A Project-based Computer Engineering CurriculumAbstractThis paper documents an innovative, project-based approach to teaching computer engineering.A project-based undergraduate computer engineering curriculum, with an embedded systemsfocus, has been offered since 2004 at a small, private college in the Northwestern US. The maingoals of the curriculum are twofold. The first is to engage students in engineering problemsstarting in the first semester of the Program, thus providing them with a sense of pride andownership in their work. The second is to prepare students for engineering careers by involvingthem in complex, team projects, which are typically only conducted outside of requiredundergraduate coursework, at the graduate level, or in
Electrical Engineering CurriculumAbstractThis paper presents findings from an impact study of a lower division student experience withinan undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum. This experience, culminating in the secondyear of the curriculum, is integrated across multiple first and second year courses and includeselements commonly found in senior-level capstone project courses. An introductoryprogramming course utilizing an embedded platform is the first course in the sequence. Thefinal course in the sequence requires students to design, build, and test an autonomous mobilerobot. Through a series of milestones, students systematically complete both the hardware andembedded software tasks required for the project. The final milestone
of the ASEE and IEEE.Dr. Jeffrey E. Froyd, Texas A&M University Dr. Jeffrey E. Froyd is a TEES Research Professor in the Office of Engineering Academic and Student Affairs at Texas A&M University, College Station. He received the B.S. degree in mathematics from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. He was an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. At Rose-Hulman, he co-created the Integrated, First-Year Curriculum in Science, Engineering and Mathematics, which was recognized in 1997 with a Hesburgh Award
students at Rochester Institute of Technology and broughtthem very well up to speed which resulted in successful research (publications in top-tierelectrical and computer engineering IEEE Transactions journals for the case study of side-channel analysis attacks and reliability).We have had the following goals in such integration: (a) Exposing the challenges of deeply-embedded system security education; (b) Hardware and software secure system co-design teaching and research integration (in previous work, theory and practice are combined for such purpose: A co-design course applying symmetric key ciphers has been presented6, a helicopter-like robot motion control has been implemented7, and co-design as an emerging discipline in
Paper ID #12964Introducing Students to Electronic Devices and Electric Circuit Applicationsat Early Level in the Engineering Curriculum through Multiple ProjectsDr. Nesreen Alsbou , Ohio Northern University Dr. Alsbou is an Assistant Professor at the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Com- puter Science at Ohio Northern University. She has experience teaching a variety of classes, including: Electric Circuits, Networks and Data Communication, Wireless Sensor Networks, Digital Logic Design, and others. Dr. Alsbou research in the area of wireless communications is focused on designing Media Access Control
results show a 20% - 30% increase in the number of students who meet or exceedexpectations when comparing the results from the spring 2013 term to the spring 2014 term.While it is too early to conclude these improvements are a result of the updated curriculum andequipment, it does suggest that a correlation exists. Future assessment results will be analyzedto further investigate the impacts that these improvements have had on student learning.ConclusionThe redevelopment of the PLC training units satisfied the objectives identified. First, the newunits allow for an open and reliable platform for the students to develop integrated hardware.Secondly, the lab sequence was redesigned to limit the scope of the course and increase the depthof the
learn in class. This paper introduces a software based educational tool designed to be used in introductoryrobotics courses. The software simulates the geometry of motion (kinematics) of any multilinkindustrial robotic arm and is to be used in place of or along with an actual robotic arm. Thestudents can use this tool to support their learning much the same way they use an actual roboticarm. The tool includes an integrated development environment that models the environments thattypically included with robotics packages. This tool allows the student to input the characteristicsof the arm they wish to program allowing the student to program any type of arm they wish. Thistool provides a low cost solution to situations where purchasing
course by developing and implementing ’Link Maps’, as well as synthesising an understanding of physics student learning by integrating a variety of theoretical backgrounds, from neuroscience via cognitive psychology to educational theories. Christine’s current research focuses on improving the science teacher education program at Oslo and Akershus University College, and she has a keen interest in how the brain learns physics. Christine also holds a position as Adjunct Associate Professor of University Pedagogy at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, where she teaches short courses on university teaching to PhD students and researchers.Mr. Tengel Sandtrø, Oslo and Akershus University College Tengel
American Society for Engineering Education, 2015Teaching Digital Designs by Building Small Autonomous Robotic Vehicles Using an FPGA PlatformThis article discusses the experiences of implementing a new model in teaching and learningdigital designs using Verilog in an embedded systems design course. This paper discusses thecourse structure, laboratory exercises, student projects and project evaluation process, and finallythe student evaluation outcomes. Students’ course assessment and student learning outcomeswere very positive. In many existing digital designs curriculum, students learn how to createstructural and behavioral models in Verilog Hardware Description Language (HDL) to designsimple combinational and
Paper ID #13650A Hybrid Approach to a Flipped Classroom for an Introductory CircuitsCourse for all Engineering MajorsDr. Steven G Northrup, Western New England University Dr. Steven G. Northrup, an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Western New England University, earned a BSEE from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and an MSEE & Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. Before attending Vanderbilt University, he worked in the defense industry in Whites Sands, NM and in the automotive electronics industry designing climate control systems for Ford Motor Company. At Western New England University
order to tacklethe interesting and challenging problems of the future. Survey questions 6 and 7 are aimed atunderstanding students’ perception of how engineering analysis techniques learned in engineeringscience courses inform the process of design learned in engineering design courses. Authentic designprojects across the curriculum lead students to break down the mental barriers that design is different inengineering science courses, and work toward an integrated perspective of engineering. Furthermore,understanding subsystems and how they interact is a qualitative reasoning skill that is often introducedin engineering design and plays a significant role in developing a system perspective of circuits. Surveyquestions 8 and 9 were given to
itsgoal the development of innovative curriculum and instructional practices that will allow fortransfer of new knowledge into the classroom. Although the major focus is on content related tothe ERC, methods that apply to all STEM areas are under consideration in practices related todesign, implementation, and assessment of student learning. Two primary goals of the SmartLighting ERC’s Education and Outreach components are to: 1) investigate the viability ofalternative approaches to instruction that will build on the constructionist/constructivist approachto STEM education1-4 and, 2) help students learn to work in professional teams that, when givena task or problem, can collaborate to provide a solution. To meet these goals, the
interest is in the areas of embedded systems, robotics, computer vision, integrated circuit optimization, and engineering education. Dr. Yelamarthi is a member of the Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society and Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honor society and a senior member of IEEE.Dr. Eron E. Drake, Central Michigan University Eron Drake received her Ed.D. degree in Education education with an emphasis on curriculum and in- struction from Central Michigan University in 2009. She also holds an M.B.A. from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI. She is currently the Assistant Director of the Faculty Center for Innovative Teaching at Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, MI, and has over eleven years of
, stimulate their curiosity, and engage them in hands-on activities that are notlimited to the laboratory 1. This paper proposes the integration of an activity-based learning approach in the EEcurriculum with the use of Analog Discovery Boards (ADB) by Digilent Inc. This enhancementallows students to build, analyze and visualize circuits using the USB-powered AnalogDiscovery platform, a personal computer, and a basic analog parts kit. This opens the door for avariety of learning activities that include in-class experimentation, take-home exercises, groupactivity sessions, and design-and-learn projects among many others. Our work aims to create anenvironment for a student that is conducive to innovation and creative thinking; while providingan
experiences.Dr. Marie C Paretti, Virginia Tech Marie C. Paretti is an Associate Professor of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech, where she co- directs the Virginia Tech Engineering Communications Center (VTECC). Her research focuses on com- munication in engineering design, interdisciplinary communication and collaboration, design education, and gender in engineering. She was awarded a CAREER grant from the National Science Foundation to study expert teaching in capstone design courses, and is co-PI on numerous NSF grants exploring com- munication, design, and identity in engineering. Drawing on theories of situated learning and identity development, her work includes studies on the teaching and learning of communication
-ricula to enhance undergraduate and graduate education and research engagement in related en-gineering and science fields.2 Problem statement and objectives Page 26.1743.4There is a jumble of symbols, concepts, channels, systems and standards that make wirelesscommunications sound very abstract and incomprehensive. (This is true for other engineeringand science fields, too, but we focus on wireless here.) The question we raise is can we providebetter access and understanding of these concepts and introduce them into the undergraduate en-gineering curriculum?Rather than looking at equations and variables, our objective is providing an intuitive
Electromagnetics PreparationAbstractA new undergraduate elective course that develops a background in antennas for senior electricalengineering students is presented. The course is only three quarter-credits long, that is, twosemester-credits. An innovative aspect of this course is the modest prerequisite of only a Junior-level, four semester-credits (four lecture hours per week) electromagnetics course or equivalent.In our quarter-based system, four semester-credit lecture hours translates into two courses ofthree quarter-credits (three lecture hours per week) each. The prerequisite courses, required inour undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum, are modulated in depth and breadth oftopics, starting with vector algebra and coordinate systems and
Paper ID #12390ASSESSING THE EFFECT OF ONLINE HOMEWORK ON STUDENTLEARNING IN A FIRST CIRCUITS COURSEDr. Katie Evans, Louisiana Tech University Dr. Katie Evans is the Walter Koss Endowed Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics and the Interim Director of Mathematics and Statistics and Industrial Engineering programs. She is the Director of the Integrated STEM Education Research Center (ISERC) and the Director of Louisiana Tech’s Grand Challenge Scholars Program. She earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics and M.S. in Mathematics at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA. Her research interests include distributed parameter control
Paper ID #11668Inverting Instruction in a Semiconductor Devices Course: A Case Study of aFlipped Electrical Engineering ClassroomVignesh Subbian, University of Cincinnati Vignesh Subbian is an instructor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computing Systems at the University of Cincinnati. His research interests include biomedical devices and informatics, human- computer interaction, and engineering education.Dr. Gregory Warren Bucks, University of Cincinnati Gregory Bucks joined the Department of Engineering Education in 2012. He received his BSEE from the Pennsylvania State University in 2004, his MSECE
andinspires their interests in Computer and Electrical Engineering. It also give them practicalpractice in team work and time management. Additionally, it has helped to better prepares themfor the coming senior design projects.This paper will explain why and how the new model is adopted in our microcontroller course. Itwill demonstrate some of the fun projects our student implemented. It will also present theimproved class outcomes and evaluations.IntroductionOur Microcontroller course is a fundamental class for both our Computer and ElectricalEngineering majors. Similar courses have been widely adopted in most similar undergraduateengineering curriculums. Information in this course lays the foundation for embedded systemand introduces fundamental
industrystandard to an FPGA-based intelligent controller for daily life applications. Such project willcontribute to the feasibility study of industry standard of wireless IEEE 802.11 and VHDL,FPGA for real world applications [2]. The developed system of FPGA-based microwave ovencontroller integrated with IEEE 802.11 wireless communication is illustrated in Figure 1. Figure 1 The system design of the wireless intelligent micrwave controllerStudents implemented the intelligent controller on FPGA and also developed IEEE 802.11communication functionality for remote control. The features of this team-based project are asfollows. • The project provides students with a great opportunity to obtain extensively hands-on experience to deal with
the middle of the pack in the final standings.One disadvantage they felt that contributed to their lackluster finish was that many other teamshad some form of course that went along with the competition so the unskilled students couldobtain background knowledge and have structured time to work on the project instead of learningand creating everything on an extracurricular basis. With this in mind this robot-based studentorganization looked to use the course described in the paper as the first step at forming the 2015ASEE robot team as well as an opportunity to recruit and mentor many future organizationmembers. The remaining sections of this paper will describe the curriculum of this course,learning objectives, and the mentoring structure
and M. Gonzalez, "Integrating Control Concepts in an Embedded Systems Design Course," IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), pp. 1273-1278, 2013.[13] R. Streveler, K. Smith and M. Pilotte, "Aligning Course Content, Assessment, and Delivery: Creating a Context for Outcome-Based Education," in Outcome-Based Education and Engineering Curriculum: Evaluation, Assessment and Accreditation, K. Mohd Yusof, S. Mohammad, N. Ahmad Azli, M. Noor Hassan, A. Kosnin and S. K, Syed Yusof (Eds.)Hershey, Pennsylvania: IGI Global, 2012.[14] G. P. Wiggins and J. McTighe, Understanding by design, ASCD, 2010.[15] J. McTighe and R. S. Thomas, "Backward Design," Educational Leadership, 2005.[16] J. D. Bransford, A. L. Brown, R. R. Cocking and
October 15, 2013].5. C.D. Troy, R.R. Essig, et al., “Writing to Learn Engineering: Identifying Effective Techniques for the Integration of Written Communication into Engineering Classes and Curricula,” 121st ASEE Annual Conference, Indianapolis, 2014, Paper #10122. http://www.asee.org/public/conferences/32/papers/10122/download [Accessed December 31,2014].6. D. Russell, “American origins of the writing-across-the-curriculum movement,” In C. Bazerman, & D. Russell, Landmark essays on writing across the curriculum, pp. 3-22. Davis: Hermagoras Press. 1992.7. J. Bean, Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking,and active learning in the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey
course concluded with a problem-basedproject, wherein student groups were required to select and address a problem of their choosingwith the development of an analog circuit.Student progress was evaluated and grades were administered based on homework assignments,three examinations, laboratory reports, and final project deliverables. Weekly homeworkassignments were comprised of two different question sets. The first set focused on the basicunderstanding and application of concepts covered in class while the second set posed morechallenging concept integration questions. Often, the second question set was framed aroundconsumer and industrial applications in an attempt to engage students with the relevance of thematerial. Similarly, the
Page 26.747.18a traditional classroom and flip classroom that used an intelligent tutoring system (Doctoral Dissertation), (2007).8 Jia-Ling Lin, Tamara Moore, and Paul Imbertson, “Introducing an Instructional Model in Undergraduate ElectricPower Energy Systems Curriculum-Part (I): “Monological (Authoritative)” vs. Dialogic Discourse in a Problem-Centered Learning Classroom”, the 120th ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, June 23-26, 2013.9 M. Loftus. “Keep the lecture, lose the lectern: Blended Classes –– Mixing Traditional and Digital Teaching –– areGaining Converts”, Connections Newsletter, October, (2013). http://www.asee.org/papers-and-publications/blogs-and-newsletters/connections/October2013.html#sponsored10 Gregory S. Mason, Teodora
Paper ID #11120A Project-Based Learning Approach to Teaching Computer Vision At the Un-dergraduate LevelDr. Sami Khorbotly, Valparaiso University Received the Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from Beirut Arab University, Beirut, Lebanon in 2001. He then received the M.S. and Ph. D. degrees both in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Akron, Akron, OH in 2003 and 2007, respectively. He is currently an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Frederick F. Jenny Professor of emerging technologies at Valparaiso University. He teaches in the areas of digital
&T Bell Laboratories and received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. His technical work ranged over the topics of optical data links, integrated circuit technology, RF semiconductor components, and semiconductor component reliable. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and an ABET EAC program evaluator in Electrical Engineering. Page 26.1534.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2015 The Flipped Classroom: It's (Still) All About EngagementAbstractOur collective experience in comparing the results of teaching three courses using a variety
environment for teaching lab skills and design techniquesto electrical and computer engineering students. It also provides an easy to use platform forABET assessment of outcomes b, d, e, and h.We have not yet assessed the impact the course has made on the quality of our senior designprojects. Anecdotally, we believe students who completed EE 380 are much better prepared todo a year-long open-ended senior design project than those who have completed only the moretraditional "canned labs".Bibliography1. Sundaram, R. Engineering project platform for electrical and computer engineering curriculum integration, ASEE proceedings, June, 2014, Indianapolis, IN.2. Hadim, H. and Esche, S.K. “Enhancing the engineering curriculum through project-based
semesters from Fall 2012 to Summer 2014. Fall 2012 class was taught in the traditional lecture format and used as the control group in the Page 26.1087.5 study. All subsequent semesters were taught in the flipped format with slight variations.Results and DiscussionA student needs a “C” or better grade to successfully complete the course and continue furtherinto the curriculum. In Fall 2012, only 54% of the students that started the semester received themarks required to take further courses in the curriculum. This number includes the 28% thatdropped the course during the semester. It should be noted that the course is not designed to be aweed-out