AC 2008-2104: RECENT CAPSTONE DESIGN PROJECTS AT WESTERNKENTUCKY UNIVERSITYMark Cambron, Western Kentucky University Dr. Mark Cambron is an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering in the Department of Engineering at Western Kentucky University. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. He is a registered engineer in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. His current research interest include: engineering education, bio-sensing devices, machine vision, robotics, learning systems, neural networks, and controls.Walter Collett, Western Kentucky University Walter Collett
AC 2008-103: ENHANCING ONE STUDENTS’ DESIGN SKILLS IN ANELECTRICAL ENGINEERING CAPSTONE SENIOR DESIGN PROJECT BYLEARNING FROM THE DESIGN AND HARDWARE CONSTRUCTION OF ANANNUNCIATORRosemarie Guzman, University of the Pacific Rosemarie Guzman is a an undergraduate electrical engineering student (senior standing) at the Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Engineering and Comptuer Science, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, USA. Her research interests span a wide range of topics in electrical engineering, with special emphasis on the design and development of various instruments for practical applications.Michael Golanbari, University of the Pacific Michael Golanbari received
Computer Engineering. It now includes students from mechanicalengineering, environmental engineering, biomedical engineering, and chemistry.Figure 1. MEMS and BioMEMS courses offered at the University of Cincinnati.Fifth-year undergraduate students (seniors) in the Electrical and Computer EngineeringDepartment take a sequence of 3 senior capstone courses for a total of 9 credit hours in theirsenior year.4 Typically, students self-organize into teams and select a project of interest. Theymay choose a variety of projects proposed by industry, community organizations, professors, co-op employers, or themselves. All teams meet with the course instructor and complete a series ofdeliverables to specify and document their projects. Each team has a
4) run the test program ontheir hardware. Cedarlogic is a unique real-time digital logic simulator designed by six of oursenior engineering and computer science students for their capstone project over two successiveyears. In Cedarlogic, a logic high signal is shown in red, a logic low signal is shown in black,while high impedance is shown in green. As a result, when a project is working correctlystudents can actually watch all the internal signals within the computer “dancing” with the clock.Students can watch how the address buses change, how the data is latched, and how the ALUcalculates... It is a real-time simulation, an experience which uncovers the mysterious veil of thecomputer. The students are excited to watch their computer
theAccreditation Board for Engineering and Technology5 (ABET). This educational gap is commonamongst engineering curricula. Figure 1 (a) below illustrates the knowledge and skills gapbetween traditional computer and electrical engineering curricula and those engineering skillsrequired for successful job performance. At Cal Poly, the traditional CPE and EE courses takenbefore systems design and the capstone project sequence include, computer engineeringorientation, fundamentals of computer programming I, II and III, discrete structures, digitaldesign, computer design and assembly language programming, electric circuit analysis I, II andIII, continuous-time signals and systems, semiconductor device electronics, and digitalelectronics and integrated circuits
Management for First-Year Graduate Students in Electrical and Computer EngineeringAbstractThe electrical and computer engineering (ECE) department at the University offers a graduatecurriculum that is designed to help students develop skills for system integration and acquireeffective business and technology practices, as well as, fundamental knowledge in the ECE field.As part of the curriculum, a new course on engineering project and management has beenrecently introduced to first-year graduate students. This new course guides students through acomplete design cycle from inception to completion with a pre-defined project of a complexsystem. This paper focuses on the experience and lessons learned from offering the Capstone
, where networked computers arereadily available, nor does it occur when all team members are working in the same physicallocation. Our hypothesis is that equipping each project team with wireless Tablet PCs should notonly significantly improve the spontaneity (and regularity) with which the on-line lab notebooksare updated, but also facilitate collaboration among team members working on the design projectat different locations. An HP Technology for Teaching Grant has provided a critical mass ofTablet PCs to test this hypothesis. A description of how the equipment provided is beingutilized, along with a discussion of the preliminary results obtained, is presented in this paper.IntroductionIn most team-oriented capstone design courses, creation
Innovative Curriculum for Undergraduate Electrical and Computer Page 13.421.11Engineering Students.”References [1] M. Paulik and M. Krishnan, “A competition-motivated capstone design course: The result of a fifteen-year evolution,” IEEE Transactions on Education, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 67–75, February 2001. [2] F. C. Berry, P. S. DiPiazza, and S. L. Sauer, “The future of electrical and computer engineering education,” IEEE Transactions on Education, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 467–476, Nov 2003. [3] J. S. Bruner, The process of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960. [4] W. M. Clark, D. DiBiasio, and A. G. Dixon, “Project-based
and patterns of expression, we find the gaps and lack of force that thinking alone oftenfails to identify. Writing has tremendous potential variety, each format serving specificpurposes. Yet the ultimate intent is to convey a message, ranging from precise clarity tointentional ambiguity.A central intent of the MSOE Electrical Engineering program and curriculum is to instill theimportance of professional skills, in addition to the normally expected technical skills.Communication, with an emphasis on writing, culminates in the capstone senior designexperience. While the nominal purpose of the three quarter course sequence is to teach theprocess of design, the project itself is the vehicle used to bring “to life” the design process and todevelop
Pedagogical and Andragogical Validity of Capstone Projects,” http://www.asee.org/acPapers/20476.pdf. 4. S. Brookfiel, “Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning,” San Francisco, CA. Jossey-Bass, 1986. 5. R. Zemke, “In Search of Self-Directed Learners” Training, May 1998. 6. J.E. Stice, “A First Step Toward Improved Teaching,” Engineering Education, 1976 7. W. Ibrahim, R. Morsi, “Online Engineering Education: A Comprehensive Review,” Proceedings of the 2005 ASEE Annual Conference 8. L.D. Feisel, A. J. Rosa, “The role of the laboratory in undergraduate engineering education,” Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 94, No. 1, January 2005. 9. N.Y. Bengiamin, A. Johnson, M. Zidon, D. Moen, D., and D.K. Ludlow, “The
AC 2008-3: INTEGRATION OF PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC CONTROLLERPROGRAMMING EXPERIENCE INTO CONTROL SYSTEMS COURSESThomas Cavicchi, Grove City College Thomas J. Cavicchi received the B. S. degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in 1982, and the M. S. and Ph. D. degrees in electrical engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana, in 1984 and 1988, respectively. He is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Grove City College, Grove City, PA, where he teaches year-long courses on digital communication systems, digital and analog control systems, and the senior labs (including co-teaching the senior capstone design projects). He also has recently taught
. In addition to pre and post test (summative) data that they are nowcollecting resulting from our baseline results and reform efforts, the faculty researchers will becollecting and analyzing formative assessment data (ESAs) throughout the project to enable themto make just-in-time revisions to the curriculum throughout the reform/research process. Figure1 (below) describes the ERC’s powerful performance system that formatively and summativelymonitors the progress and success of curriculum reform. The performance assessment has beenconstructed using embedded signature assessments. Past attempts of measuring the performanceof BME students have relied on a single senior-level capstone design course and end-of-coursesurveys. The faculty
projects outside of laboratory class time. It also spreads the cost of the studentlearning kit over three courses. To support students who do not purchase a kit, our introductorycourse laboratory is equipped with HCS12 modules and project boards. In addition, theDepartment subsidizes the initial cost of the kits purchased by the students. The student learningkits are also used extensively in our senior capstone project course. Depending on the instructor,some of the introductory laboratory assignments have adopted the POGIL approach assignedabove.It is early days in our implementation of the POGIL methods in our laboratories. Although noformal assessment has been done at our institution, as it has at other universities17, we are findingthat after
Howard University in 1982. She is currently a Professor within the Department of Human Development and Psychoeducational Studies and Senior Research Associate with the Capstone Institute, both at Howard University. Dr. Thomas’ research interests include culturally responsive evaluations and the educational and socio-emotional outcomes of students of color. Dr. Thomas has collaborated with the Department of Electrical Engineering in planning and implementing evaluation studies. Page 13.59.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2008 Mobile Studio Experience of Experiential
. Carnegie Melon University – Embedded Systems Design - http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~ece549/index.html4. Wayne State University – Capstone Design – http://ece.eng.wayne.edu/~smahmud/ECECourses/ECE4600/ECE4600.htm Page 13.106.125. Vector Group Worldwide – http://www.vector-worldwide.com/6. Dearborn Group - http://www.dgtech.com/7. International Standards Organization, “Road vehicles – Controller area network (CAN) – Part 1: Data link layer and physical signaling,” ISO 11898-1, 1993.8. International Standards Organization, “Road vehicles – Controller area network (CAN) – Part 2: High- speed medium
communications,and senior capstone design project courses, teaching laboratories and projects helpedimprove student participation, got the students actively involved and excited about theprojects and the material being taught, motivated the students to better master coursecontent and taught the students to learn to think and reason more clearly, accurately,relevantly, logically, rationally, ethically and responsibly.This paper discusses how the judicious, sensible and affable use of the Socratic Methodin the aforementioned educational settings facilitated the development of students whoare learning to possess the basic skills of thought and reasoning such as the ability to:identify, formulate and clarify questions; gather relevant data; identify key
technology in education; more recent research contributions include papers on learning outcome assessment in both lower-division core courses and in senior-level capstone design courses.Mark C Johnson, Purdue University Mark C. Johnson is the Lab Manager for Digital and Systems Laboratories at Purdue University. He is a Ph.D. graduate of Purdue University in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). He supervises the ASIC Design Lab, Computer Architecture Prototyping Lab, and Software Engineering Tools Lab. He also co-advises project teams in Digital Systems Senior Design. He supports and maintains many of the electronic design automation tools used in ECE, and is involved in the