Conference Session

New ECE Courses

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Constance D. Hendrix, USAF Academy; Danial J. Neebel PE, US Air Force Academy; Ryan Jay Silva, U.S. Air Force Academy

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

largeamount of breadth would introduce EE and CpE topics earlier in the students’ course of study,enabling them to make a more well-informed choice of major.An effort to attract more students into the EE program was a “soda straw” solution to a largerissue: How can we better fit the student to the major? Figure 1 below, reprinted fromMatusovich, et. al. [1] shows a simplified view of Eccles expectancy-value theory [2]. The coursedescribed in this work aims to help students answer a question similar to the question on theright, “Do I want to earn an Electrical or Computer Engineering degree?” There are threeanswers to this question: 1) I choose Electrical Engineering. 2) I choose Computer Engineering. 3) I choose something else. Figure 1

Conference Session

Flipping ECE Courses

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rafic Bachnak, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg; Sofía Carolina Maldonado, Texas A&M International University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

public institutions is 37.9% [1]. While anumber of issues affect student success, the area of greatest concern is student retention.Standardized-test scores, study habits, and living on- or off-campus are not the only factors thataffect retention rates. Students are more likely to stay in college if they have clear goals, areactive learners, and are active participants in classroom activities.Students learn more when they are intensely involved in their education and have opportunitiesto think about and apply what they are learning in different settings. Students also benefit whenthey are engaged in the teaching and learning of their peers, such as assigned group work, peerreview, coordinated study groups, and peer teaching in and out of class

Conference Session

Innovations in Computer Engineering Courses

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bill D Carroll P.E., University of Texas, Arlington; Shawn N Gieser, University Of Texas At Arlington; David Levine, University of Texas, Arlington

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

and experience gained from our course have demonstrated thatit is practical to successfully cover, in one semester, a range and depth of topics that manyuniversities spread over two courses and two semesters. Other universities facing constraints oncurricular requirements and instructional resources may find our approach both interesting andbeneficial.Features of our course that facilitate student achievement and learning and enable its successfulimplementation include the following. 1. Incorporation of an interesting and challenging semester-long design project 2. Use of hierarchical design methods with industry standard CAD software 3. Use of a take-home design kit incorporating industry standard logic devices 4. Emphasis on

Conference Session

Innovations in Computer Engineering Courses

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Edward W. Chandler P.E., Milwaukee School of Engineering; William Barnekow, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

the scheduled laboratory sessions, and thescheduled sessions are intended to accommodate the demonstration of the implementedmilestones. Table I. Schedule of Project Milestone Demonstrations for 2013-14 Course Offering Week Laboratory Topic 1 Laboratory Safety and Course Project Description 2 Experiment 1 on Digital Signal Line Coding including Manchester 3 Project Milestone: Demonstrate operation of Channel Monitor function that continuously determines state of network channel/medium (Idle, Busy, or Collision) 4 Project Milestone: Demonstrate operation of Transmitter function that sends properly formatted signals on the channel/medium (transmission of short sequence of characters required; entire

Conference Session

Innovations in Electrical Engineering Courses

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Theresa Mae Swift, Missouri University of Science & Technology; Barbara Jean Wilkins, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

24.81.5videos were between five and twelve minutes long to maximize student attention. Material thatwas considered conceptual, as well as all derivations, was covered in the videos. Some exampleswere also included and worked out step-by-step using the Wacom tablet to write on thePowerPoint slides. A screenshot from one of the videos is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: One Slide From the Frequency Response Video LessonThe particular technology listed was chosen by the instructor and instructional designer due totechnology available at the time the initial video lessons were created, as well as cost oftechnology. Current methods include not only the Wacom Intuos tablet, which replaced theWacom Bamboo, but also tablet devices such as iPad and

Conference Session

Projects in ECE

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ying Yu, University of Hartford

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

-survey. The survey results suggested that in general the studentsfound it convenient and easy to record their speech using Google Voice; they also agreed thatusing real-life data offered realistic tests of the theory, and that the automatic transcriptionsystem allowed them to investigate the performance of a real-life speech recognition system. Inclosing, the conclusions and future plans are presented. Page 24.104.2IntroductionIn recent years, speech and audio processing has received significant attention [1][2][3] in theengineering education society, while little has been proposed regarding topics related to speechquality and intelligibility

Conference Session

Assessment of Learning in ECE

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Youakim Kalaani, Georgia Southern University; Rami Jubrail Haddad, Georgia Southern University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

(EE) students are expected toacquire upon graduation:1- Basic Skills (SLO1) - Apply concepts of mathematics, science, and electrical engineering (a) - Identify, formulate, and solve electrical engineering problems in a structured and systematic way (e) - Apply the techniques and modern tools in electrical engineering practice (k)2- Design Skills (SLO2) - Design an electrical system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability (c) - Assess impacts of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal context (h)3- Lab Skills (SLO3) - Design and conduct electrical

Conference Session

Projects in ECE

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lin Zhao, Gannon University; Nigel Yu, Gannon University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

students who have very good GPA struggle during senior capstone design. This is duemainly to the lack of system-level integrating experience. When given a real-life project,students have challenges of linking it with what they have learned from different courses inprevious years. “It seems that all the course projects we completed previously in individualcourse have nothing to do with the senior design” said one student.One of the student outcomes evaluated by ABET for engineering programs accreditation is “anability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs…”1. Among the most-favored pedagogical models to help students attaining this ability are integrated curricula2,project-based learning (PBL), problem-based learning, and

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education II

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark T Carnes PE, Purdue University, Electrical Engineering Technology; Heidi A. Diefes-Dux, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

of the way you think about voltage and current”would not be particularly helpful6.The need for an alternative approach has led to the development of an interview structure thatallows the researcher to gather data by observing the working of the participant’s mental modelindirectly by prompting a general discussion of electrical phenomena and experience. Theinterview structure consists of asking the same four questions about several of the most commontypes of components used in electrical design: resistors, capacitors, inductors, diodes, transistors,and op-amps. The questions for each component are of the form: 1. What is it? 2. What does it do

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Poster Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rocio Alba-Flores, Georgia Southern University; Fernando Rios-Gutierrez, Georgia Southern University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

microcontrollers. There are also programs where the emphasis of thecourse is on the study of instrumentation and programmable logic controllers.One difficulty in teaching control systems is to provide a good balance between theory and practice. Byincorporating a laboratory component, it could help to provide some connection between the abstractcontrol theory and the real world applications.In the present paper we describe the educational experience gained by including team-based projects intothe control systems course. In these projects students design and implement different controllers forautonomous navigation in a mobile robot. In particular, the design and implementation of three maintypes of controllers are assigned to teams of students, namely: 1) a

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education II

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jorge Crichigno, Northern New Mexico College; Gregory L. Heileman, University of New Mexico; Ivan Lopez Hurtado, Northern New Mexico College; Alfredo J. Perez, Northern New Mexico College; Ramiro Jordan P.E., University of New Mexico; Timothy L Schroeder; José Marcio Luna, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of New Mexico

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, support structure in the form ofadvisement and tutoring which are essential for first-generation students, and student outcomesand articulation among institutions. Further motivations for this project include: 1. Students across New Mexico, one of the largest state in the US in terms of mass land, attend colleges that may be remotely located from their local community. This characteristic is typical in NM, where remote communities may be distant from one to another by tens or hundreds of miles. Online and hybrid courses are appealing for the state because they may allow students to physically attend college fewer times per semester or per week (e.g., for hands-on lab hours or recitation hours). Figure 1 shows part

Conference Session

Projects in ECE

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Peter Mark Jansson PE, Bucknell University; Daniel Schmalzel; Robert R. Krchnavek, Rowan University; John L. Schmalzel, Rowan University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

for the State of New Jersey was completed at that time. Thefollowing two semesters (Autumn 2011 and Spring 2012) had smaller engineering clinic teamscontinuing to refine the document. It was completed and shared with the State over the summerof 2012 by summer students and their professors when the document went through its finalrevisions. This paper reports on general aspects of the EAP in order to provide the context and thenfocuses on the important relationship between project-based coursework and studentemployment opportunities. Some of the challenges in the academic environment include thesometimes competing goals of (1) providing relevant projects based upon real industry need, and(2) the accompanying expectations of professional

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education II

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Margret Hjalmarson, George Mason University; Jill K Nelson, George Mason University; Lisa G. Huettel, Duke University; Wayne T. Padgett, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Kathleen E. Wage, George Mason University; John R. Buck, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

questions as a template for writing the memo(using writing about in-class problems as an example). As an example, figure 1 showsresponses to the first three questions for reading summaries. • What are conceptual in-class problems? • Why should I use them? (How are they useful for the students? How are they useful to the instructor?) • What is an example (or two) of a conceptual in-class problem? • How do these problems fit into my class? How long will they take? • For which topics should I assign conceptual in-class problems? Page 23.402.3 • How should I grade these problems? Should I grade these problems? • What pitfalls

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE I

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tan Ma, Florida International University; Osama A. Mohammed, Florida International University; Ahmed Taha Elsayed, Florida International University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

the global energy reserves has already been a worldwide problem atenvironmental, industrial, economic and societal levels. In 2011, more than 80% of the energyconsumed in the USA was generated by petroleum, natural gas and coal, meanwhile renewableenergy sources only supplied less than 8% of the total energy [1], [2]. Therefore it is urgent andsignificant to teach the technologies related to development of utilization of renewable energy.Meanwhile, as the concept of the smart grid is becoming popular, intelligent analysis, controland optimization algorithms and tools are becoming essential topic to be taught to engineeringstudents [3]-[5].There are three major obstacles in the utilization of renewable energy in our daily life. First

Conference Session

ECE Curriculum Improvement

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dennis A. Silage, Temple University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Conference Session

Projects in ECE

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steven G Northrup, Western New England University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

course, there were many learning objectives that students mastered to varying degrees.Table 1 lists the objectives and what items were measured to assess how well the studentsachieved each objective. Many of the objectives are used in the department’s assessment ofABET a-k outcomes2. Because the scope of this paper is limited to the electrical engineeringaspects of the project, this paper will focus solely on the objectives related to the electricalsystems and the FMEA aspects used to teach robust design. The last three learning objectives: Page 23.469.3teamwork, written and oral communication, and societal impact are not covered in this

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Poster Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Roger A. Green, North Dakota State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

-phase FIR hearing equalizer, students quickly learn thatMATLAB is highly preferable to hand- or calculator-only approaches. Numerous examples,both textbook and instructor derived, are provided to students throughout the semester to developtheir MATLAB programming skills.Initially, the course required students to purchase a textbook by Chassaing, first [1] and then [2].Later, the course adopted a textbook by Welch, Wright, and Morrow [3]. The primaryconsideration in adopting these selections is that each of these books emphasizes hardwareimplementation using TI TMS320C6xxx products. Using an implementation-focused class text,students self-learn the DSK and TI’s CCS IDE much more rapidly and with much less boredomthan the one-size-fits-all

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE I

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Karl L Wang, Department of Engineering Harvey Mudd College 301 Platt Boulevard Clarement, CA 91711 909-607-9136 ; Clint S Cole, Digilent, Inc.; Tinghui Wang, Digilent Inc; Joe Harris, Digilent, Inc.

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

occur at arapid pace. The ability to work in a team design environment is important because oftenembedded system design skills, e.g. software, hardware, require close collaboration betweendesign team members with different expertise. In addition, team design experience trains thestudents to work in a similar work environment that they will likely to encounter in the industryas professionals.Course ContentsThe embedded system design course syllabus is shown in Table 1. It consists of 6 labs followedby a final project. The first two labs are designed to introduce the capabilities of the systemdevelopment board and design tool chain. The embedded system design development platformused in this course is the newest leading edge system design

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education II

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Askia Hill, Purdue University; Cordelia M Brown, Purdue University, West Lafayette

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

theirlevel of intellectual development and their learning style. Preliminary results show that specificlearning styles achieve higher intellectual development assessment scores and the degree ofpreference for a learning style is a factor in the intellectual development as it relates to theassessment scores.I. Introduction Over the past twenty years, engineering educators have noticed a trend withinengineering as a whole: students are not progressing as much as they should with respect to theirintellectual development before graduating [1]. There has been research with respect to howexperimental courses can improve this deficit[2], [3], but very little published examining whatcan be done with respect to current engineering courses. One

Conference Session

Project-based and Cooperative Learning in ECE

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Faruk Yildiz, Sam Houston State University; Reg Recayi Pecen, North American College; Keith L. Coogler, Sam Houston State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

the programming embedded in the memory section of themicrocontroller [1-2]. In most cases, there are components such as analog to digital converters,displays, electronics components, sensors (tilt, position switch, gas, temperature, level, force,humidity, mass, distance, image, light, motion, etc.) that the programmer should be familiar with,in addition to understanding the working principals and functionality. In order to program amicrocontroller, a programmer has to know the architecture of a microcontroller including itsmicroprocessor, bus architecture, I/O system, memory type, interrupts, addresses, etc. It may be achallenge to teach students about all the types of the sensors, microcontroller architecture, andprogramming skills in a

Conference Session

Recruitment, Retention and First-year Programs in ECE

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hector A. Ochoa, The University of Texas at Tyler; Mukul Shirvaikar, University of Texas at Tyler

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. The students weregiven a final project based on a simple circuit that could be applied to real life to wrap up thesemester. By this point in the semester, the students have acquired enough knowledge tounderstand the basic functionality of the circuit. Also, a basic description of how the circuitworks is provided to them. The students were asked to create a working prototype on abreadboard. Once their prototype is working, they were asked to design the layout of a PCB andby using a LPKF milling machine create their own PCB for their final design.The course lectures were divided into the following eleven main topics: 1. History, Dimensions and Units 2. Electrical Concepts and Components 3. Digital Systems 4. Electrical Engineering Tools

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE II

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mario Simoni, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Maurice F. Aburdene, Bucknell University; Farrah Fayyaz, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

variety of signals can be studied and manipulated. TheSSEP platform was described previously, which is why this paper focuses on the laboratoryexercises3. Figure 1 shows the SSEP and students using it to measure and filter their own ECG inone of the laboratory exercises. Figure 1: The photo on the left is a top-down view of the SSEP. The photo on the right shows two students measuring their own ECG using the SSEP, which can be seen between the seated-student’s hands. The other student is adjusting the oscilloscope, which is recording the ECG from the output terminal of the SSEP. This experiment is described in the Subsection Lab 3: Filtering Periodic Signals.This paper describes the series of laboratory exercises that were developed for use

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Poster Session

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Branimir Pejcinovic, Portland State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

passive circuits (matching, filters,couplers, etc), linear amplifiers (usually a low-noise amplifier), mixers and power amplifiers.Distinction is usually made between RF circuit design which primarily uses lumped passiveelements (RLC) while microwave circuit design utilizes transmission lines and other distributedelements. Active devices are typically transistors but microwave circuits operate at highfrequencies, which narrows down choices of active elements considerably. For the sake ofconvenience, we will use frequency of 1 GHz as a transition from RF to microwave domain. Inmost electrical engineering programs it is difficult to set up any sophisticated labs due to veryhigh cost of instrumentation. In addition, microwave measurements are

Conference Session

Projects in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joseph P. Hoffbeck, University of Portland

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

density of a recording of a person saying yes is compared to that of no, usuallythe spectrum of yes has more energy in the high frequencies because of the “s” sound in yes (seeFigure 1). Power Spectral Density -20 -40 Yes Power Spectrum Magnitude (dB) No -60 -80

Conference Session

Project-based and Cooperative Learning in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Craig A. Chin, Southern Polytechnic State University; Garth V. Crosby, Southern Illinois University, Carbonale

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

manifests itself aslower grades received on their various forms of assessment.Cooperative learning is an instructional approach in which students work together in groups on alearning task (e.g. assignment, project or laboratory) that is structured to have the followingessential elements1,2: 1. Positive interdependence. This refers to the need to have every team member involved in achieving the group task. This is implicitly encouraged, because if any group member fails to do their part, the whole group suffers the consequences. 2. Individual accountability. Each member will be held responsible for completing his/her contribution to accomplishing the group task and understanding the contributions of the other

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Poster Session

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Steffen, Iowa State University; Joseph Zambreno, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

z dĞĂŵ Ϯ dĞĂŵ ϰ z y y z dĞĂŵ ϭFigure 1: Our first video game playing field (Dodgeball), where students control four concurrentplayers on a team using a custom scripting language.game where teams can play in a head-to-head competition. Both of the scripting languages arespecifically for their video game. A limited number of instructions are implemented forcontrolling initial player

Conference Session

ABET Accreditation, Assessment, and Program Improvement in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Danial J. Neebel, Loras College; Nicholas J. Burek, Loras College; Thomas Griebel, Loras College

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

scienceto further their understanding of hardware. Figure 1: Layered Architecture of the FPGArcade.The FPGArcade is designed to be used from a top down perspective. Users can dive right intogame development and experience the reward of seeing their game running on a board. The realgem here is the transparency. The endless opaque code in contemporary machines abstracts thehardware making it difficult if not impossible for a novice to untangle. It is hard to understandwhat is truly going on under the hood of a machine when Windows, glut, and other API’sobscure one’s vision. The FPGArcade is modeled with three simple layers, shown in Figure 1,which can be peeled back. Students are encouraged to delve deeper to optimize the system

Conference Session

ABET Accreditation, Assessment, and Program Improvement in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Larry L Wear, University of Washington, Tacoma; Orlando R. Baiocchi, University of Washington, Tacoma; Matthew Alden, University of Washington, Tacoma; Robert Gutmann, University of Washington, Tacoma; Jie Sheng, University of Washington, Tacoma

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

.    As  a  final  note,  when  accreditation  is  first  granted,  it  applies  to  the  class  that  graduated  the  spring  prior  to  your  accreditation  visit.  In  our  case  one  class  had  graduated  a  year  before  our  visit  but  we  requested  that  the  first  graduation  class  also  be  allowed  to  claim  they  were  from  an  accredited  program.  We  provided  transcript  evidence  that  demonstrated  that  the  first  graduating  class  met  the  same  requirements  as  the  most  recent  class  and  ABET  agreed  that  the  first  class  also  qualified  as  being  from  an  accredited  program.    References:    1. “Embedded  Assessment  for  Engineering  Programs”,  L.  L.  Wear  and  O.R.  Baiocchi

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mircea Alexandru Dabacan, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca; Clint S. Cole, Digilent, Inc.; Mihaela Radu, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Joe Harris, Digilent, Inc.; Alex DUPE Wong; Monica Bot

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

industry seeks for engineering graduateswho have “practical experience of real industrial environments”1.Trying to address the current and future needs of the industry in the context of global economy,and giving electrical/electronics/computer engineering graduates the right skills, instructors fromall the below mentioned locations have integrated an annual Digital Design Competition open to Page 25.671.2engineering students from the Electronics and Telecommunications, Computer Science, etc. Allthe competitions are sponsored by Digilent2 and Xilinx3. These companies produce state of theart PLDs boards and CAD tools.The paper is organized as it

Conference Session

Integration of Research and Education in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Aharon Gero, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology; Wishah Zoabi, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology; Nissim Sabag, Ort Braude College of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

written text in spatial proximity to the animation, andavoided the use of excess items distracting the learner from the point. The screenshot in Fig. 1describes a BJT in its forward-active mode.In addition, we developed a parallel learning unit engaged in the same contents as the learningunit described above, only it does not include computer animation but uses static diagrams drawnon the blackboard. The research compares the academic achievements and attitudes of studentswho studied the different units. Fig. 1: Screenshot describing the processes electrons (marked as blue balls) undergo in the transistor in forward- active mode. The holes are marked as hollow balls