Center’s consortium format also allows participants from partner universities to establish

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Fadi Kurdahi, University of California, Irvine; Judy Shoemaker, University of California, Irvine; John LaRue, University of California-Irvine

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

described in this paper: (1)course-embedded assessment which makes use of assessment results already being collected aspart of regular coursework, and (2) a scoring rubric for assessing program outcomes related tothe required senior design project. Assessment results from 2004-05 indicated that a relativelysmall percentage of students achieve some of the program outcomes. After making adjustmentsto the curriculum, assessment results from 2005-06 indicated that the vast majority of studentsachieved all the program outcomes.BackgroundThe Computer Engineering program resides in the department of Electrical Engineering andComputer Science (EECS) in The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University ofCalifornia, Irvine. As of Fall Quarter 2005

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alka Harriger, Purdue University; Kyle Lutes, Purdue University; Jack Purdum, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

projects give them practical experience in userrequirements definition and working with agents who are external to the educational process.This paper describes CIT’s software development curriculum at Purdue and shares what aspectsof each course contribute to increased employability for summer internships and for part-timejobs during the school year.Department OverviewThe Department of CIT was established in 1978 under the name Computer Technology. Sincethat time, CIT has grown to include about 600 current majors and over 3,100 alumni. Currently,the Department offers one degree at the main campus, the Bachelor of Science (BS) in Computerand Information Technology. The BS degree provides a foundation for continued education (e.g.,graduate education

Conference Session

Digital and Embedded System Design

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Bolding, Seattle Pacific Univ; Dave Van Ess, Cypress Semiconductor

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

core.When designing such a course, the selection of a particular microcontroller is a very importantdecision. The selection should consider not only what microcontrollers are currently popular, butalso the ease of project development using the system, the availability of support to students, thecosts of starting up a lab, and the flexibility of the platform to fit into a course with multipleobjectives. This paper reports on using Cypress Semiconductor’s Programmable System on aChip (PSoC) as the basis for a microcontroller systems design course. The experience ofselecting the PSoC, designing a curriculum around it, designing laboratory exercises andmanaging the course are described. Furthermore, considerations such as the technical andfinancial

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

J. Shawn Addington, Virginia Military Institute

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2007-245: SIX YEARS AND THOUSANDS OF ASSIGNMENTS LATER: WHATHAVE THEY LEARNED, AND WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?J. Shawn Addington, Virginia Military Institute J. Shawn Addington is the Jamison-Payne Institute Professor and Head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the Virginia Military Institute. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He teaches courses, laboratories, and undergraduate research projects in the microelectronics and semiconductor fabrication areas; and, he remains active in curriculum development and engineering assessment. He is a registered professional engineer in the