Conference Session

ABET Accreditation, Assessment, and Program Improvement in ECE

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John K. Estell, Ohio Northern University; Stephen M. Williams, Milwaukee School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

), advisory board reports, and revision history documented in the university bulletin.” • “It was stated that our Objectives were too focused on current students and not on our alumni. However, our stated objectives were word for word the same as they were in 2003 (they were clearly stated and reflected our objectives at that time so why change them?). I also note that Criterion 2 has not changed since 2003. It was therefore strange that our Objectives have now garnered a weakness when they were just fine in 2003. I believe this underscores a weakness in the Accreditation process in which the published Criteria are too open to interpretation by the specific visiting committee. Programs should be

Conference Session

Projects in ECE

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Hoe, The University of Texas at Tyler

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

reflect upon their experiences throughout thesemester. The course met formally once per week. The main purpose of the meetings was tomake the students accountable for keeping up with their research, to discuss the journal articlesthat they were assigned, to provide opportunities for presenting their results, and interacting withtheir peers and the faculty supervisor. The following excerpt from the course syllabussummarizes the expectations for this research course: Laboratory notebook. The student will keep a notebook recording all his/her findings. This will be reviewed periodically by the faculty mentor to ensure that the essential data is properly recorded and organized so that it can be used to write the final report and poster

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Poster Session

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jack Ou, California State University, Northridge

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Course WorkStatistics on students’ overall perception of course work are presented in Table 5. 73.7% ofstudents reported that the submitted work for the course (including the examination) reflected alot or a great deal of their understanding of the course content. 77.5% of students reported thatthe course work and course activities benefited their learning a lot or a great deal. Table 5. Perception of course work The scale is defined as follows: 1=Not at all, 2=A little, 3=A moderate amount, 4=A lot, 5=A great deal. The final column represents the sum of A lot and A great deal.B. Direct AssessmentStudents generally struggled with end-of-semester topics such as frequency response, Bode plot,and filter

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eric Freudenthal, University of Texas at El Paso; Brian Carter, University of Texas at El Paso; Frederick Kautz, University of Texas at El Paso; Alexandria Ogrey, University of Texas at El Paso; Robert Preston, University of Texas at El Paso; Arthur Walton, University of Texas at El Paso

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

the synthesis level.After the adoption of Java as the principal teaching language at UTEP, procedural languageswith explicit memory management were principally relegated to a language survey course thatcompare abstractions provided by various languages. C permits explicit pointer arithmetic andthus has semantics reflecting the behavior of the underlying memory system that appears arcaneand inordinately complex when viewed through the lens of formal language abstractions.Despite Java’s syntactic similarity to C, faculty teaching upper-division systems-oriented coursesand potential employers of our graduates observed that students primarily trained to program inJava have increased difficulty understanding and composing programs in C. Faculty at

Conference Session

Embedded System Design

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daren Wilcox, Southern Polytechnic State University; Steve Wilson, Southern Polytechnic State University; Gerd Wöstenkühler

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. Embedded Design ExamplesPresented are two embedded designs which reflect common student projects. The first is an “automatedbeverage server”. In this project, two sophomore students modified a toy remote controlled car to servebeverages about a room. The beverage server is shown in Figure 5. The remote controlled car platformserved as the system to be controlled. Toys are very inexpensive platforms to build embedded controlsystems around. All of the mechanical aspects are already in place. Some of the electronics such aspower transistors are also available. The student can reverse engineer the digital control lines to the Hbridge transistor arrays. By monitoring the voltage levels on the lines as the vehicle is signaled to goforward, reverse, left

Conference Session

Embedded System Design

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eric Freudenthal, University of Texas, El Paso; Brian Carter, University of Texas, El Paso

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

programs written in strictly imperative languages that reflect thesemantics of the underlying memory model, such as C. Schonberg and Dewar report similarobservations of students graduating from other programs that adopted Java- centric curricula.5While these deficits are not common at schools with architecture-first curricula,3,4,5 object-centriccurricula are asserted to provide complementary advantages. Rather than taking a position onwhether architecture-first curricula are strictly superior to object-first, we implementedcompensatory reforms that appear to be successful, as observed by upper division systemsfaculty and employers who report that recent graduates have attained a dramatically improvedability to program in C

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark McDermott, University of Texas, Austin; Jacob Abraham, University of Texas, Austin; Mihir Ravel, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

FeedbackIndustry feedback was obtained from two sources: 1) the adjunct faculty who in many cases willhire students taking their classes and 2) hiring managers who contact the faculty looking forspecific competencies. Their feedback is summarized below: • Students need to know the basics first. Lab assignments are good but team oriented projects are essential. The most important aspect of the student design experience is the practice of reflection which occurs when the class projects are reviewed by peers and industry based faculty. • “Pre-silicon” hiring managers look for students with more virtual prototyping competencies specifically the area of RTL and ESL languages, synthesis and formal verification

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

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

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

imagers were either blurry orpixilated when view on a laptop display.Lighting while photographing the hardware, particularly the breadboard, proved to be a difficultchallenge due to the reflective surfaces in several areas of the breadboard, the level of detail, and Page 14.960.4the various heights of the components. It was found that the best image quality was obtainedusing only room lighting without employing the camera flash when photographs were taken in atypical classroom environment (Figure 1). While there was some loss of detail, the imagesharpness was significantly improved over that obtained when the camera flash was used. Fig. 1

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

dual core processor (OMAP 5912)development system has enabled a new lab curricula. The OMAP 5912 gives us the flexibility ofdevelopment for a general-purpose processor based (GPP) system combined with the processingefficiency of a DSP based system. The sheer number of new concepts introduced to students in Page 11.1064.2this course reflects the reality they have to face in the new job market. In order to fit in asprofessionals the students have to be conversant with real-time, computer architecture, DSP,networking and other concepts. It is not possible to address all these topics without using arelatively advanced and mature platform. Further

Conference Session

New Developments in ECE

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Seyed Mousavinezhad, Idaho State University; Ed Tatar Ph.D., Idaho State University; Cheryl Xu, North Carolina State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

)]where V0+ is incident voltage and V0- is reflected voltage. At the source location z = -ℓ and theinput impedance seen by the source is given by:Zin = Z0 [ ZL + Z0 tanh(γℓ) ] / [ Z0 + ZL tanh(γℓ) ] Ωwhere tanh(γℓ) = [exp(γℓ) – exp(-γℓ)]/[ exp(γℓ) + exp(-γℓ] and ΓL = (ZL – Z0)/( ZL + Z0)=V0-/V0+Students at this point see the mathematical complexity of the EM problem. The followingnumerical example helps students compute input impedance and complex power delivered to theload by using a software package.We next present a MATHCAD example for computation of complex power absorbed by a loadimpedance ZL = 100 + j50 Ω, connected to a voltage source vs(t) = 20.28 cos (ωt) V with sourceresistance Rs = 20 Ω and frequency of f = 75 MHz. The

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Poster Session

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alex Francis Katauskas, Defense Threat Reduction Agency; Wenli Huang, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

engineering and physics courses. Likewise,coaxial cables are ubiquitous in today’s world and this experiment can illuminate studentunderstanding of this important technology and its limitations.AcknowledgementsThe views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policyor position of the United States Military Academy, the Department of the Army, or theDepartment of Defense or U.S. Government.References[1] Simoni, M., Fayyaz, F., & Streveler, R. A. Data Mining to Help Determine Sources ofDifficulty in an Introductory Continuous-Time Signals and Systems Course. AmericanSociety for Engineering Education conference and exposition. Indianapolis, IN, 2014.[2] Fawwaz T. Ulaby, Fundamentals of Applied

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 1

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steven Bell, Stanford University; Mark Horowitz, Stanford University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, and so students ought to learn the peculiars of wiring up an LED early on. • Integrate digital and analog electronics. Today, nearly every consumer electronics device contains a microcontroller, meaning that every product is a mix of analog circuitry, digital circuitry, and software. Our labs reflect this by incorporating a microcontroller and software into three out of the four major projects. • Focus on real applications. Real applications provide the essential motivation for students to keep learning the material, and this cannot be deferred until years later in the program. As the following sections will show, we aim to incorporate real applications not just in the labs but also in lectures, homework, and exams

Conference Session

Circuits and Systems Education 3

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James E. Globig, University of Dayton

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Page 26.84.4To limit the scope of the design, we will assume the amplifier is feeding a known, highimpedance load. Therefore the amplifier’s output impedance may be approximated by RD //1/yos. The output conductance of many FETs is frequently an underspecified or, more often,unspecified parameter2,5 because it is frequently assumed to be sufficiently high as to not affectthe overall output impedance of most FET applications 6. For the same reasons, many simulationmodels do not reflect accurate values of yos as a function of bias conditions. In practice, theoutput conductance of an FET does affect the performance of amplifiers biased at lower draincurrents (ID). But without better data to determine what the output conductance is at lower

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Engineering Problem-based and Active Learning

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dennis A. Silage, Temple University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

source to passive load 6. Determine the reflection and transmission of power of uniform plane electromagnetic waves incident on low loss and conducting media Embedded System Design Students will be able to: 1. Apply the principles of behavioral synthesis of combination and sequential logic in Verilog 2. Utilize the controller-datapath construct for programmable gate array processing 3. Apply digital signal processing and digital communication in programmable gate array processing 4. Identify the societal and global issues of real-time embedded systems in process control and signal processing Digital Communication

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Engineering Curriculum Design and Evaluation

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Benjamin Crilly, U.S. Coast Guard Academy; Richard J. Hartnett P.E., U.S. Coast Guard Academy

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Course Coordinator generates a draft, or “read-ahead” document that fully describesall aspects of the course, followed by a meeting attended by all course instructors (if multi-section), other relevant stakeholders such as students as well as other instructors impacted by thecourse. Attendees include faculty members both inside and outside of the program. At theconclusion, the draft document is revised to reflect the input of the EOCR attendees.B. EOCR Outline and Content Here the EOCR document provides the faculty a comprehensive snapshot of the course. Thisincludes, or eventually includes the following: 1. List of EOCR attendees 2. Executive summary of course 3. Pending issues from the last EOCR 4. Summary of course changes in

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Freeman, Valparaiso University; Mani Mina, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

meaning to the assessment data, with the purpose ofmaking decisions regarding the program. Following the tool, changes can be made to thelearning communities’ curricula that would easily allow the faculty to make subsequent changesto the assessment tools. The tool reflects the close relationship between assessment, outcomesand curriculum.Faculty need to establish educational opportunities. Once a faculty member prioritizesknowledge and skills for the curriculum, she must create opportunities for students to learn them.Lectures, labs, homework, and student-led class discussions are examples of educationalopportunities. In addition, Cooperative Learning exercises such as Jigsawing, and turn to yourpartner (TTYP) are also opportunities for students

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Deborah Mechtel, United States Naval Academy; Samara Firebaugh, United States Naval Academy

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. Aftercompleting Chapter 5 of the Getting Started manual, students are asked to design andsimulate an open circuited 10 GHz 50 Ψ microstrip transmission line capacitor. Studentssimulate their design for a 25 mil thick alumina substrate with a lossless metal and findthe reflection coefficient and input impedance. Historically students experience a steeplearning curve as they shift their perspective from the instantaneous signal propagationapproximation of introductory electrical circuits to grasping the effect of signalpropagation time at higher frequencies. This relatively easy high frequency circuit designshown in Figures 1 and 2 clearly illustrates the effect of changing transmission linelengths on circuit performance. Students also begin to experience

Conference Session

Flipping ECE Courses

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jia-Ling Lin, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Paul Imbertson, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; Tamara J. Moore, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

omega slip. We want to control omega M. So… right now omega slip is at 50 and we need to make omega slip much larger, don’t we?”Critiquing / Critically reflecting on “That doesn’t make sense.” EvaluateChallenging interpretations/ reasoning(CR) in which proposals may “I don’t think that those two (IMs and Is) are in be challenged and phase.” counter-challenged. “We don’t need total power. We need power loss.”Conscious Purposeful citations of

Conference Session

New Developments in Teaching Electromagnetics and Related Topics

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Madeleine Andrawis, South Dakota State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

discussion with a colleague or two, then answer the clicker question a second time. Page 22.1606.3 Incorporate the use of multimedia software, CAEME (Computer Applications in Electromagnetics Education) 13, to help students visualize the abstract concepts in the course such as wave propagation, reflection, transmission line matching, and others. Display a virtual laboratory experiment to demonstrate an idea or a physical phenomenon. This is frequently done using the CAEME simulation software package. Show in-class videos to introduce basic concepts in addition to historical facts about their discoveries.Results of using Active

Conference Session

ECE Division Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Nader Rafla, Boise State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

the area of hardwareverification techniques and environment. Through lectures, readings, and working with practicaldesigns, students learn the pros and cons of different verification methodologies. Each time thecourse is offered, its contents change to reflect the new trends in industry including any newsimulation tools or features. After successful completion of the course, students are expected to get a well understanding ofseveral verification methodologies and the techniques used in developing portable and reusablemodules common to different verification environments. The practical exercises and projectsteach the best-practices used for verifications using state-of-the-art commercial tools.An additional and major benefit of this course is

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sergey N. Makarov, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Reinhold Ludwig, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Kaung Myat Win, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, ECE Department

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

power LED and connect the LED directly to the function generator, then place the LED with your hand perpendicular to the notch of the motor shaft, at the distance of approximately 0.5”.- Slowly vary the frequency of the function generator in the 70Hz - 100Hz range by rotating the frequency knob of the function generator. You should be able to see the light from the LED reflecting back from the flat side of the motor shaft periodically, forming a “delayed” rotation figure. As you change the frequency, you will see the notch rotating slower or faster. This is called the strobe effect.- At one specific frequency, you will see the notch of the motor appear to stall. Record this value. This is exactly the frequency of the

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Poster Session

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kirsten R. Basinet, Western Washington University; Andrew G. Klein, Western Washington University; Richard Martin, The Air Force Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

ofliterature by exploring the duality of collaboration and competition in particular. While there aremany allusions to learning via collaboration and competition in the literature — with a generalsense that both may be desirable in different contexts — there are very few studies which attemptto compare them directly, especially in the field of electrical engineering education. This work funded in part by The Office of Naval Research, Award Number N000141512442-P0001. The viewsexpressed in this paper are those of the authors, and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United StatesAir Force, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government. This document has been approved for public release;distribution unlimited.For years, student

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Susan Lord, University of San Diego

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Page 12.582.2assignments and to illustrate how grounding experiences in writing to communicate theory canhelp enhance effectiveness.2. Writing to CommunicateA vast amount of literature exists on writing across the curriculum (WAC) 4, 5, 6 whichemphasizes the importance of writing for enhancing learning. WAC divides writing into threecategories: transactional to inform or persuade an audience, poetic as an art form, and expressivefor oneself to think through a problem or formulate a thought.7 Much of the WAC movement inthe US has focused on expressive writing as the most beneficial when “writing to learn” and thushas minimized the importance of “transactional” writing as merely reflecting back teacher-generated information. However, within the

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Charles Kim, Howard University; Mohamed Chouikha, Howard University; Veronica Thomas, Howard University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

average retention rate of 5%. At the bottom of the chart, the "practice by doing" and "teachothers/immediate use" methods achieve an average retention rate of 75% and 90%, respectively.The Mobile Studio improves the knowledge retention rate by instant experience of theory andexperimentation of the theory.The experience of "learning by doing" of Mobile Studio also makes possible to practice experientialleaning, a process by which students reflect on what they learned and, from the reflection, newlearning emerges4. Starting from the abstract concept of theory and model presented, studentsdevelop experiments gain concrete experience of the theory by the measurement and observation ofthe experiment. Analysis of the result and discussion with other

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yakov Cherner, ATeL, LLC; Amin Karim, DeVry University; Ahmed Khan, DeVry University; Victor Rubanchik, Southern Federal University (Russia); Gary Mullett, Springfield Technical Community College

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. B A C DFigure 7 Simulations designed for virtual exploration of signal reflection and distortion effects.Using the drag and drop option on simulations A and C in Figure 7, a student is able to movethe car around a parking lot and see how the different reflections from surrounding buildingsaffect the signal shape, phases, and amplitudes. S/he can choose between one or two pulsesignals and vary signal frequency, pulse duration, and delay between pulses. Simulations Band D help the student understand the Huggens-Fresnel principle and the impact of variousparameters on the structure of Fresnel’s zones, as well as what sources of secondary

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

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

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

these are tracked with the use ofan outcomes matrix. We actively and intentionally engage the students in discussions on howthe outcomes will be met and how they are documented. They know that if all of the outcomesare not met, they would not receive credit for their capstone experience. We work with eachstudent to identify specific experiences, such as lectures, workshops or reflections, which areneeded to document outcomes that are not coming naturally out of the project work. Page 14.620.5Finally, each student meets individually with a faculty review team to discuss their individualprogress and role on the team. This has been important with

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

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

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

IPARCreativity Index has been shown to change from a number typical for engineering students to anumber more characteristic of practicing architects.24The creative process has been defined as a progression through four stages: 1) identifying a need(problem definition), 2) investigation of that need (testing, preparation, analysis), 3) anarticulation of a solution (modifying, synthesis), and 4) a validation of the idea or solution(communicating, evaluation).25 This attempt to define a procedure for the creative processmakes this seemingly strange process more familiar to students.25 When documenting historicalcreative discoveries and inventions to gain insight into the nature of creativity, reflection isconsidered to serve as a catalyst for creativity

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

Embedded Systems & Cybersecurity for ECE

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shiny Abraham, Seattle University; Mehmet Vurkaç, Seattle University; Agnieszka Miguel, Seattle University; Nhan K. Nguyen, Seattle University; Olsen John Salgado Ong, Seattle University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

juniors andseniors, provided they meet the prerequisite of Microprocessor Design.It should be noted that this paper exclusively addresses the IoT-based enhancements to theEmbedded Systems course, roughly lasting between one and two weeks towards the end of thequarter. In both instances, the IoT projects were designed to be in contrast with the main classproject in that the latter was designed and taught as a gradual development that involvedexperimentation, deliberation, reflection, and a close-to thorough study of its theoreticalunderpinnings from the field of computer architecture. The former, on the hand, were designedto be fast implementations where students would get a taste of quick deployment thatincorporates networking, signal processing

Conference Session

Curricular Advancements in ECE

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sarah Rodriguez, Iowa State University; Erin E. Doran, Iowa State University; Paul S. Hengesteg, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

developsover time.AcknowledgementThis research is based upon work supported for the National Science Foundation (NSF) underaward EEC-1623125. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressedare those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. 10References 1. Chachra, D., Kilgore, D., Loshbaugh, H., McCain, J., & Chen, H. (2008, June). Being and becoming: Gender and identity formation of engineering students. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education, Pittsburgh, PA. 2. Pierrakos, O., Beam, T.K., Constantz, J., Johri, A., & Anderson, R. (2009). On the