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

his Ph.D. from Colorado State University. His research interests are in the areas of Fiber Optic Communications, Faculty Development, Nanotechnology, Application of Telecommunications Technologies in Distance Education, and impact of Technology on Society. He teaches Wireless Engineering, Network Engineering, Fiber Optic Communications, Technology and Society, and Project Management. He also advises students on their senior design projects. He is the author of “The Telecommunications Fact Book, 2E” and co-author of “Technology and Society: Crossroads to the 21st Century,” “Technology and Society: A Bridge to the 21st Century,” and “Technology and Society: Issues for the 21st Century and Beyond.” He is

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

techniques; c. Incorporation of technical graphics, figures, graphs, and other visual content in live presentations as well as in written reports and assignments; d. Development of effective and expressive web content. e. Communication techniques targeted to different audiences.Concentration tracksA starting program must select a few areas of concentration within its discipline to offer somefocus and character to the program. Theses concentration areas are best chosen in accordancewith local employers’ interests to generate industry support, provide educational partnerships,and insure increased local employment opportunities for graduates. In the case at hand, fourareas of concentration were chosen based

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Esteban Rodriguez-Marek, Eastern Washington University; Min-Sung Koh, Eastern Washington University; Michael Brzoska, Eastern Washington University; Claudio Talarico, Eastern Washington University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2009-234: TRIBULATIONS OF A NEW ELECTRICAL ENGINEERINGPROGRAM: FROM PROGRAM INCEPTION TO ABET ACCREDITATIONEsteban Rodriguez-Marek, Eastern Washington University ESTEBAN RODRIGUEZ-MAREK is an Associate Professor in the department of Engineering and Design at Eastern Washington University. He did his graduate work in Electrical Engineering at Washington State University. He worked as a research scientist at Fast Search & Transfer before transferring to the Department of Engineering & Design at Eastern Washington University. His interest include image and video processing, communication systems, digital signal processing, and cryptographic theory and applications.Min-Sung Koh

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Radian Belu, Drexel University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

power electronics is the problem-oriented and project-basedlearning approach. Students are often unaccustomed to assimilating materials from manyareas at one time, thereby making it difficult for them to simultaneously bring togetherthe circuit, signal and system analysis, electromagnetics and control theory topics whichare required to fully describe the operation of a power electronic converter. The project-based course and laboratory described in this paper directly addresses these difficulties byhelping students to reduce theory to practice. This approach supports the prerequisitelecture material and allows study of some practical issues which are best handled in alaboratory setting. The course format makes the students gradually more

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Neelam Soundarajan, Ohio State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. Designing such questions, as noted earlier, can be quite challenging. But it is precisely thesort of challenge that faculty engaged with the course are glad to take on. This is not the sortof mind-numbing assessment activity performed simply for the sake of meeting EC requirementsthat faculty rightfully resent. This challenge requires faculty to think deeply about what the centralconcept in question is, what are the additional concepts and ideas that might be related to it, perhapsperipherally, which might confuse students, how best to capture these potential confusions in a fewcarefully worded distractors, etc. As noted earlier, the fact that student performance in the POCATdoes not affect their academic record means that the test helps us assess

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

AC 2009-1806: COLLABORATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF REMOTEELECTRONICS LABORATORIES: THE ELVIS ILABAdnaan Jiwaji, MIT Adnaan Jiwaji is a Masters of Engineering graduate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His thesis was development of remote laboratories for Africa with iLabs. Currently he is a Software Engineer for the Clusters and Parallel Storage Technology group at Oracle.James Hardison, MIT James Hardison is a Research Engineer with the Center for Educational Computing Initiatives at MIT. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT. Presently, he is involved with the management and development of online

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

instruction in these areas.All results are reported for the Fall semester of 2007. At the beginning of the semester, 79% ofthe students were “somewhat” or “very” confident in their ability to design and implementprojects to satisfy design performance; 79% believed they could complete projects on time; 86%were confident in their ability to make professional presentations; and 86% indicated that theirlast team experience was a positive one. These findings suggested that students had sufficientopportunities to practice the soft skills prior to ECGR 4146. Consequently, the topics wereaddressed as needed during lecture and labs and in consultation with students via email,telephone, and office hours. Data for the technical test questions were screened

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ahmed Rubaai, Howard University; Ramesh Chawla, Howard University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

facilitate coding.Another point in favor of using MATLAB/SimulinkTM is in the creation of an environmentsimilar to an ideal real-time control platform. Linux and Java are cited as incapable of producingthe best real-time platform because of “the non-determinism caused by the automatic memorymanagement in Java 3”. While the speeds of most modern computers minimize this drawback,the SimulinkTM model still offers the best real-time applications. A few other software tools thatare utilized in laboratories today include RTLinux (Real-Time Linux) 2 and Simulinux-RT5.With regard to the types of controllers that have been utilized in the educational arena, there are anumber of practical approaches being used for the illustration of the control systems

Conference Session

Project-Based Learning in ECE Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Archibald, Brigham Young University; Doran Wilde, Brigham Young University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

engineer in Oregon where he worked 12 years in industry doing microprocessor design. In 1990, he began graduate studies at Oregon State University, where he received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science in 1993 and 1995, respectively. In 1995, he joined the faculty in the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Brigham Young University where he is currently serving as an associate professor. Dr. Wilde has taught a wide range of computer and electrical engineering courses and has been involved in new computer engineering course development. He has been actively engaged in research in the fields of computer arithmetic, application specific systems and architectures, and

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment II

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Aurenice Oliveira, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

studies stress the importance of first-year college experience, andindicate the first-year GPA as the best predictor of attrition. The adoption of an activelearning format whereby student participation is highly encouraged has the strongestimpact on students’ academic performance and their attitudes towards engineeringprofession4.Despite of the fact that many students may have been academically prepared andmotivated to study engineering, 50% of students who enter engineering programs asfreshman do not earn an engineering degree2, 3. The gap between engineers neededannually and the number of graduates available to fill positions is wide. Some expertsplace the need as high as 117,000 a year, while U.S. colleges produce about 65,000 to70,000