Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angel Martinez, Kansas State University; Steve Warren, Kansas State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2007-2217: RASCL: A PORTABLE CIRCUIT PROTOTYPING LABORATORYAngel Martinez, Kansas State University Angel Martinez received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Kansas State University in May 2005 and May 2007, respectively. His areas of research interest include embedded systems, analog & digital electronics, and system-level design.Steve Warren, Kansas State University Steve Warren is an Associate Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Kansas State University. He teaches courses in linear systems, computer graphics, biomedical instrumentation, and scientific computing. Dr. Warren manages the KSU Medical Component Design Laboratory, and his research

Conference Session

Optical and Wireless Communication Systems

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

George Moore, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2007-1636: THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DIGITAL TELECOMMUNICATIONLABORATORYGeorge Moore, Purdue University George Moore received the PhD degree from the University of Missouri in 1978. From 1978 to 2001, he was a member of the technical staff at Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies. Currently, he is an assistant professor at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. His interest include software methods, telecommunication and distributed networking. He is a member of the IEEE, the IEEE Computer Society, and the ACM. Page 12.1404.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 The

Conference Session

Digital and Embedded System Design

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mukul Shirvaikar, University of Texas-Tyler; Nikhil Satyala, University of Texas-Tyler

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

students working on operating systems. Thesecurity here is provided by isolating the fatal problems like system crashes and other faults intoa single virtual machine which allows students to work in secured and portable lab environment.This feature is of particular importance in a teaching laboratory environment.Past WorkThe IBM VM/370 was one of the first virtual machines developed in the 1960s. In the sameperiod many other companies adapted the virtualization technology and started developingvarious kinds of virtual machines. VMware was first developed with an intention to bring virtualmachine technology to industry-standard computers. The first Vmware product was Workstationreleased in 1999 and resulted from research on operating systems at

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lisa Huettel, Duke University; Kip Coonley, Duke University; Michael Gustafson, Duke University; Jungsang Kim, Duke University; Gary Ybarra, Duke University; Leslie Collins, Duke University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

approach in improvingstudent confidence and understanding, increasing student interest and motivation, and meetingseveral ABET criteria.2. Laboratory PhilosophyMany introductory ECE courses include a hands-on laboratory experience. Most often, theconstituent experiments consist of step-by-step progressions through exercises that enablestudents to observe or verify fundamental concepts. While this approach can be an effectivemethod of teaching and reinforcing theoretical concepts, many students do not find it particularlymotivating or insightful.To promote concept integration throughout the semester, all Fundamentals laboratory exercisesare based on a single platform. In selecting the platform, several criteria were critical. First, theideal

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Doug Sterk, Virginia Tech; Tim Thacker, Virginia Tech; Elizabeth Tranter, Virginia Tech; Richard Goff, Virginia Tech; Janis Terpenny, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

lecture sections allowed information to be rapidly delivered to the REU students allat the same time rather than have each mentor teach each pair of students in parallel. This, inturn, freed up time for the mentors to prepare the laboratory sections of the program. There wasa response from a student that had previously taken an introductory power electronics courseprior to the REU program and they stated that the lectures help clarify the lessons learned in theirprevious power electronics course.In the survey there were also several questions that pertained to the mentoring portion of theREU program. In summary, the students expressed the notion that the hands on laboratoryexperience of the REU program far exceeded any other traditional

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chia-Jeng Tseng, Bucknell University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

. IntroductionTwo digital design courses are offered at Bucknell University: one is entitled “DigitalSystem Design” and the other is called “Advanced Digital Design.” Both courses consistof three hours of lectures and laboratories weekly. Digital System Design, offered to thejunior class, focuses on logic synthesis; schematic capture is used for design entry.“Advanced Digital Design,” offered to senior and graduate students, addresses system-level design methodologies; the detailed breakdown consists of VHDL, register-transfer-level design methodologies, advanced topics in logic synthesis, and technology mapping.This paper addresses the pedagogic considerations of teaching “Advanced DigitalDesign” using VHDL.The design description of a digital system may

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yi Cheng, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona; Kathleen Hayden, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona; Zekeriya Aliyazicioglu, California State Polytechnic University-Pomona

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

flexible and powerful embedded system. Furthermore, theseboards can also serve as platforms to explore the SHC system design and testing. Wedecided to change an existing junior-level course in IBM-PC Interfacing [2] to anintroductory course in SHC, and offered it in fall 2006.2. SHC Lecture and Laboratory CourseThis junior-level hardware-software co-design course consists of a 4-unit lecture and aone-unit laboratory. Students attend a 65-minute lecture three times a week, and a 3-hourlaboratory course. The pre-requisites of this course are the two digital logic courses,which teach basic logic analysis, design and simulation using Verilog design, two C/C++programming courses, and one introductory embedded system course.2.1 Lecture CourseThe lecture

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ian Papautsky, University of Cincinnati; Ali Asgar Bhagat, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

microfluidics and MEMS devices for chemical and biological assays. He was the teaching assistant for the Biochip Laboratory course discussed in this paper. Page 12.971.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Introducing Microfluidics to Electrical Engineers: An Integrated Problem-Based Learning ExperienceIntroductionMicrofluidics is a multidisciplinary field comprising of physics, chemistry, engineering andbiotechnology that studies the behavior of fluids at the microscale and the design of systems thattake advantage of such behavior. The behavior of fluids at the microscale differ from“macrofluidic

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jimmy Linn, East Carolina University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and applications ofsome innovative technologies in the classroom. I have chosen to concentrate on one suchtechnology in this paper. This technology is the use of computer based laboratory experiments inlieu of or to supplement hands-on laboratory experiments. I will focus on computer based labexperiments. The driving force behind this technology is to speed up student progress onlaboratory experiments and make the learning experience in the lab more efficient. I choose theelectrical field to concentrate my discussion because my background is in electronics and I havesignificant experience teaching electrical courses with accompanying labs. I will first give some

Conference Session

Optical and Wireless Communication Systems

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ernest Kim, University of San Diego

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

of concepts introduced in each course.Curricular design of both courses as well as assessments of concurrent registration in the coursesis presented. Specific laboratory design, fabrication, and measurement experiments conducted inthe RF and microwave engineering course that helps emphasize concepts introduced in theengineering electromagnetics course are outlined.IntroductionRadio frequency (RF) and microwave engineering courses are commonly taught as an electricalengineering elective in the senior or graduate years of study.1 Concepts introduced in RF andmicrowave courses benefit from a solid understanding of passive and active circuits, and time-varying electromagnetic field theory.2 With regard to electromagnetic fields, wave

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education III

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Don Millard, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Mohamed Chouikha, Howard University; Frederick Berry, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

,physicists recognize problems of river currents and problems of headwinds and tailwinds inairplanes as involving similar mathematical principles, such as relative velocities.4 Gone are thedays when students were ham radio operators, played with Erector/LEGO sets, tinkered withelectronic kits or simply taken things apart for fun. As a result, students have less “gut intuition”and expert skills than prior generations possessed when entering the job market.5STUDIO PEDAGOGY The defining characteristics of studio classes are an integrated lecture-laboratory format, areduced amount of time allotted to lecture; a technology-enhanced learning environment,collaborative group work and a high level of faculty-student interaction. The studio

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Wagdy Mahmoud, University of the District of Columbia

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

involved in using continually-evolving system-level design tools and theefforts made to reduce their learning times.IntroductionABET 2000 requires providing students with a significant hands-on design experience.Graduating electrical engineering students should have the ability to develop system-leveldesigns for a variety of applications, implement these designs in functional hardware, and test thehardware in real-life operating conditions. To achieve such professional competence, studentsshould be required to participate in a sequence of hardware design experiments and projects.These laboratory exercises aim at: a) sharpening students’ abilities to design complex digitalcircuits and systems, and to interface these designs to peripheral devices, b

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

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

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

afourth year technical elective course on antennas and wireless systems (ECE 476). To preparestudents for the elective course, the fourth laboratory study of ECE 471 examines antenna theory.The goal of this lab study is to measure, simulate, and calculate the antenna radiation patterns fora single half-wave dipole antenna with and without the presence of a metallic corner reflector.To prepare students for this laboratory exercise, the teaching team decided that an online,interactive simulation tool was needed. Such a tool could be used as a pre-lab exercise to helpstudents gain a deeper understanding of dipole antenna radiation patterns.After an in-depth online investigation, a limited number of potential simulation tools werefound2-5. However

Conference Session

ECE Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

J. Shawn Addington, Virginia Military Institute; Wilbur Dale, Virginia Military Institute; Isaac Putnam, Virginia Military Institute

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2007-1139: ELECTRONS, HOLES, AND THE HALL EFFECTJ. Shawn Addington, Virginia Military Institute J. Shawn Addington is the Jamison-Payne Institute Professor and Head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the Virginia Military Institute. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He teaches courses, laboratories, and undergraduate research projects in the microelectronics and semiconductor fabrication areas; and, he remains active in curriculum development and engineering assessment. He is a registered professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and is a member of ASEE

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Douglas Williams, Georgia Institute of Technology; Robert Butera, Georgia Institute of Technology; Selcuk Uluagac, Georgia Institute of Technology; Matthew Clark, Georgia Institute of Technology; Andy Deck, National Instruments; Michael Torba, National Instruments; Steven Trahan, National Instruments

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Butera, who were also responsible for developing/grading quizzesand lecture material, taught one section each. The course also utilized a dedicated TeachingAssistant (13 hours/week) who helped debug future labs and graded homework assignments, aswell as staffing assistance hours during the design project.Initial course development occurred during the preceding summer by Drs. Butera and Williamswith active consultations with staff at National Instruments. The School of Electrical andComputer Engineering provided a dedicated Teaching Assistant (TA) for this effort, althoughDrs. Butera and Williams received no formal workload compensation for these developmentefforts. A dedicated TA was critical for setting up the laboratory/classroom and proofing

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Chang, USMA; Grant Jacoby, USMA; Lisa Shay, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

primarily on laboratory time: the first third of the course is 90% lectureand the last two thirds of the course are based on 90% laboratory time. During the last two thirdsof the course, we provide students with the necessary references, lecture for the first 10 minutes,and direct their learning using experimentation. We are currently using the Board of EducationBasic Stamp platform to teach majors and non-majors how to control and integrate various inputand output components (such as sensors, speakers, lights, motors, etc.) using microcontrollers.Despite this being the first year robotics were introduced to non-majors as the last of their threecourse sequence, over 75% of 36 students surveyed indicated that they would recommended theirpeers to

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Braun, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2007-922: WEB-BASED DESIGN AND ANALYSIS PROJECTS FOR A JUNIORLEVEL INTEGRATED CIRCUITS COURSEDavid Braun, California Polytechnic State University David Braun is a Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. He worked at Philips Research Labs in Eindhoven, the Netherlands from 1992 to 1996, after completing the Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at U.C. Santa Barbara. Please see www.ee.calpoly.edu/~dbraun/ for information about his courses, teaching interests, and research. Page 12.1599.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Web Based Design

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

H.M.R. Aboutorabi, “The Technical Memorandum: An Effective Way of Developing Technical Writing Skills,” Engineering Education, vol. 80, no.2, pp. 479-481, May/June 1990.15 L. M. Snell, “Teaching Memo and Letter and Writing Techniques in the Classroom,” Engineering Education, vol. 80, pp. 481-482, May/June 1990.16 J. E. Sharp, B. M. Olds, R. L. Miller, and M. A. Dyrud, “Four Effective Writing Strategies for Engineering Classes,” Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 88, no. 1, pp. 53-57, January 1999.17 J. A. Newell, “Using Peer Review in the Undergraduate Laboratory,” Chemical Engineering Education, pp. 194-196, Summer 1998.18 J. W. Nilsson and S. A. Riedel, Introduction to PSpice Manual for Electric Circuits using

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christopher Greene, University of Saint Thomas

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2007-1429: STUDIO-BASED INSTRUCTION IN SIGNALS AND SYSTEMSChristopher Greene, University of Saint Thomas After a 24 year career in industry, Dr. Greene joined the University of St. Thomas School of Engineering where he teaches in both the Electrical and Mechanical engineering programs. He principally teaches Signals and Systems, Digital Electronics and Control Systems. Page 12.1326.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Studio-Based Signals and SystemsAbstractOne of the more challenging aspects of most undergraduate electrical engineering programs isthe Signals and Systems

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dick Blandford, University of Evansville; Deborah Hwang, University of Evansville

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

better.Computer Science Curriculum ChangesThe effect of being in a combined department is pervasive, starting in the first year. In mostcomputer science programs, Java has been the choice for the first language. Students coming outof high school with Advanced Placement (AP) credit have taken a test in Java to demonstrate aworking knowledge of the language. While computer engineering has incorporated Java in manyplaces, most text books have examples in C++, and C remains the dominant language forembedded applications. Since both computer engineering and computer science students sharethe first programming courses, we chose to retain C++ as the first language and teach Java in alater course required only of computer science students. If the programs were

Conference Session

Digital and Embedded System Design

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Liang Hong, Tennessee State University; Md Hasanuzzaman, Tennessee State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

recent focus on wireless video transmission, modulation classification, speech enhancement, and sensor networks. He is a member of IEEE and ASEE.Md Hasanuzzaman, Tennessee State University Md Hasanuzzaman received the B.S. degree and M.S. degree from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in 1996 and 1998, respectively, and the PhD degree from University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN in 2004, all in electrical engineering. Since 2005, he has been with Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN, as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was a research assistant of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and worked on advanced microprocessor

Conference Session

Digital and Embedded System Design

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Bolding, Seattle Pacific Univ; Dave Van Ess, Cypress Semiconductor

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

core.When designing such a course, the selection of a particular microcontroller is a very importantdecision. The selection should consider not only what microcontrollers are currently popular, butalso the ease of project development using the system, the availability of support to students, thecosts of starting up a lab, and the flexibility of the platform to fit into a course with multipleobjectives. This paper reports on using Cypress Semiconductor’s Programmable System on aChip (PSoC) as the basis for a microcontroller systems design course. The experience ofselecting the PSoC, designing a curriculum around it, designing laboratory exercises andmanaging the course are described. Furthermore, considerations such as the technical andfinancial

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Andrew Rusek, Oakland University; Barbara Oakley, Oakland University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

lines and wave propagation: CRC Press, 2001.[5] "The Bergeron method: A graphic method for determining line reflections in transient phenomena," Texas Instruments, http://focus.ti.com/lit/an/sdya014/sdya014.pdf[6] L. D. Feisel and A. J. Rosa, "The Role of the Laboratory in Undergraduate Engineering Education," Journal of Engineering Education, vol. 94, pp. 121-130, 2005.[7] F. Jalali, "Transmission Line Experiments At Low Cost," 1998 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition: Engineering Education Contributing to U. S. Competitiveness, 1998. http://www.asee.org/acPapers/00580.pdf[8] D. M. Hata, "A low-cost approach to teaching transmission line fundamentals and impedance matching," 2004 ASEE Annual Conference &

Conference Session

Design in the ECE Curriculum

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christine Co, Oklahoma State University; Bear Turner, Oklahoma State University; Alan Cheville, Oklahoma State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

feedback is provided on student performance. Based on design errors commonlymade by student teams in open-ended design projects, the four outcomes of the pre-capstonecourse are to: 1) Give students training, experience, and feedback from working on teams. This is mandated by ABET and most capstone programs use team-based design projects 1 2) Give student specific design and fabrication skills. In other words the course attempts to make each student an expert in a needed skill. There are several reasons for choosing this outcome that will be explained later. 3) Explicitly teach time and resource management. These are taught separately using two techniques explained in the next section. 4) Teach a “block diagram” approach to

Conference Session

ECE Pedagogy and Assessment

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

J. Shawn Addington, Virginia Military Institute

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

AC 2007-245: SIX YEARS AND THOUSANDS OF ASSIGNMENTS LATER: WHATHAVE THEY LEARNED, AND WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?J. Shawn Addington, Virginia Military Institute J. Shawn Addington is the Jamison-Payne Institute Professor and Head of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the Virginia Military Institute. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He teaches courses, laboratories, and undergraduate research projects in the microelectronics and semiconductor fabrication areas; and, he remains active in curriculum development and engineering assessment. He is a registered professional engineer in the

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Haley Haywood, Oklahoma State University; Forrest Austin, Oklahoma State University; Seth Williams, Oklahoma State University; Cameron Musgrove, Oklahoma State University; Charles Bunting, Oklahoma State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, ethical, and economic impact. 2(2) The students are walked through the process of solving the problem posed in the case studyin three steps: (2a) Use teaching techniques that help each student individually remember and understand concepts needed in solving the problem outside of the classroom. (2b) Maximize the time faculty are able to actively interact with students by using time in-class to let student teams apply what they know in analyzing the problem under faculty and TA guidance. (2c) Support student teams as they first design a solution to the problem, then implement that solution in the laboratory/class by using the tools and techniques

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education I

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ronny Veljanovski, Victoria University; Alex Stojcevski, Victoria University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

completed a Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education from Victoria University and now is currently completing a Masters in Problem Based Learning in Engineering and Science at Aalborg University in Denmark. Currently Ronny is employed by Victoria University in the School of Electrical Engineering as a Senior Lecturer. His teaching ranges from post-graduate masters in microelectronics to undergraduate electrical engineering courses in the new Problem Based Learning teaching and learning style. Ronny’s research interests are in enabling technologies, such as microelectronics, to provide solutions to e-health applications.Alex Stojcevski, Victoria University Dr. Alex Stojcevski is a Senior Lecturer

Conference Session

Innovations in ECE Education II

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

S. Hossein Mousavinezhad, Western Michigan University; Liang Dong, Western Michigan University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

also a Senior Member of IEEE and past Chair of the West Michigan Section, he has been a reviewer for IEEE Transactions and FIE Conferences. His teaching and research interests include digital signal processing (DSP) and Bioelectromagnetics. He has been a reviewer for engineering textbooks including “Applied Electromagnetics, Early Transmission Line Approach” by S. M. Wentworth, Wiley, 2007 and "Signal Processing First" by McClellan, Schafer, and Yoder, published by Prentice Hall, 2003. He was co-editor of ECEDHA Newsletter, national ECE department chairs organization. Hossein is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the international research journal Integrated Computer-Aided