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

backup system [2]. The system can be generalized as thecombination of a rectifier and inverter; two power electronic subsystems commonly covered inelectrical engineering courses. A software system to study and design ideal UPS systems forpower electronics course is featured in [3]. The ideal UPS system is fostered by the creation ofan integrated graphical interface calculating the optimal configuration of each component.Though the system has a notable visual interface, it focuses only on the construction aspect, notthe monitoring of a system that has already been assembled.Integration of custom-designed hardware into laboratory and the classroom is growing at anumber of universities. Software solutions have even been developed for robotics

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Dominik May, University of Georgia; Beshoy Morkos, University of Georgia; Andrew Jackson, University of Georgia; Fred Richard Beyette Jr., University of Georgia; Nathaniel Hunsu, University of Georgia; Joachim Walther, University of Georgia; Amy Ingalls, University of Georgia

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Paper ID #32550Switching from Hands-on Labs to Exclusively Online Experimentation inElectrical and Computer Engineering CoursesDr. Dominik May, University of Georgia Dr. May is an Assistant Professor in the Engineering Education Transformations Institute. He researches online and intercultural engineering education. His primary research focus lies on the development, in- troduction, practical use, and educational value of online laboratories (remote, virtual, and cross-reality) and online experimentation in engineering instruction. In his work, he focuses on developing broader educational strategies for the design and

Conference Session

ECE Division Poster Session

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adriyel Nieves, Pennsylvania State University; Julio Urbina, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Tim Kane, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Shengxi Huang, Pennsylvania State University; Diego Penaloza, Pennsylvania State University, University Park

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Signal Processing and Instrumentation Research Laboratory (ASPIRL) in the same department. His research interests include applied electromagnetics, antennas, cognitive radars, software- defined radio and remote sensing. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2019 Work in Progress for Developing Project-Based Experiential Learning of Engineering ElectromagneticsI. IntroductionElectromagnetics (EM) is traditionally taught as a core course within the electricalengineering curriculum. The theory and application of EM has enabled engineersand scientists to develop applications such as Radio Frequency (RF) circuits,telecommunication systems, and radar systems. Similarly, scientists

Conference Session

Embedded System Design

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Firas Hassan, Ohio Northern University; Srinivasa Vemuru, Ohio Northern University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

with knowledge of VHDL from sophomore level introductorydigital logic course. The course focuses on getting a hardware/software codesign experiencethrough a combination of lectures and laboratory sessions. The laboratory component will be thefocus of the paper. The course has the following learning outcomes:Laboratory learning outcomes:L1. Students will develop a capability of embedded systems design by programming a microcontroller board using C with modern development tools.L2. Students will develop a custom reconfigurable embedded platform using FPGA based development boards including appropriate drivers for peripherals.Course Outcomes:After successfully completing this course the student should be able to:C1. Understand bottom-up and

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 in a Sophomore CourseAbstractRecently in academia, a push has emerged to include engineering design early in a student’s coursesequence. The desired result is to captivate the student’s interest in engineering before the student hashad a chance to change majors. Otherwise, the student would not experience the design process until thecapstone courses in the senior year. In this paper, an embedded design project in a sophomore course ispresented. The design project is based on the USB Toolstick from Silicon Laboratories. The USBToolstick is an 8051 series microcontroller that is self contained, economical, and very student friendly.What follows is a discussion of the sophomore course, an overview of the USB Toolstick, and examplesof

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

employed in the teaching ofElectronics and Network Analysis. The analysis of this paper follows comparable studies onmedia-based instruction. Cohen et al1 who found that students learned additional informationfrom such instruction techniques in contrast to traditional modes of instruction. Moreover,Powell et al2 further explored this analysis and found that such instructional techniques werehelpful in raising the GPAs of the students.PSpice, an acronym for Personal Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis, is ageneral purpose analog circuit and digital logic simulation software used to check the reliabilityof circuit designs and to predict circuit behavior. SPICE3 was originally developed at theElectronics Research Laboratory of the

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

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

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

containing electronic devices to control signals5-7.4. Use PSpice to design and analyze electronic circuits.Network Analysis deals with a general introduction to elementary rules, theorems, and lawsapplicable to AC circuits. The course includes an introduction to differential equation modelingand analysis of linear circuits with sinusoidal inputs (power, phasors, impedances, andadmittances). A complete treatment of circuit analysis in the frequency domain (Bode plots,frequency response, Laplace transforms, and Fourier analysis) is included. Laboratory workemphasizes frequency response, circuit synthesis, and PSpice simulation/modeling. This includesbuilding and testing circuits to show and support theoretical concepts. Differential Equations

Conference Session

Distance and Web-based Learning in ECE

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Esteban Rodriguez-Marek, Eastern Washington University; Min-Sung Koh, Eastern Washington University; Claudio Talarico, Eastern Washington University; Jabulani Nyathi, Eastern Washington University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

22.507.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 Distance Education Program in Electrical Engineering AbstractTraditional engineering programs are taught in a class setting, accompanied with laboratoryexercises that complement lecture and reinforce theory. This is the ideal format, as students haveeasy access to both faculty and laboratories. Many times, however, students are place-bound inlocations where they do not have access to institutions offering engineering programs.Furthermore, engineering degrees are expensive degrees and opening one requires a significantinvestment from the organization and/or the state. On the other hand, many community

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 6

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Hooman Rashtian, University of California, Davis; Jun Ouyang, University of California, Davis

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

California, Davis and works on designing analog inte- grated circuits. As a development teaching assistant, he works on designing modern laboratory materials for undergraduate electrical engineering students. In his spare time, he enjoys working on automating solutions for physical problems using different programming languages. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017 A New Application-Oriented Electronic Circuits Course for non-Electrical Engineering Students Using Arduino and NI VirtualBenchI. IntroductionTeaching circuits to non-electrical engineering students has always been a challenging task since many ofthese students find the circuit theory

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

required for the course areprogramming using a high level language such as C/C++ or Java and an understanding of logicdesign, both which a typical undergraduate computer engineering student acquires at thesophomore or the junior level. An associated laboratory component was also developed, whereweekly hands-on laboratory sessions serve to reinforce the ideas learned in the lecture. Thecourse projects are drawn from a variety of disciplines which use high performance computingincluding bioinformatics, scientific computing, and signal processing. The course was assessedthrough pre and post tests, focus groups, and external evaluators drawn from faculty from otherdepartments. Our assessments indicate that the course has had a significant impact on

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Rachid Manseur, State University of New York, Oswego; Adrian Ieta, State University of New York, Oswego

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, classrooms, project labs and offices for faculty, staff, and support personnel asneeded. Most, although not all, courses in the engineering core curriculum and electives arebetter taught with laboratory sessions or in studio format with hands-on activities. To this end,the following list provides examples of required facilities: 1. Circuits and Electronics studio This laboratory and its equipment can support several courses such as circuits, analog electronics, signals and systems, instrumentation and related elective courses. 2. Digital Systems Studio Several courses in the digital electronics and computer systems areas can be

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Division Poster Session

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ying Lin, Western Washington University; John Andrew Lund, Western Washington University; Todd D. Morton, Western Washington University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Washington University Todd Morton has been teaching the upper level embedded systems and senior project courses for Western Washington University’s Electronics Engineering Technology(EET) program for 25 years. He has been the EET program coordinator since 2005 and also served as department chair from 2008-2012. He is the author of the text ’Embedded Microcontrollers’, which covers assembly and C programming in small real-time embedded systems and has worked as a design engineer at Physio Control Corporation and at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as an ASEE-NASA Summer Faculty Fellow. He has a BSEE and MSEE from the University of Washington. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2017A

Conference Session

Circuits & Systems Education I

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bill D. Carroll, University of Texas, Arlington

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

asophomore-level course are given in the paper. Plans to use the device for homework and in-class active learning exercises are also explored. A take-home laboratory kit called The BitBox©which incorporates The BitBoard and a DE1 is also described. The paper discusses the results ofa student survey on the usefulness and reliability of the device and the kit. Observations andresults of the survey suggest that The BitBoard and The BitBox are effective educational toolsfor teaching digital logic fundamentals and have a range of application well beyond the localenvironment. The BitBoard and provides a seamless way to bridge the gap from basic gate-levelexperiments to advanced FPGA projects using an integrated take home laboratory kit.IntroductionThis

Conference Session

Circuits and Systems Education 2

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shiny Abraham, Tuskegee University; Naga Korivi, Tuskegee University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. Page 26.430.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2015 Curricular Enhancement to Support Activity-Based Learning in Introductory Circuit Analysis CoursesAbstractTraditional Circuit Analysis courses introduce undergraduate Electrical Engineering students tofundamental concepts of electric circuits and networks, while providing them hands-onexperience in accompanying laboratory sessions. A drawback of this conventional approach isthat it restricts student creativity and circuit-building and troubleshooting skills to the confines ofa laboratory. This paper proposes the use of Analog Discovery Boards (ADB) in conjunctionwith regular classroom learning sessions and collaborative group sessions in

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education

Collection

2010 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George Gibbon, University of The Witwatersrand; Ian Jandrell, University of the Witwatersrand

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2010-695: CHANGING THE MINDSET: THE LECTURER’S RESPONSIBILITYWHEN PRESENTING A FIRST YEAR COURSE.George Gibbon, University of The Witwatersrand George Gibbon obtained a National Diploma in 1973 and was awarded an MSc(Eng) in 1990 and a PhD in 1995 by the University of the Witwatersrand. Before joining Wits in 1986 he worked at S A Philips (now Philips South Africa) from 1971 to 1974, and the Chamber of Mines Research Laboratories (1974-1986) where he was responsible for the design and development of instrumentation for seismic, rock mechanic and sequential blasting research. His research interests include measurement systems, marine electromagnetic radiation and its influence on sharks

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

New Trends in ECE Education I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Timothy Bigelow, University of North Dakota

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Engineering Focus program that was developed required that five additionalcourses be inserted into the curriculum. These courses are provided in Table 1. Although thesecourses are specific to our institution, there are similar courses at other institutions that could beadded if a similar program were to be implemented.Table 1: Courses added for the biomedical focus program. Course Name Number of Credits General Biology 1 (w/ Laboratory) 4 General Biology 2 (w/ Laboratory) 4 General Chemistry 2* (w/ Laboratory) 4 Anatomy 3 Human Physiology (w/ Laboratory

Conference Session

ECE Division Poster Session

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mariusz Jankowski, University of Southern Maine

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

computing. Dr. Jankowski has received awards from the Ames Laboratory, Wolfram Research, and University of Southern Maine for his scholarly and pedagogic work. He has received grants from the National Science Foundation, Maine Science and Technology Foundation, and Wolfram Research. Page 22.1219.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2011 Recent advances in computational technology in the classroomAbstractRecent advances in computational technology have made it significantly easier to create interactive demonstrations with pro-grammable tools that are fully

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Qian Du, Mississippi State University; Judy Schneider, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

) facultyto improve the teaching and learning effectiveness in ECE3183. The ME department wasselected because they provide the largest student population to ECE3183 (40% of the class).Based on the experience and lessons learned from this initial effort, this concept will be extendedto other departments in the near future.II. Current ECE3183 at MSUECE3183 at MSU consists of three hours of lecture with no supporting laboratory. The loss of atraditionally dedicated laboratory results from the reduction in credit hours to obtain abaccalaureate degree in the various engineering disciplines. Student population in ECE3183includes, approximately, 40% Mechanical Engineering, 30% Chemical Engineering, 10%Aerospace Engineering, 10% Civil Engineering, and 10

Conference Session

Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Digital Systems Education 2

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Joseph P Hoffbeck, University of Portland

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

TMS320C5515 eZdsp USB Stick, a powered microphone, an audiosource such as an MP3 player or cellphone, and speakers. Undergraduate electrical engineeringstudents were shown the demonstration and were surveyed to determine which algorithms theyfound most interesting. The C language source code for the software is available from the authorfor free, so this program can be modified by instructors who wish to make their owndemonstrations or used as a convenient starting point for student projects.IntroductionThe material in a DSP course is often highly theoretical and mathematical, and so it is useful toconnect the theory to real-world applications with laboratory experiments, simulations, ordemonstrations. Fortunately, there are many interesting

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

design and embedded system-on-chip (SoC)design.Background and MotivationA sequence of four graduate level courses was chosen for this analysis for three reasons: 1) thedependencies the courses have on laboratory based instruction, 2) applicability to thesemiconductor industry and 3) each course builds upon the previous course culminating in acapstone course that unifies the systematic design competencies that are needed to build complexsilicon systems. These silicon systems are composed of both hardware and software componentsthat implement complex algorithms and functions, and these functions determine thecompetencies required by the student.The four courses in the sequence are described in detail in the next section and include: 1) Basic

Conference Session

ECE Division Poster Session

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ramakrishnan Sundaram, Gannon University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

engineering project activities to engage the following STEMconstituents (a) students (b) educators (c) first-year engineering students in undergraduate degreeprograms. Laboratory and engineering project experiences can effectively introduce and reinforceSTEM-related concepts. The first two constituents form part of the K-12 STEM education process.The third constituent represents the graduates of the process. The constituents identified as studentsare introduced to aspects of engineering design, assembly, test, and validation through step-basedproject activities. The introduction takes place with the students either participating in projectactivities in the undergraduate engineering laboratory or with faculty from undergraduateengineering programs

Conference Session

Optical and Wireless Communication Systems

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adam Neale, University of Waterloo; Jason Shirtliff, University of Waterloo; William Bishop, University of Waterloo; Cutberto Santillan Rios, University of Waterloo

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

processing.Cutberto Santillan Rios, University of Waterloo Cutberto A Santillan received the Engineering degree in Electronic and Communications from the Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico City, in 1999 and the M.A.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, in 2002. He is also working towards his PhD degree in the same institution. He is currently working as a Laboratory Instructor for electromagnetic, communications and electronic circuit design courses at the University of Waterloo. His research interests include RF & Microwave design, measurement and analysis, RFICs, electronic circuit design and antenna modeling

Conference Session

ECE Curriculum Innovations

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gregory Plett, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs; Rodger Ziemer, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs; Michael Ciletti, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs; R. Dandapani, University of Colordo-Colorado Springs; T. S. Kalkur, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs; Mark Wickert, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

11.614.1 presently he is a Professor. During sabbaticals he has worked as a visiting faculty member at Hewlett Packard Laboratories, Palo Alto, CA, Vitesse Semiconductors, and Atmel Corporation, Colorado Springs, CO. His research interests are design and processing of GaAs devices and circuits, ferroelectric memories, radio frequency integrated circuits based ferroelectric based tunable devices, and micromachining. He has published over 200 research papers in journals and© American Society for Engineering Education, 2006 tunable devices, and micromachining. He has published over 200 research papers in journals and conferences.Mark Wickert, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs

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

a freshmen course in electrical engineering to improve retention. Another paper is related to the development of an online graduate course in Random Process. And the last paper focuses on the development of an online course in Linear Circuit Analysis for Electrical Engineering Student.Dr. Mukul Shirvaikar, University of Texas at Tyler Dr. Mukul Shirvaikar is the Chair and Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas at Tyler, where he develops curriculum and laboratories in computer engineering. Prior to this he worked at Texas Instruments specializing in real time imaging systems. Dr. Shirvaikar graduated with his doc- torate from the University of Tennessee, a M.S. degree from the University of

Conference Session

Improvements in ECE Circuit Analysis

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

TomHenry J. Reagan, Colorado School of Mines; Stephanie Claussen, Colorado School of Mines; Eric Lyne

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

itself, does not improve student learning — but online homework can serveas a delivery vehicle for other pedagogical best practices. Another coded study concludes thatonline homework improves student learning, but relies on a self-selected sample population andlacks comparison to a control group — both indicative of lower quality results [15].The ​in-class methods​ described in [10] and [8] share a focus on replacing lecture with activelearning. [10] creates a studio format by uniting lecture and laboratory activities in a single classsession, while [8] assigned students into groups which work on conceptual problems. Bothstudies report very positive impacts on student learning. Other studies which scored well inquality assessment — [6], [16

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dorin Patru, Rochester Institute of Technology; Daniel Phillips, Rochester Institute of Technology; Eric Peskin, Rochester Institute of Technology (COE)

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

accepted into a graduate course of study focusing on biomedical ultrasound at the University of Rochester in 1992 and received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1998. He served as a scientist and an assistant professor of research in the Diagnostic Ultrasound Laboratory of Dr. Robert C. Waag at the University of Rochester from 1998 until 2000 at which time he was accepted into a tenure track teaching position in the Electrical Engineering Department at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he received tenure and a promotion to Associate Professor in 2006. His interests include biomedical applications of electrical engineering including signal processing and embedded systems

Conference Session

Capstone Design and Innovations in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Muhittin Yilmaz, Texas A&M University, Kingsville; Selahattin Ozcelik, Texas A&M University, Kingsville; Nuri Yilmazer, Texas A&M University, Kingsville; Reza Nekovei, Texas A&M University, Kingsville

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

education research and engineering outreach camps. Yilmaz is a member of the Eta Kappa Nu Electrical Engineering Honor Society, as well as IEEE and ASEE.Dr. Selahattin Ozcelik, Texas A&M University, KingsvilleProf. Nuri Yilmazer, Texas A&M University, Kingsville Nuri Yilmazer received a B.S. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey in 1996, and M.S. and PhD degrees in electrical and computer engineering from the Uni- versity of Florida and Syracuse University in 2000 and 2006, respectively. He worked as a Post Doctoral Research Associate in Computational Electromagnetics Laboratory at Syracuse University from 2006 to 2007. He is currently working as an Assistant

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education I

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sanjay Raman, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Da Silva Luiz, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Masoud Agah, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Allen MacKenzie, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Christopher Maxey, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Amy Bell, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, including active learning opportunities, a hands-onlaboratory experience, and a summary/wrap-up lecture. The lectures are delivered to thestudents in a single classroom, large lecture format; the labs are conducted in smaller sectionsof the overall course. The lab/lecture materials are carefully developed to be tractable forfirst-year engineering students from a wide range of backgrounds. Examples include:arrhythmia detection algorithms for implantable cardiac defibrillators (Signal Processing);blackout prevention (Electrical Power Systems); and detecting tumors using tomographicimage reconstruction (Biomedical Imaging).This paper will discuss the implementation of a particular four-part lecture/laboratory modulein the area of Sensors and Wireless

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jason Coutermarsh, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Kenneth Connor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Don Millard, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

and software (developed by Rensselaer) which, when connected to the PC via aUSB port, provides similar functionality to an oscilloscope (with a full 50KHzbandwidth), 2 function generators, a multimeter and bipolar power supplies (for less thanthe cost of a typical textbook – approximately $80). With the advent of this mobileinstrumentation studio PC-based laboratory, many instrumentation-based course offeringscan now be held in normal classrooms rather than in specially outfitted facilities. Inaddition, students are asked to perform hands-on experiments outside of the classroomanywhere/anytime, thus facilitating new opportunities for them to “tinker,” to gainvaluable insight through practical experience and to rekindle the passion for