Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Bowles, University of South Carolina; Caitlin Buchhaults, University of South Carolina; Donald Griffith, University of South Carolina

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. Previously, he worked as a manager, team coordinator, and teacher with FIRST Robotics, FIRST VEX Robotics, FIRST Lego League, and Project Lead the Way, and as a high school industrial arts and technology teacher. He has a BS in Industrial Arts and a MEd in Industrial Education both from California University of Pennsylvania and an EdD in Career/Technology Education from Clemson University. Page 14.1352.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2009 Virtualizing FIRST for Improved Recruitment of Students for Computer Science and EngineeringAbstractThe FIRST Robotics Competition is

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eric Freudenthal, University of Texas, El Paso; Mary Kay Roy, University of Texas, El Paso; Alexandria Ogrey, University of Texas, El Paso; Ann Gates, University of Texas, El Paso

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

was taught by Computer Sciencefaculty in consultation with staff of the University's career guidance center. Early results havebeen very promising. Many students intending to study enginerering and computation find thecourse both enjoyable and engaging, and appear to be highly motivated towards continuing inthis direction. We are conducting a longitudinal study to determine the effectiveness of thiscourse in improving student success in CS and Engineering.In order to engage a large number of freshmen, the course is incorporated into a required firstsemester "University Studies" program designed to teach skills necessary for academic successand to provide career guidance. Students attending this course are provided an accessible earlyexposure

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gregory Bucks, Purdue University; William Oakes, Purdue University; Jeffrey Richardson, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

theprocesses that are used to integrate the teams, and provides specific examples of projects wherethese tools are utilized.IntroductionThe importance of significant design experiences to prepare undergraduate engineering studentsfor engineering careers has been well-documented1-4. These experiences typically emphasizethe application of technical skills as well as professional skills, such as communication in bothwritten and verbal form, working as a team, and customer interaction. The need for suchexperiences has spawned many innovative approaches to capstone senior design courses.However, capstone senior design courses do not include underclassmen. Earlier designexperiences have become more common and have shown to be valuable in motivating students

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hetal Jasani, Northern Kentucky University; Wei Hao, Northern Kentucky University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

University before joining NKU. At NKU, he teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in the area of computer networks and network security. He has chosen academic career since he believes that by teaching he can contribute towards community development.Wei Hao, Northern Kentucky University Dr. Hao came to NKU in August 2008 from Cisco Systems in San Jose, California, where he worked as a software engineer. He earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2007. He brings both academic and industrial expertise, having also worked for Motorola and Alcatel. His research interests include Web Technologies (such as web caching, web services, and web-based

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Haluk Ozemek, San Jose State University; Preetpal Kang, San Jose State University; Albert Khanh Nguyen, San Jose State University; pradeep badhan, San Jose State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

this course are designed to cover the lecture topics and elements to provide self-motivation to students. When students have “hands on” experience and learn how easily they can interface various sensors and actuators, they develop self- confidence and interest that help them throughout their educational and professional career. Experiment 1: Simple Input/Output: The first experiment allows students to become familiar with Visual Studio and programming language C. Students learn how to create, write, compile, and debug programs in Visual Studio. Experiment 2: Conditional Operations: The second experiment introduces conditional logic. Students write a program that contains different types of conditional operands. Experiment 3

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jan Machotka, University of South Australia; Zorica Nedic, University of South Australia; Andrew Nafalski, University of South Australia; Ozdemir Gol, University of South Australia

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2009-1171: A REMOTE LABORATORY FOR COLLABORATIVEEXPERIMENTSJan Machotka, University of South Australia Jan Machotka is an electrical engineering graduate of the Czech Technical University in Prague. He spent more than 10 years working as a professional consultant in industry in Czechoslovakia and abroad. He started his academic career 20 years ago at the South Australian Institute of Technology. He is currently a Programme Director for undergraduate, postgraduate and transnational students at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia. He is also responsible for final year students’ projects for four engineering streams in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Zorica Nedic, University of South Australia; Andrew Nafalski, University of South Australia; Ozdemir Gol, University of South Australia; Jan Machotka, University of South Australia

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Nafalski, University of South Australia Andrew Nafalski's career spans several decades in academic and research institutions in Poland, Austria, the UK, Germany, France, Japan and Australia. He holds BEng(Hons), GradDipEd, MEng, PhD and DSc degrees. He is Chartered Professional Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (UK), Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (USA) and Honorary Member of the Golden Key International Honour Society. He is currently a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of South Australia in Adelaide and Professor of Information Technology and

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Burkett, University of Alabama; Charles Snead, University of Alabama

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

important in today’s competitive environment.The goal of the laboratory was to exercise and enhance the creative process in lower level ECEstudents. This trait, creativity, is considered to impact globalization1 yet most engineeringprograms do not emphasize this skill. Globalization is stressed as a critical issue for the successof future STEM professionals in The Engineer of 20202 and Educating the Engineer of 2020.3 Adisadvantage in de-emphasizing creativity is that functionality may dominate the design processwith little regard to visual considerations.1 Project objectives include: 1) Making ECE more appealing to students early in their academic career

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Aurenice Oliveira, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, and levels of teaching. Nowadays, electrical engineering (EE) classesare part of the core curriculum of several other majors such as: mechanical engineering,mechanical engineering technology, computer network and system administration,surveying engineering, among others. Modern technologies are interdisciplinary andoften require knowledge of several engineering fields. Students graduating from thesemajors must have at least a basic understanding of electrical engineering principles, sincethey will be working with electronic systems and devices in their careers. The studentscan be motivated by seeing how the EE principles apply to specific and relevant problemsin their own field.Most of us face the challenge of teaching both non-majors and

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kuang Xu, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Elizabeth Van Ruitenbeek, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

either research or thespecific subject area is quite different from what they expected, and it is too late to changedirection. With little sense of how engineering knowledge is applied outside the classroom, andthus little awareness of their true research interests, students choose technical elective classes andresearch projects based largely on vague uninformed intuition. Even the students who find theirresearch work interesting may have difficulty concentrating on research while balancing theheavy course load common for third- and fourth-year engineering students.Bringing research opportunities to freshman and sophomore students eager to begin researchwould enable the students to make more informed career decisions. Early involvement

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Enrique Barbieri, University of Houston; Wajiha Shireen, University of Houston; Farrokh Attarzadeh, University of Houston; Miguel Ramos, University of Houston; William Fitzgibbon, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

-bound students can make the transition starting in the 4-th term. Page 14.135.11 ¬ ENGL I and II, and HUM-SS I and II, are typical composition courses and humanities or social science electives, respectively. ¬ Circuits I and II, and Physics I and II are calculus-based. ¬ Computer Programming (CMP PGM) is a course on computer-based engineering problem solving. ¬ The courses E & ET I-IV could be designed to keep the students engaged throughout the curriculum. These would play a significant role in reinforcing the CDIO philosophy, in advising/retention and career planning, in clarifying the differences in the academics

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment III

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jay Wierer, MSOE; Steven Reyer, MSOE

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

surprising item here. In the years before DSP was arequired course, large numbers of students took both the first and second DSP electives, andmany pursued careers in the signal processing area. In the years since the change, it has beenobserved that some students lose their interest after the first DSP course and “slack” their waythrough the signals and systems and communications systems courses. This is not a completesurprise, as the former students elected to take DSP, whereas now all electrical engineering andcomputer engineering students must do so.In spite of the unusual grade change explained below, many students have anecdotally expressedapproval of the new approach with its somewhat simpler and more practical introduction tosignals and

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carl Shek, Virginia Tech; Kathleen Meehan, Virginia Tech; Robert Hendricks, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Virginia including Virginia Western Community College.Despite the overwhelming success of LiaB, we still find that even the best students are oftenuncertain of their abilities to properly perform experimental work. One of the goals in our effortto develop multimedia learning materials is to instill self-confidence and improve self-reliance inthe students when, for the first time in their engineering careers, they construct a circuit withphysical components rather than symbolic parts in PSpice and determine the voltage drops andcurrents in the circuit by direct measurement rather than by plugging values into theircalculators. To accomplish this, we have developed a number of podcast tutorials that support thepedagogical objectives of LiaB. The

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arun Ravindran, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Patricia Tolley, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Arindam Mukherjee, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

additional opportunities for minor refinements to the course.ConclusionsWith the rapid emergence of diverse computing architectures in recent years, we were motivatedto introduce to the undergraduate curriculum topics such as reconfigurable computingtraditionally taught at the graduate level. Also, with the proliferation of multicore architecturesthe skills for writing parallel software needs to be developed in our students for their success intheir future engineering careers. The new course aims to address these goals by exposingcomputer engineering seniors to a variety of topics including hardware design using VHDL,FPGA design flow and interfacing, data parallel algorithms, and high performance computingapplications. After having taught the new

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mihaela Radu, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Clint COLE, Washington State University, Pullman; Mircea Dabacan, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Romania; Joe Harris, DigilentInc; Albert Fazekas, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Romania; Ioana DABACAN, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Romania

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

learningexperience.The first question investigates how beneficial is the competition for students’ professionaldevelopment and future career as an engineer. Students’ comments range from: “a chance todevelop a portfolio” to “take on a project without guidance from the instructor” and learningfrom mistakes. Suggestive examples of students’ comments:“This project gave me a better approach on how a design should be implemented as I learnedfrom my mistakes.”“I found out that an initial architecture can fail if you don’t know the hardware capabilities.”The second question investigates in which area the students think that they improved theirunderstanding and engineering abilities: Hardware-digital, Hardware-analog, Software-HDL orothers. The majority of students

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bill Yang, Western Carolina University; Amy Martin, Western Carolina University; Robert Adams, Western Carolina University; James Zhang, Western Carolina University; Kenneth Burbank, Western Carolina University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

samelearning settings and environment where generations before them always learned. They alsodepend on masters and teachers to make the connections and add meaning to their learning, andoften the masters’ connections are so lofty that only after many years of practice may thestudents make the link and understand the meaning. It is therefore a great challenge forengineering and engineering technology faculty to help their students to be more intentionallearners, which will benefit them in their life-long professional careers. In this paper, we presenta case study in the upper level core electrical engineering sequence where the same instructorand the same group of students in two similar level technical courses, one with more traditional

Conference Session

Embedded System Design

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

matt gallagher, Vermont Technical College; Andre St. Denis, Vermont Technical College; John Murphy, Vermont Technical College

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

theintent to give students more confidence in their ability to use these devices in their capstoneproject class and hopefully into their careers. The simple 16 pin MC9S08QG8 device has all thecapabilities we require in an introductory class and has the benefit of being cheap, available ineasy-to-use DIP package and requires no external clock circuitry. This makes it ideal for smallprojects done by relative novice students. In doing this we opted to forgo the wide array of Page 14.826.15available demonstration boards produced by manufacturers for the purposes of education andtraining. We developed our own training I/O boards and revamped lectures and

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rachid Manseur, State University of New York, Oswego; Adrian Ieta, State University of New York, Oswego

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

volumecomputation and various mathematical proofing methods, usually quickly forgotten by studentsand hardly ever seen again in their engineering careers. However, implementing engineering-targeted preparatory courses is easier done in a new school dedicated to engineering than in aprogram that must be integrated within an already existing regional university. Embedding anew program with redesigned courses for engineering in an already established curricularinfrastructure is difficult, if not impossible, due to limited resources.Embedding Communication SkillsThe importance of efficient communication skills in engineering is now widely recognized andhas become one of the tenets of engineering education as well as an important requirement for

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Georgios Anagnostopoulos, Florida Institute of Technology; Michael Georgiopoulos, University of Central Florida; Veton Kepuska, Florida Institute of Technology; Kenneth Stanley, University of Central Florida; Alison Morrison-Shetlar, University of Central Florida; Pat Lancey, University of Central Florida; Paula Krist, University of Central Florida; Tace Crouse, University of Central Florida

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

-lifeproblems, thus exposing participants to both theory and applications.As mentioned earlier, the AMALTHEA effort is funded and supported under the NSF’s REUprogram2 which states that it “…supports active research participation by undergraduatestudents in any of the areas of research funded by the National Science Foundation” andconstitutes one of the several NSF programs that aim to develop a diverse and globally-competitive workforce of future US engineers and scientists. Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL)3 aninformal alliance of faculty, focuses on building learning environments that attract and sustainundergraduate students to the study of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fieldsand motivate them to consider careers in related fields

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eduardo Montanez, Freescale Semiconductor; Michael Norman, Freescale Semiconductor

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

of architectures.These and other development tools add to a rich set of tools that greatly benefit engineers in theindustry. Experience with these tools in an academic setting will better prepare engineeringstudents for careers in industry. Page 14.19.12Design Example: An HVAC ControllerThe Tower’s rich set of MCU/MPU and peripheral boards along with the ability to rapidlyprototype custom expansion boards provide an excellent hardware platform for embeddedsystem course work. This section provides an example of how this platform might be used tocreate a series of courses or labs that build progressively toward a complete application: a digital

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alan Cheville, Oklahoma State University; Charles Bunting, Oklahoma State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

HF design additionally requires that engineering and otherstudents see how HF design is applied to challenges in their discipline or future career. Ensuringfuture vitality requires that HF courses both enhance students’ chances HF-related employmentas well as entice students to pursue graduate studies.Discussion of Planning MeetingsTo create a course on high frequency design techniques that could serve as wide an audienceof students as possible, the three faculty and one graduate student involved in the course meton a regular basis (primarily) during a summer intercession to discuss the key requirementsfor such a course. The following paragraphs summarize the discussion of these individualsand serve to outline the framework around which the

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Prakash Ranganathan, University of North Dakota; Richard Schultz, University of North Dakota

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

electricalengineering and computer science concepts, thereby enhance students critical thinkingskills, provide hands - on learning exposure, and inspire more and more high schoolseniors to choose engineering majors and careers to meet our nations growing needs onthe “engineering sector”.VIII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe author(s) gratefully acknowledge the Multi NXT robot design and programmingwork of Paul Nordvik, Jacobson Tyler, Flurer Andrew, and Paddock Eric done by theirstudents.LEGO MindStorms is a trademark of The LEGO Group, which does not sponsor,authorize, or endorse any of the third-party work cited in this article. None of the authorsof this article has any financial relationship with the LEGO Group or NationalInstruments or HiTechnic Inc

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chris Smaill, University of Auckland; Gerard Rowe, University of Auckland; Elizabeth Godfrey, University of Auckland

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

institution. In 2004 he was awarded a (National) Tertiary Teaching Excellence Award in the Sustained Excellence in Teaching category and in 2005 he received the Australasian Association for Engineering Education award for excellence in Engineering Education in the Teaching and Learning category. Dr Rowe is a member of the IET, the IEEE, the Institution of Professional Engineers of New Zealand (IPENZ), ASEE, STLHE and AaeE.Elizabeth Godfrey, University of Auckland Dr Elizabeth Godfrey has just finished a 9 year term as the Associate Dean Undergraduate at the School of Engineering at the University of Auckland after a career that has included university lecturing, teaching and 10 years as an

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adnaan Jiwaji, MIT; James Hardison, MIT; Kayode P. Ayodele, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; Sandy Stevens Tickodri-Togboa, Makerere University; Alfred Mwambela, University of Dar-es-Salaam; V. Judson Harward, MIT; Jesús A. del Alamo, MIT; Bryant Harrison, MIT; Samuel Gikandi, MIT

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Conference Session

Project-Based Learning in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Archibald, Brigham Young University; Doran Wilde, Brigham Young University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2009-608: THE ROBOT RACER CAPSTONE PROJECTJames Archibald, Brigham Young University James K. Archibald received the B.S. degree (summa cum laude) in mathematics from Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, in 1981, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the University of Washington, Seattle, in 1983 and 1987, respectively. Since 1987, he has been with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Brigham Young University. His current research interests include robotics and multiagent systems. Dr. Archibald is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Phi Kappa Phi.Doran Wilde, Brigham Young University Dr. Wilde started his career as an electrical

Conference Session

Project-Based Learning in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Keith Hoover, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; JianJian Song, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Edward Wheeler, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; James Drewniak, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer