Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cordelia Brown, Purdue University; Yung-Hsiang Lu, Purdue University; David Meyer, Purdue University; Mark C Johnson, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

the concepts ofobject-oriented design and programming, including (1) class and objects, (2) inheritanceand polymorphism, (3) function overriding in derived classes, (4) operator overloading inC++, (5) exception handling, (6) container classes, (7) multiple inheritance in C++, (8)graphical user interface using Netbeans and Qt10, (9) client-server networking, and (10)multithreading. The textbook is “Programming with Objects: A Comparative Presentationof Object-Oriented Programming with C++ and Java” by Avinash C. Kak publishedWiley. All lectures were recorded in advance (approximately two third had been recordedbefore the semester started) using Camtasia Studio. This tool performs screen capturewith narration so that the instructor could show

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Arun Ravindran, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Patricia Tolley, University of North Carolina, Charlotte; Arindam Mukherjee, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

performance computing through the use of FPGA based reconfigurable computers. Anassociated laboratory component was also developed, where weekly hands-on laboratorysessions serve to reinforce the ideas learned in the lecture. This paper focuses on three keycomponents that describe our approach in educating computer engineers in this area of Page 14.807.2contemporary interest.1) Emphasis on the use of systolic array architectures for efficient hardware design on FPGAsand the tight integration of laboratory and lectures.2) Use of multi-disciplinary projects drawn from diverse areas such as scientific computing,signal processing, and bioinformatics that

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment III

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jay Wierer, MSOE; Steven Reyer, MSOE

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

ch 2006-2008 2006-2007 2007-2008 -2.5 1 1 0 -2 1 1 0 -1.5 3 2 1 -1 9 6 3 -0.5 6 5 1 0 15 9 6 0.5 8 2 6 1

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mihaela Radu, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Clint COLE, Washington State University, Pullman; Mircea Dabacan, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Romania; Joe Harris, DigilentInc; Albert Fazekas, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Romania; Ioana DABACAN, Technical University of Cluj Napoca, Romania

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Design competitions into the undergraduate experience, studentsare better prepared to enter the field of engineering and make more meaningful contributions totheir firms at an earlier rate.According to a report published for The Royal Academy of Engineering, UK (2006)1, the pace ofchange in industry is expected to intensify in both the technological and non-technologicaldomains. Particular themes that have emerged include: (a) an increased need for firms to focuson solving customer problems; (b) a growing requirement to provide system solutions tothose problems; (c) and the increasing complexity of the management task. Anotherimportant factor is globalization which will continue to affect both the demand and the supplyside of industry.Certain

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chris Smaill, University of Auckland; Gerard Rowe, University of Auckland; Elizabeth Godfrey, University of Auckland

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Page 14.673.2of the student misconceptions in electricity and electromagnetics that it revealed. The test wasadministered again in 2008, and the results reinforced those obtained the previous year.Follow-up interviews were also conducted in order to gain further insights into studentthought processes. Some misconceptions were also revisited in the final examination todetermine the extent to which the course had addressed such misconceptions.The development of the diagnostic test was informed by the results of previous research,much of which has been conducted by the physics-education research community (e.g.Maloney et al 1, Engelhardt and Beichner 2, Ding et al 3, and Saglam and Millar 4). This priorresearch has identified numerous

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Wei PAN, Idaho State University; S. Hossein Mousavinezhad, Idaho State University; Kenyon Hart, Idaho State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

sampling a continuous-time signal. For the purpose ofdiscussion in this paper we will follow the notation in reference 1 and use x[n] torepresent a digital signal x(nT) where T = 1/Fs is the sampling period (interval) and Fs isthe sampling frequency. It is important to distinguish the difference between a discrete-time signal and a digital one (again for more information we ask readers to consultreference 1.)One important area in DSP is the design/analysis of digital filters, this is also the topicwhich students find usually more mathematically challenging. Basically a filter is adevice or system (or algorithm) that will process the input or x to produce output y wheresome characteristic of the input has been altered by the filter. It is noted

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bruce Dunne, Grand Valley State University; Chirag Parikh, Grand Valley State University; Andrew Sterian, Grand Valley State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

using theAltera ATmega324P microcontroller1 for the purposes of controlling a mobile robot.These labs begin with basic motion and peripheral control and eventually lead to the Page 14.809.2implementation of a PID control system for predictable motion. The final designchallenge is to attempt to autonomously navigate the robot successfully through ourmodel of the Firefighting Robot Challenge maze2, as seen below in Figure 1. Figure 1: Robot Competition MazeIn order to program their robot to achieve the autonomous navigation, the studentsprogress through the following learning units:• presentation of the architecture and

Conference Session

Project-Based Learning in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joseph Hoffbeck, University of Portland

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

and transmit signals simultaneously, andoperates in real-time. The USRP is open source, and so all the design files are freely available.An overview article about the USRP is available9 and an article describing how to use the USRPto listen to FM radio has been published10. The USRP, which was designed by Matt Ettus, canbe purchased from Ettus Research11. Figure 1. The USRP with the Cover On (left) and Off (right).Although the USRP can be used by itself for a few applications, RF signals are usually interfacedto the USRP using daughterboards which plug into sockets on the USRP and are also availablefrom Ettus Research. The USRP can accommodate up to two receive daughterboards and twotransmit daughterboards as shown in Figure 2

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shanmugalingam Easwaran, Pacific Lutheran University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

developed, Page 14.1060.4explained and taught, they are provided in detail in the following subsections.3.1 Intensity Histogram and Cumulative Intensity HistogramAn intensity histogram H of an image is a graph or table of all the possible intensity (gray level)values arranged in ascending order and the number of image pixels having the correspondingintensity values. Thus as a set, an intensity histogram of an image can be written as H = { h(k) |k = 0, 1, 2, …, L-1}. Here H is the composite histogram and h(k) is the histogram value atintensity “k” (which is the number of image pixels n(k) having the intensity value “k”), and “L”is the total number

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shanmugalingam Easwaran, Pacific Lutheran University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

different intensities such that the intensity histogram of theso adjusted image matches with that of a target image (regardless of the sizes – with properinterpretation to what histogram matching means when two images of different sizes are used (asexplained later). The term histogram specification (as opposed to histogram matching) is usedsince it does not matter whether it is the target histogram that is specified or if it is the targetimage that is given (since the target histogram can be directly computed from the target image).Just as with contrasting stretching and with histogram equalization11, the operation of histogramspecification or matching (Figure 1) can be considered as first obtaining the necessary lookuptable (LUT) based on a

Conference Session

Embedded System Design

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mouna Nakkar, University of Sharjah

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Page 14.1346.2using Hardware Description Language (HDL) utilizing the on-chip FPGA memory, interfacewith on-board memory and clock, and testing the system at a high frequency rate.Hardware platformThe Altera DE2 FPGA educational board13 shown in Fig. 1 has Cyclone II FPGA, 512 KB ofSRAM, 8MB SDRAM, and 4MB of Flash and full range of I/O interfaces. The large Cyclone IIFPGA has 33,216 Logical Elements and on-chip memory of 105 4K RAM blocks. These areused for internal storage and configuration. The EDA tool that comes with this chip is Quartus II6.1 software. It is provided with the DE2 board kit. The board is designed for senior/graduateand small research projects.Description of design projectThe design problem is described in the first part

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jan Machotka, University of South Australia; Zorica Nedic, University of South Australia; Andrew Nafalski, University of South Australia; Ozdemir Gol, University of South Australia

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

generator and a digitalmultimeter. The current set-up of the RL is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. RL set-up in January 2009All these instruments are also connected to a 16x16 programmable matrix relay switch which provides theuser with an option to wire and configure various electrical circuits from available components andinstruments. A special software, dubbed the Circuit Builder, has been developed for this purpose. The RLGraphical User Interface (GUI) is written in Java, therefore the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) must be Page 14.98.5installed to allow the RL application to run. The user can control the

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John McLellan, Freescale; Andy Mastronardi, Freescale

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Mexico. In 2008, China alone hosted over 1800 teams from over 600 Page 14.541.2universities. Overall, the explosive growth of the event is staggering as shown in Figure 1. Universities Participation in the Smart Car Race (Includes Korea, China, and Malaysia) 800 700 600 Universities Participating 500 400 300 200

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Eduardo Montanez, Freescale Semiconductor; Michael Norman, Freescale Semiconductor

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

individually from course to course—helping to keep hardware cost as lowas possible. It also has the flexibility to grow with advances in industry and not become obsolete.Additionally, research shows that laboratories structured around student owned microcontrollerboards and complementary hardware components add value to an embedded engineeringeducation2. The Tower platform enables this model.Structurally, the Tower consists of 3 fundamental types of boards: 1. Elevator Boards 2. Microcontroller unit (MCU) or Microprocessor unit (MPU) Story Boards 3. Peripheral Story BoardsThe modular boards are named “Elevator” or “Story” boards to define their functionality andplacement in the Tower. Each type of board will be described in more detail and

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Zorica Nedic, University of South Australia; Andrew Nafalski, University of South Australia; Ozdemir Gol, University of South Australia; Jan Machotka, University of South Australia

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

these sessions on examples ofsimple circuits implemented in the projects. The sessions gradually cover project topics andmodules as students are progressing through their projects.It is important to clarify that here we use term project in its broadest meaning, acknowledgingthat most education researchers would not regard what we describe here as a project because itdoes not involve problem-based learning2. However, Kolmos usefully differentiates betweenthree types of project work based on a different level of freedom that students have 3:1. Assignment project where the problem, the tools (methods) and outcomes are all well known in advance and the supervisor can fully control these.2. Subject project where the subject is well known and

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Radian Belu, Drexel University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

responsible forthe analysis and design of control circuitry which permits nominal operation of genericpower converters. The laboratory experience will culminate in projects where studentsanalyze, design, simulate and demonstrate power electronics related topics. Each projectwill be carried out by a team of three or four students. The projects and part of thelaboratory experiments will be focused on power applications in the fast growingemerging fields of the renewable industry, such as wind and solar energy or fuel cells.We believe that this will be an efficient approach in teaching power electronics because itcan give the students some of the necessary skills the industry is asking for.1. IntroductionPower electronics is the enabling technology for

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alan Cheville, Oklahoma State University; Charles Bunting, Oklahoma State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

seen as a “blackart” 1 since analytic solutions are not tractable. However, the fundamental design principles arestraightforward and based on simple principles. So much so in fact, that experts familiar withHF design can often tell a good design principle from a bad simply by looking at devices. Astechnology makes greater use of GHz frequencies, it is no longer acceptable for HF design to bethe art of a select few “high priests”. The thesis of this paper is that the burgeoning applicationsof HF devices and components requires a fundamental change in the way HF design and similarsubjects are taught in engineering programs.The changes needed to address the way students learn HF design that are outlined in this paperare similar to those

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adnaan Jiwaji, MIT; James Hardison, MIT; Kayode P. Ayodele, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria; Sandy Stevens Tickodri-Togboa, Makerere University; Alfred Mwambela, University of Dar-es-Salaam; V. Judson Harward, MIT; Jesús A. del Alamo, MIT; Bryant Harrison, MIT; Samuel Gikandi, MIT

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

deployments at partner institutions. It will look at how these iLabs have beenadopted at the specific partner institutions identified and at how communities of educators anddevelopers have coalesced around them. Following from that, this paper will explore how thework of these communities has increased the value of iLabs and made significant contributions Page 14.336.4to the broader iLab Project.II. ELVIS Development at MITThe iLab Shared Architecture (ISA) provides a common framework on which laboratoryinstrumentation can be integrated to create remote laboratories. The ISA, detailed in Figure 1, isa three-tiered architecture consisting of a lab

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education III

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Raymond Winton, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

linkedtogether into an integrated cell design, usually that of the 8-transistor operationaltransconductance amplifier (OTA).This paper identifies a technique that reduces much of the extra design overhead by framing theOTA as a single schematic who test configurations are controlled by a simulation version of aswitch matrix. The switch matrix (1) links a set of independent sources and loads to the circuitunder test and (2) reconfigures the test topology of the circuit. The new technique is of value toboth the instruction process and the circuit designer since it is simple and direct. Given thesimplicity it is also possible to compare effects of different technologies, usually by a collateraluse of a spreadsheet utility and its graph capabilities. The

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kuang Xu, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Elizabeth Van Ruitenbeek, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

research experiences, and few present a detailed organizational framework tomake such research opportunities available to undergraduate students. Nagda et al. describe theUndergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), run by the College of Literature,Science, and the Arts at the University of Michigan2. Like many other undergraduate researchprograms run by universities in the United States4,5,6, UROP is administered by the University ofMichigan and relies mainly on faculty members to provide research opportunities2,7.Unlikely most undergraduate research programs, the PURE program at the University of Illinoisbegan as a student-led initiative. The students who established PURE made the followingcontributions:1) They analyzed the intrinsic

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Enrique Barbieri, University of Houston; Wajiha Shireen, University of Houston; Farrokh Attarzadeh, University of Houston; Miguel Ramos, University of Houston; William Fitzgibbon, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

entering the engineering profession and in earning Electrical/ComputerEngineering (ECE) degrees. If the model is adopted, it is envisioned that a new first professionalengineering degree can be constructed whereby: (1) All engineering-bound students would firstcomplete 2 years of an ECET program; (2) With proper advising and mentoring, those studentsinterested and skilled to follow the more Conceive-Design side of engineering would transfer toa Department, College or School of Engineering and complete an ECE degree in 2, 3 or 4additional years; if 4 years, then the Department of Education definition of a first professionaldegree would be satisfied; and (3) Those students interested and skilled to follow the moreapplied Implement-Operate side of

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Haluk Ozemek, San Jose State University; Preetpal Kang, San Jose State University; Albert Khanh Nguyen, San Jose State University; pradeep badhan, San Jose State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

this course are designed to cover the lecture topics and elements to provide self-motivation to students. When students have “hands on” experience and learn how easily they can interface various sensors and actuators, they develop self- confidence and interest that help them throughout their educational and professional career. Experiment 1: Simple Input/Output: The first experiment allows students to become familiar with Visual Studio and programming language C. Students learn how to create, write, compile, and debug programs in Visual Studio. Experiment 2: Conditional Operations: The second experiment introduces conditional logic. Students write a program that contains different types of conditional operands. Experiment 3

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jean-Claude Thomassian, State University of New York, Maritime College; Anoop Desai, Georgia Southern University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

the course. Students also gain experience in applying PSpice toelectronic design and visualization. Circuit Analysis is a pre-requisite course. Mostly studentsfrom the electrical engineering program enroll in this course, as it is a required course for theirmajor. This course is a four credit hour course (two 75 minutes combined with a three hourlaboratory meeting each week). A pilot study was conducted for this course. Students completing Page 14.1084.2this course should be able to:1. Analyze circuits containing electronic devices using suitable models4-6.2. Analyze linear circuits containing operational amplifiers4-6.3. Design circuits

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Meyer, Purdue University; Cordelia Brown, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

learn best. Thisoutcome was evaluated based on exit survey data.Standardized Outcome Assessment ResultsThere are six learning outcomes in the targeted sophomore-level course8, each of which isassessed using a standardized in-class “hourly” exam: 1. an ability to analyze static and dynamic behavior of digital circuits; 2. an ability to represent Boolean functions in standard forms, to map and minimize them, and to implement them as combinational logic circuits; 3. an ability to use a hardware description language to specify combinational logic circuits, including various “building blocks” such as decoders, multiplexers, encoders, and tri- state buffers; 4. an ability to design and implement arithmetic logic circuits; 5. an

Conference Session

Pedagogy and Assessment I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bill Yang, Western Carolina University; Amy Martin, Western Carolina University; Robert Adams, Western Carolina University; James Zhang, Western Carolina University; Kenneth Burbank, Western Carolina University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

semester. A sample informed consent statement is exhibited in Fig. 1. Fig. 1: Sample student informed Consent StatementThe IRB process is indeed very helpful as there are many subtleties involving the design of thestudy in SoTL projects. These issues are often foreign to professors and lecturers in engineeringand engineering technology areas, who normally do not have training in their professionalbackground in dealing with human subjects. Some of the subtleties are unique to SoTL projects.For example, when teaching effectiveness is being evaluated by comparing two differentteaching methods, as in the study presented here, the design of the study should ensure that nogroup of students receives preferential treatment. As

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

L. Brent Jenkins, Southern Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

in response to this finding; this strategy has been utilized during the first week of classever since. Figure 1 records the incidence of misidentified series or parallel elements on similarquiz problems given over the course of four successive semesters. Fall 2005 Spring 2006 Fall 2006 Spring 2007 REVISIONSStudents who misidentified element configuration(s) 23 4 11 13Number of students taking the quiz 33 32 32 32Percentage of students making this error 70 13

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mustafa Guvench, University of Southern Maine

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

required as a term project.Students are given a set of minimum specifications and are required to apply the learningthey had into the design of a NMOS-input Operational Amplifier that can be implementedin an N-well CMOS process. The specifications include open loop gain, gain-bandwidthproduct, phase margin, common-mode rejection range, slew rate and output swing on aspecified load including capacitive loading. The requirements are (1) to create aMathematica file of their design calculations, (2) verify the design with appropriate SPICEsimulations, (3) create a layout design that passes all design rules, and (4) write a reportand do a Powerpoint presentation to the class at the end. Projects that pass the designspecifications and layout rules can

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yakov Cherner, ATeL, LLC; Ahmed Khan, DeVry University; Amin Karim, DeVry University; Gary Mullett, Springfield Technical Community College

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

its practical applications in technology.This enhances the transferability of acquired knowledge and skills beyond the classroom to solvethe real world engineering problems.I. IntroductionAn Engineer, according to the definition approved by the IEEE-USA Board of Directors [1], isa person qualified to practice engineering by reason of special knowledge and use of themathematical, physical and engineering sciences, and the principles and methods of engineeringanalysis and design, acquired by engineering education and engineering experience. To succeedin the current and future workplace, a good engineer has to possess, in addition tocommunication and leadership abilities, a sound combination of several professional skill setswhich include: (1

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

. Table 1: Limited form of two-operand instructions, as presented in class. Instruction Extension Word 1 Extension Word 2 High nibble Nibble2 Nibble2 Low nibble Address of source Address of dest. Operation 2 9 2 operand operand Page 14.31.3A small set of instructions required for simple algebraic operations and the reduced two-operandinstruction format of Table 1 are presented along with pseudo-ops to reserve memory for storingvariables (and constants). Labels are presented at the same time and opportunities to

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education III

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Asad Azemi, Pennsylvania State University; Nannette D'Imperio, Pennsylvania State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

in thepaper.IntroductionThe usual approach to teaching a computer programming course is to have a classroom lecturecomponent and a supervised laboratory module, where students write simple programs reflectiveof the subjects that they have learned during the lectures. For smaller class sizes, an alternativeapproach, which consists of conducting the entire course in a laboratory setting, has also beenimplemented. An improvement to this approach involves making the lectures more interactive,transforming them using a multimedia package, and conducting class sessions in a "technology-ready classroom" 1. This requires a larger investment, and more time and money, on the parts ofthe institutions and instructors. Justification for this type of