Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment in ECE

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dick Blandford, University of Evansville; Christina Howe, University of Evansville; Anthony Richardson, University of Evansville; David Mitchell, University of Evansville

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

by a Computer Science Department.Implementation B – Computer Engineering Program Administered by an Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.Implementation C – Computer Engineering Program Administered Jointly by a Computer Science Department and a Department or College of Engineering.Implementation D – Computer Engineering Program Representative of a Program in the United Kingdom and Other Nations.The BOK task force developed a sample implementation for each version of the degree.To make the BOK manageable, the task force defined 16 distinct areas in computer engineeringand 2 additional areas in mathematics. The 18 areas are listed in Figure 1. Each area

Conference Session

Student Engagement in ECE

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey Butler, U.S. Air Force Academy; Darren Wilson, U.S. Air Force Academy

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment in ECE II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rosalind Wynne, Villanova University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), the Optical Society of America (OSA), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) and the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Page 15.1219.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 The Diary of a Mad Student: Exam Diaries and Other Evaluation SchemesAbstractThe human cerebral cortex structure supports functions such as 1) sensing, 2) generalizing and 3)evaluating, which are important to the learning process.1 This

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stuart Wentworth, Auburn University; S. Hossein Mousavinezhad, Idaho State University; Mani Mina, Iowa State University; Wei PAN, Idaho State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

engineering laboratories with accessavailable to all faculty and students, mainly for classroom use. Many electrical/computerengineering leading industries use MATLAB and its toolboxes.Waves on Transmission LinesIn a transmission lines first approach towards teaching electromagnetics, students are first (a) (b) Figure 1: MATLAB movie snapshots taken (a) just before and (b) just after wave is incident on the load. The incident wave is blue and reflected wave is red. Page 15.509.4exposed to wave behavior on transmission lines

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joseph Hoffbeck, University of Portland

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

higher than the range of interest, but this effect cannot be completely eliminated inpractice because it requires an ideal lowpass filter.In order to motivate students to master the theoretical descriptions of quantization and aliasing, itis useful to provide an opportunity for the students to see and hear these effects for themselves.A 3-Bit Flash ADC Circuit to Demonstrate QuantizationThe ADC circuit shown in Figure 1 is a 3-bit flash ADC which is designed to demonstrate theeffect of quantization. The ADC is set up so that input values near 0 Volts are converted to thebinary number 000, the input values near 1 Volt are converted to the binary number 001, theinput values near 2 Volts are converted to the binary number 010, and so on up to 7

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment in ECE II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Deepika Sangam, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Brent Jesiek, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

concept inventory in their courses, and for those who are moregenerally interested in current research and development trends in the area of conceptinventories.IntroductionInterest in identifying misconceptions using concept inventories largely began with the advent ofthe Force Concept Inventory (FCI) in the 1990s.1 Concept inventories (CIs) are assessmentinstruments that focus on fundamental concepts in a domain; concepts that are critical to buildingadvanced knowledge in that domain. This provides a means of evaluating students’ conceptualunderstanding and not just problem solving ability as typically assessed using other methods (ex.course exams). Results of administering FCI indicated that students did not understand basicconcepts in

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bharathwaj Muthuswamy, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Joerg Mossbrucker, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

linear circuit theory and are starting the study of op-amp circuits. Theframework involves mathematically understanding a nonlinear op-amp circuit, simulating thecircuit and implementing the circuit in the laboratory. The students compare and study theresults from all three approaches. The goal of this framework is to teach a few basic butvery powerful concepts which can be used to analyze practical nonlinear op-amp circuits.This paper describes the framework followed by an application to the design, simulation andimplementation of a negative impedance converter.1 IntroductionThe main objective of this paper is to present an approach (i.e..framework) for understandingnonlinear op-amp circuits. Although other frameworks have been proposed in the

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment in ECE III

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jianbiao Pan, California Polytechnic State University; Albert Liddicoat, California Polytechnic State University; James Harris, California Polytechnic State University; Linda Shepherd, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

skills, project management, engineering ethics and other relatedskills.1, 2 This paper focuses on the assessment of the curriculum improvement from these threenew courses.Various methods have been reported in the engineering education literature to assess theeffectiveness of the curriculum improvement. Dempsey et al. 3 presented using senior mini-projects instead of traditional senior capstone projects in electrical and computer engineeringcurriculum assessment. Ricks et al. 4 used student perceptions of their abilities and quantitativemeasures of student performance using both written assignments and laboratory assignments toevaluate the effective of a new embedded systems curriculum. Gannod et al. 5 described the gapanalysis and its impact on

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment in ECE II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Albert Liddicoat, California Polytechnic State University; Jianbiao Pan, California Polytechnic State University; James Harris, California Polytechnic State University; Gary Perks, California Polytechnic State University; Linda Shepherd, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

systemsrequiring custom printed circuit boards. The majority of electrical engineering programs teachbasic electronics laboratories using solderless prototyping boards and circuit analysis usingsimulation software such as PSpice. There is a different skill set needed to design a prototypecircuit as compared to designing and implementing an actual electronic device using PrintedCircuit Board (PCB) tools and techniques.1, 2 To fill the gap, several universities started todevelop electronic manufacturing laboratories and offer courses for electrical and computerengineering students.1, 3-9 But all of these courses are upper-division and most of them are Page

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Raymond Jacquot, University of Wyoming; David Voltmer, Rose-Hulman Institute; John Steadman, University of South Alabama

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, digital systems and real-time signal processing. Dr Steadman is currently Dean of Engineering at the University of South Alabama. E-mail: jsteadman@usouthal.edu Page 15.1089.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2010 Standing and Traveling Waves on Transmission Lines: Getting it RightIntroductionIn the recent engineering education literature there have been numerous papers dealing withstrategies for teaching electrical transmission lines. These papers approach the assistance inteaching from two points of view. The first is the use of simple low-cost experiments todemonstrate the concepts 1-3 and the second

Conference Session

Student Engagement in ECE

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sergey Makarov, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Reinhold Ludwig, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Stephen Bitar, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

students interested in pursuing a minor in ECE. This paper reports onour method of teaching such a class that is particularly appealing to non-major students.In this paper we would like to share our experience thus far with colleagues who are teachingsimilar non-major classes. We intend to discuss the following traditional and rather non-traditional topics: 1. Analogies to mechanical engineering concepts 2. Current flow in DC circuits 3. Basic semiconductor (diode) theory - is it difficult? 4. Basic solar cell and thermoelectric engine 5. Laboratory materials 6. MATLAB and LabVIEW 7. Historical context 8. Video tutorials 9. Conclusions and assessment1. Analogies to mechanical engineering conceptsIn our

Conference Session

Student Engagement in ECE

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Maher Rizkalla, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis; MIchael Knieser, ILSI; Mohamed El-Sharkawy, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

latest information for a rapidly changing domestic industry. Engineering 2020 concerns designing an engineering curriculum that grows to meet or exceed current and future demands. This is based on vision, values, variability, knowledge and awareness of the inherent worth of people [1]. In this work, we describe a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary undergraduate course in electronic manufacturing that satisfy elements from engineering 2020 objectives. The course integrates knowledge from different technologies with application in life sciences. The course incorporates four technology processes: ASIC, PCB, FPGA, and MEMS into engineering application. Indiana Life Sciences Inc. located at Indianapolis, Indiana, will be hosting the manufacturing

Conference Session

Web-based Learning in ECE

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yuejin Xu, Murray State University; Lili Dong, Cleveland State University; Theresa Nawalaniec, Cleveland State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2010-263: ENHANCING ENGINEERING STUDENTS’ KNOWLEDGE OFINFORMATION LITERACY AND ETHICS THROUGH AN INTERACTIVEONLINE LEARNING MODULEYuejin Xu, Murray State University Yuejin Xu is an assistant professor of psychology, Murray State University, Murray, KY. His research interests include 1) Learning, teaching, and teacher education, 2) Motivation, critical thinking and decision making processes, and 3) Effect and implementation of technology in the classroom.Lili Dong, Cleveland State University Lili Dong received the M.S.E.E. from Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics, and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China and the Ph. D. degree in Electrical Engineering

Conference Session

Electrical & Computer Engineering Division Poster Session

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Stacy Wilson, Western Kentucky University; Michael McIntyre, Western Kentucky University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

sequence is heavily assessed by the EE faculty in support 1,2of the ABET Criterion 3 A-K program outcomes. Rubrics and course review are used toassess these courses. A summary of the major assessment results since the creation of theprogram are listed in Table 1 below. Throughout the years of offering these courses, the studentperformance has continued to improve. However, it has been noted that students continued tostruggle with setting project milestones and to understand the project planning process. Table 1: Summary of Assessment Results for Capstone Design CoursesYear Assessment Result2004 Project timeline developed

Conference Session

Web-based Learning in ECE

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tiffany Phagan, ERAU; Thomas Yang, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Jianhua Liu, ERAU; Ilteris Demikiran, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

current andThevenin equivalent resistance.The database provides a comprehensive coverage of the introductory circuit analysis coursematerials that are commonly required for engineering undergraduates (non-electrical engineeringmajor), including: 1. DC circuit analysis methods: Kirchhoff laws, Voltage/current division, Resistor combinations, Nodal/mesh analysis, Superposition, Source exchange, and Thevenin’s/Norton’s theorem, Maximum power transfer theorem. 2. Transient analysis: Relationships between inductor/capacitor current and voltage, Inductor/capacitor combination, Energy stored in inductor/capacitor, First/second order transient analysis. 3. AC steady-state analysis: Phasor notation, Phasor

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment in ECE III

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Kelnhofer, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Stephen Williams, Milwaukee School of Engineering; Owe Petersen, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

deliver the results required for continuous improvement. At thesame time the process should on a steady basis be able to provide the data that is expected to bean integral component in the preparation of the ABET Self-Study when the time comes forrequesting accreditation.In this paper we describe such a process. The process consists of three components: 1. A fast feedback procedure to implement continuous improvement at the course level. This procedure includes a course improvement form completed by the course instructor that documents their positive and negative reflections, suggested actions for course improvement, and deviations from the institutional syllabus in their offering of the course. A mechanism for

Conference Session

Innovations in Power Education in ECE

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Radian Belu, Drexel University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

transformers, DC machines,induction motors, synchronous machines, single-phase and special motors. The on-sitelaboratory consists currently of eight experiments, conducted during the course of a term, byusing ElectroVolt educational system. They are: 1) Getting Familiar with the Laboratory; 2)Measuring Impedance and Power; 3) Transformer Excitation, Transformer EquivalentCircuit; 4) DC Generators; 5) DC Motor Load Characteristics; 6) Synchronous Machines; 7)Induction Machines; and 8) Single-Phase Motors.II. Virtual LaboratoryThere are several benefits, advantages, as well as drawbacks of the virtual laboratoriescomparing to the traditional ones. However, this section is not intended to provide acomprehensive coverage of the benefits and drawbacks of

Conference Session

Electrical & Computer Engineering Division Poster Session

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christopher Carroll, University of Minnesota, Duluth

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

arithmeticcircuits (multi-digit adders, multipliers), hardware data structure implementation (stack, queue),and memory circuits. Examples of each of these types of experiments and how they use thisoscilloscope display are presented in this paper.The DisplayThe sixteen-digit seven-segment display instrument used in theapplications described here produces an oscilloscope display asshown in Figure 1. The circuit that generates this display isshown in Figure 2. This circuit has been described in detail inan earlier ASEE paper1 and so will not be carefully describedhere. It is used as an output device for the various applicationsto be documented in this paper. Figure 1. Display

Conference Session

Electrical & Computer Engineering Division Poster Session

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert Engelken

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Participation of Undergraduates in Engineering Research: Evolving Paradigms over Three Decades of ChangeIntroduction:Participation of undergraduates in research has received escalating attention over the last twodecades as a “win-win” situation for students, faculty, and institutions. It serves as experiential-and service-learning enhancement of students‟ total education and marketability, often within amultidisciplinary and honors context. Many institutions and government agencies haveestablished infrastructures to support undergraduate research. However, the author hasadvocated and mentored undergraduate research for nearly three decades, starting when it wasn‟tnearly as in-vogue as it is now. References 1

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment in ECE

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Wei Zhang, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

moreindependent processors into a single package, which is capable of executing multiplethreads simultaneously. The L2 cache on a multicore processor can be either private orshared, as depicted in Figure 1 (a) and (b), respectively. Clearly, multicore processors cannaturally benefit multithreaded programs by running them on different cores concurrentlyto improve the throughput. However, unlike other advances of microprocessors aiming atthe transparent increase of single-threaded performance (e.g., frequency scaling, pipelines,caches, and superscalar architectures), multicore processors cannot automatically reducethe latency of single-threaded programs. In many cases, there is no way to effectivelyutilize the performance of additional processor cores or

Conference Session

Innovations in Power Education in ECE

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ruben Otero, Student at University of Puerto Rico - Mayaguez; Apurva Somani, University of Minnesota; Krushna Mohapatra, University of Minnesota; Ned Mohan, University of Minnesota

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

15.458.2The mechanical power in the wind depends on a few factors and is given by4,5: 1 ܲ௪ ൌ ߩ‫ܸܣ‬௪ଷ ሺ૚ሻ 2where ρ is the air density (1.225 kg/m3 at 150 C and 1 atm.), A is cross-sectional area of theblades and Vw is the wind speed. Betz’s Law states that only a fraction of this power can becaptured by the wind turbine [Ref.5]. This fraction of the power in the wind that can be captured bythe wind turbine is called the Power Coefficient (Cp) and is defined as: ܲ௦௛௔௙௧ ‫ܥ‬௣ ൌ ሺ૛ሻ

Conference Session

Electrical & Computer Engineering Division Poster Session

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adrian Ieta, State University of New York, Oswego; Rachid Manseur, SUNY-Oswego; Thomas Doyle, McMaster University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

paper is to present the effort underway inrestructuring the lab course for further inclusion in the ECE program, and this experience is thought to beuseful for others as well. II. The laboratory course restructuring planThe Electronics course (3 credit hours) is currently taught in the Physics department in the classicalfashion of a separate theory course and a lab course (1 credit, two-hour labs). The course mainly enrollsPhysics students and is usually of small class size (8 students at the time it was taught by us). In the past,students had issues related to lab experiments decoupled from the studied theoretical concepts, as well asto the level of difficulty of concepts presented in lectures. Old lab equipment as well as minimum helpfrom

Conference Session

Embedded System Design

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ronald Hayne, The Citadel; Mark McKinney, The Citadel

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

designs modeled in VHDL with LabVIEW-basedtest and instrumentation systems. Computer aided design tools from the different disciplinescould then be leveraged to exploit their strengths, while improving overall system design byinteraction with other tools.Computer Aided Design ToolsThe advanced digital course develops models of digital systems using VHDL. One method oftesting these designs is via simulation using ModelSim.1 A testbench can be created whichprovides input stimulus to the unit under test and then checks output signals for proper results.The input and output signals can be traced in a simulation window called a Wave, whichresembles the output of a hardware logic analyzer. The simulation results provide functionalverification that the

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Pearce; Phil Barker, Heriot Watt University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

written for the course.Example 1 – CRC GenerationA cyclic redundancy check (CRC) is a sequence of bits that can be appended to any frame, andused to detect errors at the receiver. The check-bits are determined from the remainder left aftera process of dividing the frame, treated as a very long binary number, by a particular divisor.The technique is widely used at the data-link layer, due to a particularly elegant hardwareimplementation that calculates the required check-bits. The operation of the circuit is, however,not obvious, and difficult to illustrate with static diagrams.An animated simulation was written, showing the frame arriving at the receiver and being fedbit-by-bit into a simple circuit that calculates the required remainder. This is

Conference Session

Innovations in Power Education in ECE

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christopher Lashway, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg; Peter Idowu, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

appearedin the 1950s, with marketing geared mostly toward protection of defense equipment [1]. Theseearly systems were of rotary design and required a DC motor to power an AC generator in placeof an inverter. However, with the development of quality inverters and real-time monitoringsolutions, UPS systems became more popular, affordable, and have become a critical linkbetween supply and load to fulfill the increased demand of electrical power and reliability.While demand for UPS devices has been on the rise, so has focus on research and developmentof cleaner and stable power systems in the university academic environment. Electricalengineering students have been gaining more exposure to the construction of interactingsubsystems involved in a battery

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Matthew Huff, University of Idaho; Edward William, University of Idaho; Vishu Gupta, University of Idaho; Herbert Hess, University of Idaho

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Page 15.1134.2copyrighted material or even for links to copyrighted material. Google® claims swnership ofmaterials posted on Google Docs®. Such concerns for intellectual property rights motivated theteams to abandon Google Docs® in favor of WebGUI™. This paper will explain the contents ofthe website and how the team maintained contact even when scattered during a summer andwhen relocated for the fall semester as well as the intellectual property concerns.The Benefits of WebGUI™WebGUI™ is the current platform that the students have found best for the communicating theinformation necessary for the project’s success. WebGUI™ was originally built as anapplication framework by creator Plain Black Corporation [1] to support their customerdevelopment

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Shey, United States Naval Academy; Ryan Rakvic, United States Naval Academy; Thomas Salem, United States Naval Academy; Samara Firebaugh, United States Naval Academy

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

multidiscipline project-based learning tool.IntroductionThe Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at the United States NavalAcademy has introduced a novel project-based thematic learning approach by incorporating arobotics project into its curriculum. Incorporating robotics into the undergraduate curriculumhas been accomplished in many other colleges, but the robot platform is fixed.1 Additionally,there are many commercial robot kits on the market, but the vast majority of them havepredetermined hardware with well defined functions. Our ECE Department wanted somethingthat is not only flexible, but has the minimum number of black boxes; items the students do notfully understand, but often allow plug and play compatibility. This type of

Conference Session

Experiential Learning in ECE

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Liya (Grace) Ni, California Baptist University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

applied tothe user by a motorized device as part of the human-computer interface. The main goal of thisproject is to design haptics-enabled rehabilitation exercises to help post-stroke patients regaintheir fine-motor skills. The different approaches taken by the multidisciplinary teams arepresented, and feedback from students are analyzed. This project familiarized students with theMatlab/Simulink based software platform for the implementation of hardware-in-the-loopsystems, and improved their understanding of the social impact of engineering solutions.1. An overview on haptics and its relation to undergraduate engineering educationHaptics, originating from the Greek word “haptikos” meaning “able to touch”, refers to workingwith the sense of

Conference Session

ECE Division Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mustafa G. Guvench, University of Southern Maine

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

” Sensors were designed and fabricated. In the secondoffering of the course “Capacitive Acceleration Sensors” were designed. On the side, seniorprojects assigned have created the platforms to test these sensors, namely, an accelerator whichcan create centrifugal g-forces up to 20g’s and a capacitive sensor computer interface withfemtoFarad resolution.Examples of designs, simulations, test equipment and setups used and the results obtained will bepresented to share this experience with the faculty and students attending the conference fromother institutions.1. Introduction and BackgroundThe paper describes some of the standard MEMS technologies and services available on themarket at reasonable levels of cost which can be used to introduce real

Conference Session

ABET Accreditation, Assessment, and Program Improvement in ECE

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sandra A. Yost, University of Detroit Mercy; Elizabeth Roberts-Kirchhoff, University of Detroit Mercy; Pamela Zarkowski, University of Detroit Mercy

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, implementation, and assessment ofthis work in progress. The second paper, to be written after the project is completed, will reporton effectiveness of the core curriculum assessment process, as it pertains to both regionalaccreditation and ABET accreditation of the institution’s engineering programs. It is anticipatedthat presenting this paper will generate feedback that will assist in sharpening the focus of theinquiry described here.1 Introduction and MotivationThe institution that is the subject of this study (University of Detroit Mercy) offers a number ofprograms requiring accreditation by different agencies. Other programs are accredited only in thecontext of the institution’s regional accreditation. 1 Outcome-based assessment processes havebeen