Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sandra Yost, University of Detroit Mercy

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

above.In the 2002-2003 academic year, Program Assessment activities began a transition fromad hoc to more formal. Once the Program Educational Objectives and ProgramOutcomes were created and validated by various constituencies, it was possible to beginto formulate and implement an assessment plan in preparation for the 2004 accreditationvisit.Assessment Process for 2004 Accreditation Visit Page 11.1134.2Figure 1 depicts the overall evaluation and assessment process. Note that OutcomesAssessment takes place on an annual cycle. 3 year cycle Senior Exit Survey

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ravel Ammerman, Colorado School of Mines; Pankaj Sen, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. After presenting an overview of the “powerengineering option” at CSM, this paper discusses the course outline, the scope, and themethodology that was adopted to design a very successful and effective advanced power systemslaboratory. Our advanced undergraduate energy systems laboratory promotes power engineeringeducation by showcasing the modern simulation tools used by the utility sector. Working closelywith industrial representatives helps to prepare the students for the real world problems they willeventually be asked to evaluate.IntroductionEstablished in 1874, Colorado School of Mines (CSM) is one of the oldest institutions of highereducation in the State of Colorado.[1] It is known both nationally and internationally for itseducation and

Conference Session

New trends in ECE education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ravel Ammerman, Colorado School of Mines; Pankaj Sen, Colorado School of Mines; Michael Stewart, North Dakota State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

often times is not treatedwith respect and caution based on the inherent hazards. According to the National Institute forOccupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) [1], an average of one worker is electrocuted on the jobevery day in the United States. Statistics indicate that additional injuries and deaths occurbecause of arc flash events. Within the U.S., arc flash explosions occur at the rate of five to tenper day.[2]Tremendous progress in the broad area of electrical safety has occurred during the past threedecades, advancing the overall understanding of how to recognize electrical hazards and take theappropriate precautions (developing Codes and Regulations) to ensure that the exposure tohazards does not result in injury or death and to

Conference Session

Digital Communications Systems

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dennis Silage, Temple University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

systems. A partial lesson survey of binary phase shift keying(BPSK) bandpass modulation and demodulation will illustrate this approach of usingdigital communication simulation to elucidate principles.It’s Only a (Binary) PhaseBPSK is a modulation technique that encodes binary information as only the phase of asinusoidal carrier. BPSK can be simulated in SystemVue with the system configured withTokens within the Design Window (Figure 1). The specifics of the SystemVue simulationare not appropriate for the intent of the lesson survey here. However, a detaileddescription of this BPSK digital communication system simulation in SystemVue isavailable4.The source (Token 9) is an audio .wav file that provides a perceptible performance of theBPSK digital

Conference Session

Digital System Design

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joanne DeGroat, Ohio State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

generation significantly easier. Placing the test vectors in afile also allows easy expansion of tests and incorporation of new tests once the first testresults are evaluated. Lectures also cover several other verification topics such a whitebox versus black box verification. The first design the students work on is white-boxverification. White box verification means that the students see the HDL code they areverifying. In some cases the HDL code is not available to be seen.II.A. The ProjectsII.A.1 Floating Point Adder Functional Unit For the first project the students work in groups of two. As modern HDL designis done in teams the verification course uses teamwork for all the assignments. However,the teams are changed for each assignment

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Erik Peterson, University of Cincinnati; Ian Papautsky, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

assess student’sopinions on the course content, delivery, and structure. We reported our preliminary results lastyear.1 Now, in this recent offering, the course has been modified to address student feedback.This paper reports on modifications to the course and draws comparisons with the last year’sstudent feedback and course evaluations.The CourseThe “Introduction to Biomedical Microsystems” course introduces electrical engineers to therapidly emerging area of BioMEMS, and was described in detail previously.1 Briefly, the coursewas designed to be ten weeks long, three hours per week, consisting of twenty 75 min lectures.As a 600-level course it was dual-level, intended for the undergraduate seniors and first yeargraduate students in the

Conference Session

ECE Laboratory Design

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kain Osterholt, Belcan Corp.; Adam Vaccari, Caterpillar Incorporated; Joe Faivre, Caterpillar Incorporated; Gary Dempsey, Bradley University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

projects. Additionalworkstations have not been purchased for students in the control theory courses because of costand space constraints. However, incorporating a laboratory feel into these courses would enhancelearning and retention. The design and use of a low-cost virtual control workstation in the firstundergraduate control theory course will be discussed. The virtual workstation was modeledfrom the physical electrical and mechanical parameters of a Quanser Consulting electro-mechanical system.I. Introduction Two control workstations from Quanser Consulting have been used in over adozen student projects in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at BradleyUniversity as well as for faculty research 1. The Quanser Consulting

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rocio Alba-Flores, University of Minnesota-Duluth; Fernando Rios-Gutierrez, University of Minnesota-Duluth

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Duluth. Her interests include control, robotics, image processing, digital systems, and microprocessor applications. Page 11.934.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 Mobile Robots Capstone Design CourseAbstractThis work describes the educational experience gained during the "Design Workshop", a fourthyear course in the undergraduate Electrical and Computer Engineering program at ourUniversity. The main topic of this course is concentrated on a team-based, semester-long projectin which students design and build mobile robots for different applications.1. Introduction The number of electronic

Conference Session

Digital Communications Systems

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Border, Bowling Green State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Technology Organization.”IV. ChannelIt was desired to adopt a channel mode that has achieved quasi commodity status in thecommunications world. For this reason, the Bluetooth standard, and Bluetooth standard deviceswere chosen. Two modules were tested during project work, the Euzio (class 1) andConnectBlue (class 2) Bluetooth modules. Both units are marketed as replacement for copperserial cable links. Both modules are mounted onto development kit boards that support voltagelevel shifting (3.3 V / TTL / RS-232), RS 232 with DB-9 connector and power adaptor. TheEzurio provides plated through holes to access the 40 pins of their Bluetooth module. TheConnectBlue version uses a 20 pin header mounted on the module board itself. The Ezurio andConnectBlue

Conference Session

ECE Laboratory Design

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mukul Shirvaikar, University of Texas-Tyler; Mark Humphries, University of Texas-Tyler; Leonardo Estevez, Texas Instruments Inc.

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, testing an audio codec and implementing an embeddedweb server. TI expects to disseminate the instructional resources developed and tested in thiscourse to other universities and industry partners.IntroductionDual-core processors have recently entered mainstream computing in PC systems, and it iscritical for students of computer engineering to be exposed to them early in their career. Thispaper extends past work 1, which presented the development of some introductory labs using TI's P POMAP 5912 Starter Kit (OSK). The Real Time Systems senior elective course at theUniversity of Texas at Tyler combines lectures along with an integrated lab. The students arerequired to have at least one course in structured

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Larry Bland, John Brown University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

environments.Introduction Undergraduate engineering classrooms are experiencing changes as we strive to improvecurriculum outcomes and develop students to meet future challenges. Two important issues thatface engineering educators are changing educational philosophies and techniques and theoutcome requirements of ABET. Active learning educational philosophies push us to consider alearner-centered approach over an instructor-centered teaching style. In addition to changingour teaching style, we have become aware of the different learning styles of our students.Research shows that students learn best when taught according to their particular learning stylethat may be dependent, collaborative, or independent.1 Course design must strive to integratethese

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 3

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John M. Santiago Jr, Colorado Technical University; Kathy L. Kasley P.E., Colorado Technical University; Jing Guo, Colorado Technical University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. When students come to class, they perform weekly labassignments. Because labs require students to collaborate in teams, the College of Engineeringidentified several challenges for delivering the course fully online in the future3. The paper willsummarize the results of the flipped classroom and its implementation using Google Docs andinteractive video for EE110.Grading results and course surveys were used to assess and improve the effectiveness of theflipped classroom over several course offerings. Various technologies include: (1) using worddocument with links to YouTube videos followed by with quiz questions in the first offering; (2)adding Google Docs (or Google Forms) with embedded YouTube Videos and quizzes in the nextclass session; and

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 8

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Rusek, Oakland University; Subramaniam Ganesan, Oakland University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. The students commented that thecourse material was easy to understand due to the lab experiments and demonstrations in theclass. Details of topics covered in our course, the circuit simulations done, measurements ofinterference signals under varying conditions, challenges faced and student feedback are alsopresented. 1. IntroductionThe course of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) has been taught for many years at ourUniversity. We improved the course with new topics, simulation and experiments. The industryprojects that we did also helped us in improving course topics. The course outline and outcomeare given in Appendix A. The course required a lot of background related to electromagnetics,communication circuits and systems, measurements

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 8

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Curtis Cohenour P.E., Ohio University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

offered. The course has long beenoffered without any specific training in sequences. In the fall of 2015 the course was modified to includeFinite State Machines (FSMs). With this change students are now trained to recognize the differencebetween combinational logic and state logic. Combinational logic is logic that is derived exclusively fromcurrent inputs and does not depend on previous inputs. State logic includes memory of previous eventsspecifically embodied in the “states”.Additional learning outcomes for the modified course are: 1. Recognize the difference between combinational and state logic 2. Recognize a sequence 3. Create a state diagram 4. Implement an FSM in Ladder Logic 5. Create outputs from FSM states 6. Test and

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 10

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christopher Miller, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

for thefinal two weeks when students focus on a final project. We use an 8-bit Microchip PIC16microcontroller, which has a simple RISC architecture with only 35 instructions. An outline ofthe course is shown in Table 1. The integral labs are shown in Table 2. These labs will vary abit from year to year, but each lab will generally cover the same concepts, with slightly differentimplementations. Each of these labs were completed using the C programming language. Thefinal project assignment was completed using assembly programming. Table 1. Original outline of course. Week Topics 1 Introduction, circuit review, software development tools, and

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 9

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bridget Benson, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo; Fred W. DePiero, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

techniques and the lab portion of the course typically involvesstudents measuring voltages and currents in provided circuits with electronic test equipment.Two major problems arise with this method of teaching: 1. Students often do not see theconnection between what they are learning in lecture with what they are doing in lab and 2.Students often do not see a connection with what they are doing in lab with real-worldapplications. Without being able to directly implement what they learn in lecture to a practicaland useful real-world example or problem, students become disinterested in the subject and mayeven choose to leave the major.This paper discusses an attempt to modify the structure and content of an introductory electroniccircuits course to

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Garth V. Crosby, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; Marcelene Allecia Cunningham; Kevin N. Bowlyn, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

below.1. Signal processing-MATLAB & SIMULINK12. Signal transmission-Microwave Office23. Data communication- Riverbed Modeler3 (formerly OPNET modeler)MATLAB is a high level programming language for technical computation. The softwareincludes computation, viewing, and programming in a user-friendly environment. AlthoughMATLAB has a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) interface, its functions are primarilyexecuted through commands. Therefore, the user must know these commands and the syntax ofthe programming language. Common uses of MATLAB include: a) plotting of complexmathematical equations, b) mathematical computations, c) algorithm development, and d)modeling and simulation.SIMULINK has an interactive environment that facilitates

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 11

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Charles Carlson, Kansas State University; Dwight Day, Kansas State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

hardware. For the Fall 2015semester, the class was transformed to utilize microprocessors and focus on hardware limitations.The transformation was done for primarily two reasons. 1) To advance the course’s curriculum.2) Improve student retention.Every day we interact with and are surrounded by embedded systems. From cars to microwaves,they have become an integral part of everyday life. It’s no surprise then that the area ofembedded system design has grown tremendously in the past few years [1]. More graduates areworking with microprocessors as a result of the growing embedded systems field and wouldbenefit from working with them and coding during their undergraduate coursework. Therefore, itwas decided that the courses’ new focus would be centered

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 5

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jani Kalasniemi, Aalto University; Joona Kurikka, Aalto University; Lauri Repokari, Politecnico do Porto

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

other hand, did give anenormous amount of additional qualitative information about what kind of problemsthe teams were facing in their challenge.The outcome of the study is that none of the three methods proved to be superior, buteach one of them brings up useful data for future studies when combined. The paperwill introduce detailed recommendations in building and updating such ameasurement setup in a dedicated working space and analyze the gathered data inmore detail.BackgroundEngineering graduates’ employers expressed their concern because new engineerslack the capability and preparation to define and solve open-ended problems and inresponse, engineering design was increased in education. [1] An approach to teachingdesign to engineering

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jiahui Song, Wentworth Institute of Technology; Douglas Eric Dow, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

exercises withcomputer simulations. The computer simulations help, but have enough differences with realvoltage signals to hinder full understanding for some students.To provide direct analog and digital communication experience for students, Tim Hooperdeveloped the first version of Telecommunication Instructional Modelling System (TIMS) in1971. TIMS is a hardware training system, designed specifically for telecommunications andsignal processing courses that requires only an oscilloscope to use the system [1-3]. TIMS allowsstudents to experiment with real world electrical signals in a way that is doable andunderstandable for more students compared to utilizing only theory and simulations.Courses for undergraduate engineering students in

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lei Zhang, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; Benjamin Earl Whiteley; Dinesh K. Sharma, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; Ibibia K. Dabipi, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; Willie L. Brown Jr, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; Weiwei Zhu, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; Xianfang Tan, Delaware County Community College

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Math & CS, TrumanState University,1997 – 1999 Director of CAD Laboratory, Institute of Technology, PANDA ElectronicsCo., Ltd, 1995 – 1997 Electronic Engineer, Institute of Technology, PANDA Electronics Co., Ltd, 1995 –1997 Assistant Electronic Engineer, Institute of Technology, PANDA Electronics Co., Ltd, 1989 – 1996(c) Publications Five publications closely related to the project[1] W. Zhu & W. He, ”Wavelet Tight Frames for linear NURBs: Intervals”, Essays on Mathematics andStatistics, Volume 4, Athens Institute for Education and Research, November 2013. [2] W. Zhu, ”Themultilevel structures of NURBs and NURBlets on intervals: Monograph on NUMBlets modeling,” ISBN:978-3-659-19291-3, Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, November 2012

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 3

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dale N. Buechler, University of Wisconsin, Platteville

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, exams, reports, projects, etc.).Others eliminated all graded homework because 1) it is time consuming to grade homework and2) some students rely on other students or online resources for their answers. A few faculty didnot change their approach and either hired graders to cut down on their added workload ormoved on (went to industry or retired).In anticipation of increasing enrollments and higher university workload demand, we completeda series of 3 pilot studies4 in the 2013 -2014 academic year to evaluate methods to improvestudent learning for both local and distance students that would be sustainable in terms of facultyworkload. One of those methods involving the potential use of online quizzing as a partialreplacement for homework was

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 5

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ramakrishnan Sundaram, Gannon University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

project activity provides the feedback necessary to assess the overallprocess and each project activity. Section 2 overviews the concept-to-product approach in the context of electronic circuitdesign and outlines the agenda and timetable of the workshop. Section 3 summarizes the projectactivities in electronic circuit design which were performed by the participants during theworkshop. Section 4 documents the outcomes of the workshop. Conclusions appear in Section 5.Section 2: Concept-to-Product CycleThe electronics industry survives on the successful implementation of the concept-to-productcycle. Figure 1 summarizes the cycle in terms of the following major phases. The concept isusually the formulation and exploration of one or more ideas

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 7

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Brad L. Hutchings, Brigham Young University; Stephen Schultz, Brigham Young University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 Project Based Learning Curriculum for the Junior Year Based on Building a Laser Tag System Brad L. Hutchings and Stephen Schultz hutch@ee.byu.edu, schultz@ee.byu.edu Dept. of Electrical and Computer Eng. Brigham Young University1 IntroductionThis paper describes a Project Based Learning (PBL) curriculum 1 that spans the junior year of theElectrical and Computer Engineering Department. This curriculum consists of two, lock-stepsemesters. During fall semester all juniors (120+ students) enroll in three, four-credit-hour coreclasses: 1

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 10

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stephanie Claussen, Colorado School of Mines; Vibhuti Dave, Colorado School of Mines

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

in an Introductory Circuits CourseIntroductionThere are increasingly frequent calls to incorporate reflection into engineering education. Muchof the focus has been on the use of reflection in teaching design.1, 2 However, there have alsobeen efforts to incorporate reflective practices into courses which are not specifically focused ondesign. If we are able to incorporate reflection into what “the students learn engineering tobe”3—meaning, the engineering science courses which make up the vast majority of mostundergraduate curricula—reflection is expected to contribute to learning outcomes and students’development of metacognitive and social skills.4Because exams are generally used for formative assessment, they are rarely also leveraged as

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 3

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arnold Stanley Berger PhD, University of Washington, Bothell

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

maymodify and improve the system, contribute new experiments to the pool, and make theimprovements available to the educational community.II. backgroundRemote engineering labs for electrical engineering and other engineering disciplines are not new andhave been widely discussed in the literature and at previous ASEE conferences.[1-6] Typicalinstallations take advantage of the remote access capabilities of modern test and measurementequipment, combining them with software to manage student access, and a breadboard for thecircuitry. Nedic et al[7] compare remote EE labs using real hardware with labs based upon simulationtools, such as Labview© from National Instruments.[8] They reach no conclusion about whichmethod for creating off-site laboratory

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 10

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Diane T. Rover, Iowa State University; Joseph Zambreno, Iowa State University; Mani Mina, Iowa State University; Phillip H. Jones III, Iowa State University; Douglas W. Jacobson, Iowa State University; Seda McKilligan, Iowa State University; Ashfaq A Khokhar, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. Y-circles are engaging in a process of discovery and inquiry to bridge theengineering education research-to-practice gap. Research studies have been planned and will beconducted to answer questions to understand (1) how educators involved in X-teams use designthinking to create new pedagogical solutions; (2) how professional formation pedagogy in themiddle years affects student professional ECE identity development as design thinkers; (3) howECE students overcome barriers, make choices, and persist along their educational and careerpaths in the middle years; and (4) the effects of department structures, policies, and procedureson faculty attitudes, motivation and actions.This paper describes the project, efforts that led up to the project

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 4

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

J. Craig Prather, Auburn University; Michael Trent Bolt, Auburn University; Brent Bottenfield, Auburn University; Thaddeus A. Roppel, Auburn University; Stuart M. Wentworth, Auburn University; Mark Lee Adams, Auburn University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, biotechnology, micro/nano fab- rication and computer modeling. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 Robotic Outreach to Attract Primary and Secondary Students to EngineeringAbstractGraduate students and faculty at Auburn University’s Department of ECE developed an automatedNerfTM launcher for STEM outreach. This robot was created by the authors as a final designproject for a robotics course. The robot detects a reflective target using infrared light and tosses aNerfTM ball at the target. The robot was initially demonstrated to a Title 1 middle school roboticsgroup working on a competition robot at the university. This opportunity allowed for a preliminaryoutreach event

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 12

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alexander M. Wyglinski, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Travis Fredrick Collins, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Robin Getz, Analog Devices

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

(i.e., inphase samples and quadraturesamples), the ADALM-PLUTO SDR platform by Analog Devices was used in this course due toits capabilities and compact form factor.IntroductionIn 2010, several of the authors of this paper presented an educational paradigm for teachingdigital communications via a hands-on approach using software defined radio (SDR)technology 1. At the time, SDR technology was only beginning to mature, the number of optionswere limited, access to the various features of the SDR platform was limited, and the cost of thehardware was relatively high (˜$2000USD). Based on this proposed paradigm, the authorspublished an undergraduate textbook that presented a curriculum for teaching hands-on digitalcommunications education using SDR

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 11

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dick Blandford, University of Evansville; Christopher Miller, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

usual ordering of the courses in the student's plan of study. In most cases, it isevident as to which category a course falls into: hardware, software, hardware/software, orsomething else (systems, mathematics…). In those cases, where it was not clear which categorythe course fell into, we attempted to find the course syllabus or, in a few cases, we sent email tothe department chair seeking further information.As to the number of programs examined, we initially believed that a random sample of fiftyprograms would be adequate. After tallying the data for the first twenty programs a patternemerged and this pattern changed little after forty programs so we stopped there.The common software courses that we sought included the following: 1