Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Seyed Hossein Mousavinezhad, Idaho State University; Paul J. Benkeser, Georgia Institute of Technology; Pamela Bhatti, Georgia Institute of Technology; Burton Dicht, IEEE; Douglas Gorham, IEEE; Chris Macnab, University of Calgary; Sadiq Mitchell, IEEE; Cherrice Traver, Union College; Stephen M. Williams P.E., Milwaukee School of Engineering; Loren Wyard-Scott, University of Alberta

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

covering about two weeks of instruction, so that faculty can pick and choose the modulesthey like to build a course that meets their needs. The curriculum modules are specificallydesigned to be discovery-based, and to illustrate real-world contemporary problems whoseengineering solutions benefit society. The projects are planned by faculty experts in such a waythat the underlying complex principles and concepts are made tractable for first-year students.IV. HOW ARE THE PROJECTS CREATED AND VETTED?Project submission is a three-stage process. First, the proposer submits a one-page summaryabstract. If accepted after a double-blind peer review, the proposer is invited to submit a moredetailed project proposal. If the detailed project proposal is

Conference Session

Recruitment, Retention, and First-year Programs in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chad Eric Davis P.E., University of Oklahoma; David F. Vreeland, University of Oklahoma; Christopher Robert Griffin, University of Oklahoma; Mark B. Yeary P.E., University of Oklahoma

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

roleof students in the process. The foundation of this work was documented by the authors in a 2011ASEE publication.1 This paper will complete the previous work by providing details on ECEretention best practices and look deeper into the role that student culture plays in recruiting andretention. While this study occurred in an ECE department, most aspects will translate to anyengineering discipline.When the enrollment reports at the University of Oklahoma (OU) were released in the fall of2008, the number of ECE undergraduate enrollments declined to an alarmingly low 246 students.With a history of ECE undergraduate enrollments often exceeding 400 students, a correctiveaction plan was created to improve our recruiting and retention practices. As

Conference Session

Capstone Design and Innovations in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James L. Ellingson, University of Saint Thomas; Christopher S. Greene, University of Saint Thomas; Scott Edward Morgan; Miguel Angelo Rodrigues Silvestre, University of Beira Interior

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

glider. Figure 4 Functional Block Diagram including ownership. Figure 5 Brief survey of existing ocean gliders.Operations are planned to be controlled from a ground station that receives periodic updates fromthe glider(s) including position, health and scientific data and sends routing commands back tothe vehicle(s). Design of the ground station is planned for a future year of the spiral.The preliminary layout of the five year plan is:  Year 1 – Development of requirements and preliminary design of subsystems to meet requirements. Page 25.174.6  Year 2 – Refine requirements and solutions. Detail and build proof of

Conference Session

ABET Accreditation, Assessment, and Program Improvement in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Larry L Wear, University of Washington, Tacoma; Orlando R. Baiocchi, University of Washington, Tacoma; Matthew Alden, University of Washington, Tacoma; Robert Gutmann, University of Washington, Tacoma; Jie Sheng, University of Washington, Tacoma

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

 that  program  constituencies  be  involved  in  setting  objectives.      When  objectives  are  in  place,  ABET  student  outcomes  need  to  be  mapped  to  individual  courses.  Next,  assignments  are  identified  that  can  be  used  to  evaluate  the  achievement  of  the  outcomes.    For  many  programs  specific  program  criteria  need  to  be  satisfied  in  addition  to  the  general  engineering  criteria.  For  example,  engineering  programs  that  contain  the  modifier  “computer”  in  the  title  must  demonstrate  that  graduates  have  a  knowledge  of  discrete  mathematics.      Having  an  assessment  plan  in  place  and  being  able  to  show  documentation  that  demonstrates  that  it  has  been  followed  is  the

Conference Session

Capstone Design and Innovations in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard James Choquette, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; Payam Matin, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; Ali Eydgahi, Eastern Michigan University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

University Ali Eydgahi started his career in higher education as a faculty member at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1985. Since then, he has been with the State University of New York, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, and Eastern Michigan University. During 2006-2010, he was Chair of the Department of Engineering and Aviation Sciences, Founder and Director of the Center for 3-D Visualization and Virtual Reality Applications, and Technical Director of the NASA funded MIST Space Vehicle Mission Planning Laboratory at the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore. In Aug. 2010, he joined Eastern Michigan University as an Associate Dean in the College of Technology and currently is a Professor in the School of

Conference Session

Software and Web-based Learning in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anahita Zarei, University of the Pacific; Jinzhu Gao, University of the Pacific; Jason Roy Ortiz; Alan Joe

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

developed that would compare the user's answer with the solution andaccept it as a correct answer if the difference is within a small error margin due to rounding. Inorder for students to save their progress while working through the problems, a MySQL databasewas employed to house the information.EvaluationIn the preparation of our evaluation plan, we considered the guidelines of several programdirectors in NSF's Division of Undergraduate Education described in [12]. The goal ofevaluation plan was to measure the changes in cognitive and affective behavior. Measuring thechanges in cognitive behavior is in accordance with the project’s first objective of increasingstudents' understanding of concept of random variables. Evaluating the changes in

Conference Session

Recruitment, Retention, and First-year Programs in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Wilczynski, University of Southern California; Gisele Ragusa, University of Southern California; Michael Crowley, University of Southern California

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, more than 90% ofthe students enjoyed it. We have also heard from our industrial review board and companyrecruiters that this plan is to their liking. Students from this program are receiving top internshipsand find themselves leading their internship teams. We also get letters from former studentsabout how far ahead of their peers they are in their first jobs.introductionOur Computer Science Industry Advisory Board regularly reminded us at our bi-annual meetingsthat university B.S. graduates are not prepared for the real world; they don't know how to workon teams, they don't know what it means to work on large systems, and they don't know how towrite professional code. They said it takes the companies one year to adequately train a new hirefor

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Poster Session

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Graham, University of Louisville; Karla Conn Welch, University of Louisville; Jeffrey Lloyd Hieb, University of Louisville; Shamus McNamara, University of Louisville

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

solutions in a global, economic,environmental, and societal context.”3 Critical thinking also supports the ABET programoutcome “a recognition of the need for, and ability to engage in, life-long learning”3. And finallycritical thinking is an essential component of “the ability to identify, formulate, and solveengineering problems”3. Other schools have reached similar conclusions4.Section two describes the Speed School of Engineering’s response to the i2a initiative, andbriefly describes some of the implementation of that response in fundamental courses common toall engineering students. Section three discusses the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE)department’s plans to emphasize critical thinking in the sophomore courses Network Analysis

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Poster Session

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Seyed A. (Reza) Zekavat, Michigan Technological University; Cheryl Q. Li, University of New Haven; Saurav Pathak

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

suggest that studentsshould gain a solid hands-on experience on all measurement devices, hardware and softwarepresented in Table 2. Only Java received a low scoring compared to other topics. Therefore, it iscritical that the curriculum to be designed to add laboratory components to help students gainhands-on experience with the hardware and software listed in Table 2. As part of this proposalwe plan to develop a proper curriculum for these topics and cover them within at most a threecourse communication curriculum as detailed in Section 2.The results of Figures 1 and 2 confirm that the current practice of teaching Communicationcourses such as Wireless Communications, Communication Theory, and Digital Communicationsare not fully consistent with

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Poster Session

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yuan Liao, University of Kentucky

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

an introduction to NorthAmerican Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Transmission System Planning PerformanceRequirements 1. The transformation of the national grid into smart grid demands variousmodeling and simulation techniques, and software modules to be developed and the entire powersystem to be thoroughly studied 7. Page 25.455.2 Transmission T TranSCADA/ EMS system r a

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Victor P. Nelson, Auburn University; John Y. Hung, Auburn University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

assess certainperformance indicators, leading to results that were not as meaningful as they should have been.Consequently, the course instructors made some relatively simple changes to course assignmentsto ensure that students provide evidence of achievement of each of the desired performanceindicators. This serves both to facilitate assessment and to emphasize to the students what theyare expected to know and be able to do. The following sections describe how this has been donein ELEC 3040/3050.IV. Course assignments and assessmentIn the past few years, Auburn University has emphasized writing across the curriculum. Eachprogram in the university has been required to submit a plan for writing within the majorcourses, with students expected to

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

Page 25.117.3students took their respective discipline-specific senior-level required courses, in addition to therobotics courses. A number of students took both robotics courses to fulfill their capstone designrequirements and transferred the course credits for their graduation degree plan engineeringdesign requirements to comply with the ABET accreditation condition. The robotics curriculumwas initially offered as developmental courses but was also proposed to the universitycurriculum committee for permanent course opportunities under the robotics name in the futuresemesters.The robotics curriculum students were asked to establish a campus-wide robotics club. Thestudents organized the related paperwork and logistical efforts, resulting in an

Conference Session

ECE Curriculum Improvement

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Phillip A. Mlsna, Northern Arizona University; Niranjan Venkatraman, Northern Arizona University; Sheryl L. Howard, Northern Arizona University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

understanding ofand appreciation for cultural diversity and the fact that we work in a global marketplace is criticalfor our graduating students to succeed as electrical engineers 7;8;10 .In recognition of the importance of global learning and the need to present its relevance to our engi-neering students, the authors, with the support of faculty in our Electrical and Computer Engineer-ing programs, embarked on a plan to incorporate global learning directly into our ECE curriculum.This was done as part of a university-wide initiative to include global learning in department cur-ricula. We viewed this initiative as a great opportunity to align our ECE program curricula closer tothe needs of employers and future engineers participating in a global

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Poster Session

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David H. Hoe, University of Texas, Tyler

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

undergraduate student in the summer of 2010. Next, Page 25.1389.2the effort with three more undergraduate students this past summer will be described in detail,including a discussion of the training method, supervision, and selection of the research projects.The ongoing research efforts this past fall will also be covered. This will be followed by adiscussion and evaluation of results with guidelines for keys to success for undergraduateresearch. Finally, some conclusions and future plans will be discussed.Background and Initiation of Undergraduate ResearchThis section provides some background on the FPGA Design class offered at our institution anda

Conference Session

Integration of Research and Education in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Tali Moreshet, Swarthmore College; Uzi Vishkin, University of Maryland, College Park; Fuat Keceli, Intel Corporation

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) since 1988. He was affiliated with Tel Aviv University between 1984 and 1997, was Chair of CS there in 1987-8, and also worked for IBM, T.J. Watson and New York University. His research interests center around parallel algorithms and architectures. Facilitating a transition into ubiquitous parallel computing has been a strategic objective for computer science and engineering since its inception in the 1940s. A theory enthusiast, the overriding theme guiding his work was using theory to guide the rest of the field in addressing this strategic objective. Key components in his comprehensive plan include the very rich PRAM parallel algorithmic theory and a PRAM-on-Chip vision comprising

Conference Session

ECE Curriculum Improvement

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marcin Lukowiak, Rochester Institute of Technology; Andrew Meneely, Rochester Institute of Technology; Stanislaw P. Radziszowski, Rochester Institute of Technology; James R. Vallino, Rochester Institute of Technology; Christopher A. Wood, Rochester Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

cryptographicapplications as the motivating security focus. We describe changes made to an existingintroductory cryptography course, report on a recently-developed course entitled Hardware andSoftware Design for Cryptographic Applications, and present our plans for a Secure SoftwareEngineering course.1. IntroductionWith the pervasiveness and importance of cyberinfrastructure in modern society, securecomputing and communication have become critically important. Applications with importantsecurity requirements include e-commerce, voice/video communications, military operations,secure databases, and financial market transactions. As a result, the technology industry has agrowing need for secure infrastructure at lower levels, such as disk drives, processors (e.g

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shawn S. Jordan, Arizona State University; Micah Lande, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

engineering as a learned profession and possesses daily success skills. 2. Accepts responsibility for their education, understands the major professional and ethical responsibilities of engineers, the major specialties of engineering and basic corporate structures and purposes. 3. Uses common moral theories and concepts to guide their ethical decision making and has formulated a probable career path that accounts for current trends in technology and society.Engineering Practice (achieve level 3) 1. Describes the essential elements of engineering practice including teaming. 2. Given an engineering problem, creates a plan and works within a team using the necessary engineering tools to produce a solution. 3

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Poster Session

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Steffen, Iowa State University; Joseph Zambreno, Iowa State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

discussion of planned future work.II. Related ApplicationsMindstorms4 are a LEGO-based construction kit that allows for students to build and programsimple robots. LEGO Mindstorms is targeted for kids aged ten years and older, and supportsmultiple programming languages from conventional text-based to graphical flow charts. A widerange of motors and sensors are available, allowing for a large variety of projects and codingchallenges.Alice 3D1 is a programming environment that allows students to create 3D applications. Studentscan use Alice 3D to tell stories, create games and produce movies. Programming in Alice 3D usesa graphical interface, where students drag-and-drop instructions, objects and actions into theirapplication scene. By using a

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mircea Alexandru Dabacan, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca; Clint S. Cole, Digilent, Inc.; Mihaela Radu, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Joe Harris, Digilent, Inc.; Alex DUPE Wong; Monica Bot

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

understanding and creativityand innovation.Trying to address the above mentioned issues, instructors at different universities in Europe,USA, China and India joined efforts and have integrated an annual Digital Design Competitionopen to students enrolled in Electrical and Computer Engineering and similar majors such asElectronics and Telecommunications, Computer Science, etc.This paper presents the results of organizing regional competitions in Europe, USA, China andIndia and the results of the First Global Digilent Design Competition, collocated withFPGAWorld conference in Munich, Germany. The logistics and challenges of the regional andglobal competitions, the results of the past editions and plans regarding the future of the regionaland global

Conference Session

Integration of Research and Education in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yuen-Yan Chan, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Wai Yin Ng, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

-solving strategies by theirown, and learn through inquiries into ill-structured problem situation3,4,5. It is especiallysuitable for computer education in 21st century, as well as engineering education in generalbecause of the complexity in the knowledge domain which often involves multipledisciplines6,7,8. This paper describes the design and implementation of IBL lessons in arefreshment course offered by an engineering department at a university in Hong Kong inSeptember to December 2010. Related educational theories are reviewed, including (1)constructivism, (2) inquiry-based learning, (3) collaborative learning, and (4) scaffolding.The lessons were implemented as a part of the course, the lesson plans, class schedule andlogistic of the course

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mohamed Tawfik, Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED); Elio Sancristobal, Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED); Sergio Martin, Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED); Rosario Gil, Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED); Alberto Pesquera Martín, Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED); Tovar Edmundo, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; Martin Llamas-Nistal, University of Vigo; Gabriel Diaz Orueta, Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED); Juan Peire; Manuel Castro, Spanish University for Distance Education (UNED)

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Politcnica de Madrid (UPM). He is a certified Software De- velopment Professional (CSDP) from the IEEE Computer Society. He is Associate Dean for Quality and Strategic Planning in the Computing School of the Universidad Politcnica de Madrid. From this last po- sition, he is in charge of the training for academic staff, the introduction of innovative solutions including new pedagogies, new approaches that improve student learning of technical skills and cultural skills, im- proved methods of blended learning, and others. He works in the open educational resources area. He is leader of an Innovation Group in Education in the UPM. He is Executive Director of the OCW UPM Office and an elected member of the Board of Directors

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Craig J. Scott, Morgan State University; Petronella A. James, Morgan State University; Yacob Astatke, Morgan State University; Jumoke O. Ladeji-Osias, Morgan State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

6 LAB (CORE) COURSES - 18 credit hours Spring/Fall 2010 EEGR202 Electric Circuits 4 Certified EEGR203 Introduction to Electrical Laboratory 1 Certified EEGR211 Introduction to Digital Logic 3 Certified EEGR215 Electronic Materials and Devices 4 Certified EEGR317 Electronic Circuits 4 Certified EEGR390 Principles of Design 2 CertifiedThe course rubrics being used were found to be commensurate with the planned online offeringsbecause they are directed at

Conference Session

Recruitment, Retention, and First-year Programs in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Constance D. Hendrix, U.S. Air Force Academy; Marcus L. Roberts, U.S. Air Force Academy; William J. Eccles, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Jeffrey Butler, U.S. Air Force Academy; Randall Deppensmith, U.S. Air Force Academy

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

significantly. At the course level, this issue is only mildly manageable. It is the instructor'sresponsibility to assess and react based on that section's unique personality. For example, insome sections, going to the board during class to work out problems as a team is enjoyed, whileothers abhor it and would prefer to carry their work away with them after class. The instructorhas to read the class, then modify the lesson plan to better fit the learning style of the section.To address this issue at the course level, the instructor had many tools at his/her diposal to makethe class more interesting and to actively engage the student. These include demonstrations thatare visual and/or auditory, items to pass around class, analogies, stories demonstrating

Conference Session

Software and Web-based Learning in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin P. Pintong, Binghamton University; Douglas H. Summerville, Binghamton University; Kyle Temkin, BInghamton University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, or any of the other toolsprovided to them. In order to mitigate those concerns, a few basic tutorials regarding labequipment were provided in 2011 and more robust tutorials are planned for the 2012 course. Itshould be noted that for many students, it is their first time using this equipment. The typical oncampus course has many teaching assistants to assist students, but we frequently found thatstudents would not contact online teaching staff for assistance for the laboratory portion.A point of concern that some faculty may have is the use of a virtual oscilloscope and functiongenerator. It could be claimed that this equipment is not an accurate representation of their "realworld" counterparts. The user interfaces presented are far simpler

Conference Session

ABET Accreditation, Assessment, and Program Improvement in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Danial J. Neebel, Loras College; Nicholas J. Burek, Loras College; Thomas Griebel, Loras College

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

bounce off “solid” tiles.2) Building an interactive game. Students will update their design from the previous exercise to add user input that controls the movement of sprite on the screen. a) Use the joystick to move the sprite horizontally and vertically. b) Using the movement ability from Parts A and B, create a “game” that requires the user to put the sprite in a “box” on the screen. c) For an added challenge, modify the current program so that the left button on the joystick causes the sprite teleport to a random location on the screen.Future use for FPGArcade includes plans to incorporate the VGA module with hardware supportfor the tile-based graphics into an embedded VHDL MIPS core. The MIPS core currently in useat the

Conference Session

Electrical and Computer Poster Session

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John J. Devore, Kansas State University; David L. Soldan, Kansas State University

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

vision difficulties. We plan to provide the ability to configure colors in the described tooland even to substitute other font characteristics for color to allow use by totally color-blindusers. However, our proof-of-concept program which was used to produce the figures in thisdocument is only capable of using a red-green color-coded display.Motivation for Creating VisiBooleInstructors of digital-logic continually strive to find ways to help each student experience adigital-logic “eureka” moment, preferably early in their studies. Techniques taught to beginningstudents are straightforward. They include creating a truth table for a given function(combinational or sequential), transforming it into a sum-of-minterms or product-of-maxtermsform, and

Conference Session

Laboratory Development in ECE II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chuan Yue, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; Weiying Zhu, Metropolitan State College of Denver; Gregory Lynn Williams, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; Edward Chow, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

those four lab exercises. We also detail the survey results and analyze the implicationsof those results. The experience presented in this paper is valuable for our faculty members tomove more lab exercises into the cloud. We believe our experience is also valuable to othereducators who plan to use cloud computing services such as Amazon EC2 in their computerscience and engineering courses. The link to our complete lab manuals and instructions is listedat the end of the bibliographic section.1. IntroductionThere is no doubt that cloud computing has become a reality. People talk about it, spend moneyon it, and gain substantial benefit from it. In response to this significant trend in computing, ourcolleges encourage faculty members to use cloud

Conference Session

Recruitment, Retention, and First-year Programs in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dale Anthony Carnegie, Victoria University, Wellington; Craig A. Watterson, Victoria University, Wellington

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

Figure 2. Page 25.745.7Figure 2. Inner pages of the Geek booklet profiling two students.Note also in Figure 2, the students are wearing an identically designed engineering tee-shirt.The caption, next to a retro-looking robot, states “Think it, Plan it, Build it”. Developedprimarily for retention purposes to assist in the development of an engineering identity forVUW and WelTec students, these shirts are also distributed as part of our regional efforts toincrease engineering awareness. As an aside, the adoption of these shirts (which includes ahooded sweatshirt option) by both staff and students at VUW has been very enthusiastic. It iscommon to

Conference Session

New Trends in ECE Education II

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bonnie H. Ferri, Georgia Institute of Technology; JillL L. Auerbach, Georgia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

, hence would be suitable for a 50-minute lecture. The difference is that the machine shownin Figure 4 uses a 3-input OR gate while the example circuit and the alternative machines useonly 2-input OR gates. This added complication of the 3-input OR gate is harder for somestudents than others to comprehend; hence the large variation in completion time.Assessment and DiscussionThe State Machine Module was developed for courses that cover digital logic, which is taught byseveral different instructors. Early in the implementation phase, an assessment plan wasdeveloped that specified on-going evaluation in ECE 2030 Introduction to ComputerEngineering courses during the first three years of implementation. Data has been collected from11 classes over

Conference Session

ABET Accreditation, Assessment, and Program Improvement in ECE

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Wilczynski, University of Southern California; Gisele Ragusa, University of Southern California

Tagged Divisions

Electrical and Computer

fullyimplemented in all of our ABET accredited bachelor’s degree courses in computer science. At this point in our ABET assessmentprocess aligned with outcomes a-k, we have simply employed this new cross-course alignment and score normalization with a-koutcome alignment. As a consequence, we now have direct assessment of each ABET outcome rather than simply a measurement ofstudents’ perception of whether they have been exposed to each outcome. We have yet to assess whether our process is working fromthe standpoint of faculty who teach the computer sciences courses. Accordingly, we plan to convene focus groups with faculty in thecoming semesters to determine if the new system is effective as a means of offering continuous improvement to faculty courses