Conference Session

Embedded Computing

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Holden, California Maritime Academy

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

. Finding a common platformto use in many classes allows the instruction time devoted to microcontrollers to be distributed sothat the new topic can be added without cutting significantly into the existing curriculum.Rather than taking one microcontroller class near their senior year, the students will be exposedto microcontrollers as early as their freshman or sophomore years, and will gain experience withthe same hardware in several classes. There are several advantages to this approach compared toadding a standalone technical elective to the curriculum.The primary advantage is that students learn the material early in their education and have adeveloped skill set ready to apply to capstone design projects. There is not much prerequisiteknowledge

Conference Session

Programming for Engineering Students II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Amy Craig, North Carolina State University; Lisa Bullard, North Carolina State University; Jeff Joines, North Carolina State University; Tom Miller, North Carolina State University; Carolyn Miller, North Carolina State University; Dianne Raubenheimer; George Rouskas, North Carolina State University; Larry Silverberg, North Carolina State University; Eric Wiebe, North Carolina State University

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

. • Plan a multidisciplinary capstone senior design project course for all departments in the College of Engineering to engage computing intensive disciplines with other engineering disciplines. • Create a junior year multidisciplinary project that relies on extensive collaboration with computing intensive disciplines. • Initiate formal computing concentrations in select engineering departments.In addition, a primary thrust of Year 3 will be on summarizing the results of the first two years ofthe project and preparing for an undergraduate computing education transformation plan. Effortsof the community that are successfully implemented at this university will be integrated intomodels that can be replicated at other

Conference Session

Mobile Robots in Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steven Barrett, University of Wyoming; Chad Hager, University of Wyoming; Mike Yurkoski, University of Wyoming; Robert Lewis, University of Wyoming; Matthew Jespersen, University of Wyoming; Zachary Ruble, University of Wyoming

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

years we have used student designed and developed laboratory equipmentwith great success. Typically a student team will design and fabricate a prototype of anext –generation piece of laboratory equipment. Other students are then hired tofabricate multiple production run pieces of the equipment. Student developed laboratoryequipment solves two challenging problems confronting most engineering programs: 1)the need to update laboratory exercises and equipment without adequate funds and 2)satisfying Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) requirements fora major design experience within the curriculum. In this paper we will briefly reviewprevious projects completed such as a Motorola HC12 microcontroller based teachingplatform, a

Conference Session

Embedded Computing

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey Richardson, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

outside work at home, since they have thedevelopment board. This also allows the students to be able to utilize these boards forother course projects and can significantly aid in capstone project courses.Having the students buy their own development boards can significantly add cost to thesecourses. To ensure that the students are spending their money wisely, we have turnedtowards a decision matrix to help ensure that we are utilizing the best platform for thesecourses and the future courses that the students may take.Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP):Analytical Hierarchy is a well known process of evaluating and making decisions basedon requirements. The exact process to be under taken is beyond the scope of this article.However, the general

Conference Session

Instrumentation and Laboratory Systems

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joe Bradshaw, U.S. Naval Academy; Jack Nicholson, U.S. Naval Academy

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

upgrades and algorithm enhancements inthe field via in-circuit programming, enhancing its longevity as a useful educational tool. Inaddition, a variety of controllers or a personal computer (PC) can communicate with the INUboard through a standard RS-232C serial interface. This compact unit provides good systemperformance at a reasonable cost compared to most commercially available units. These featuresenable hands-on education techniques in the navigation aspects of robotics, examples of whichare presented.IntroductionA significant amount of work in robotics is done in the USNA Systems Engineering Department,with autonomous vehicles in particular. Such ABET accredited engineering programs require a“capstone” design project for graduation, and

Conference Session

Computer Simulation and Animation I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Othoniel Rodriguez-Jimenez, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico; Carlos Pacheco, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico; Nelson Reyes-Aviles, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico; Marisol Mercado, Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

in terms of performance criteria fordifferent outcomes allowing faculty to clearly identify what is expected from them in terms ofoutcomes assessment within a specific course. From the syllabi for the whole program one canextract lists of textbooks for the bookstore, or lists of bibliographic references for adquisition by thelibrary, or the short course descriptions for the catalog. All these issues point to the need for aflexible tool to support the creation, editing, maintenance, review, and publication of a program’ssyllabi in a uniform way.Unisyllabus is a tool originally developed as a Capstone project which incorporates all the abovefeatures and some more. It is a web application which allows the capture of all the informationcontained

Conference Session

Web-Based Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ece Yaprak, Wayne State University; Karen Tonso, Wayne State University

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

1999 Mary Catherine Ellwein Outstanding Dissertation Award (Qualitative Research Methodology) and the 1998 Selma Greenberg Distinguished Dissertation Award (Research on Women and Education) from the American Educational Research Association. She received the 2006 Distinguished Paper Award for her article “Engineer Identity” from Cultural Studies of Education. She is currently the PI of ESCALATE: Engineering & Science Careers in Academia, Learning from ADVANCE and Translating Effectively, an NSF ADVANCE-PAID Project. Address: #319 Education, 5425 Gullen Mall, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, 313-577-1764 (v), 313-577-5235 (f), ag7246@wayne.edu

Conference Session

Educational Software

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cameron Wright, University of Wyoming; Michael Morrow, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Mark Allie, University of Wisconsin - Madison; Thad Welch, Boise State University

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

to outreach activities,we also use these real-time DSP tools in several of our regular ECE courses.In the capstone design course ECE 468, “Computers in Control and Instrumentation,” winDSK6is used as an example of an appropriate student project outcome. The student projects must uti-lize the DSK6713 which includes the HPI daughtercard. The winDSK6 program is also used todemonstrate some of the DSP software that the students need to write for their projects. The audioeffects, FIR and IIR filter routines, and the scope/spectrum analyzer are used as a reference for thefunctionality of the project code. The audible effects of aliasing and quantization noise are alsodemonstrated in class using winDSK6.In ECE 330, the first signals and systems

Conference Session

Hardware Descriptive Language Education

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jonathan Hill, University of Hartford

Tagged Divisions

Computers in Education

together. Engineering students can be presented withtheory to prepare for analysis of systems constructed with the toolkit. These students maybenefit as the controller is programmed with the ‘C’ language, allowing the software andparameters to easily be changed. Students can next each be given an opportunity for designusing the toolkit. It is our hope that the toolkit be used in senior capstone type projects. Finally,the toolkit provides graduate students with opportunities for design and research.From a student’s point of view, being given a design opportunity such as the inverted pendulum Page 13.335.6can be overwhelming. How does one start