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A New Introductory Laboratory Course for Electrical and Computer Engineering

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Conference

2003 Annual Conference

Location

Nashville, Tennessee

Publication Date

June 22, 2003

Start Date

June 22, 2003

End Date

June 25, 2003

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Laboratory Developments and Innovations

Page Count

14

Page Numbers

8.83.1 - 8.83.14

DOI

10.18260/1-2--11988

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/11988

Download Count

408

Paper Authors

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Tom Conte

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Mesut Baran

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Joel Trussell

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Jack Brickley

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Griff Bilbro

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Greg Byrd

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Cecilia Townsend

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Ben O'Neal

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Amir Mortazavi

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Mehmet Ozturk

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Abstract

A new Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) curriculum was recently adapted at North Carolina State University, ECE Department. In this curriculum, students choose their specialization areas starting from the second semester of the junior year. The system is carefully designed to ensure that students acquire both breadth and depth in their studies. The flagship of this curriculum is a new laboratory course, which the students take during the first semester after the first year common to all engineering students. The objectives of the new laboratory are: i) To introduce different ECE specialization areas to encourage students to start thinking about which specialization areas appeal more to them ii) To motivate the students through practical, hands-on experiments connected to real-life applications iii) To teach fundamental concepts and basic laboratory skills. In this laboratory, students learn to use standard ECE laboratory equipment including power supply, multimeter, function generator, and oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer. The laboratory relies on dedicated hardware in the form experiment boxes specifically designed for the laboratory. The dedicated hardware allows the students to perform experiments on advanced yet practical and exciting applications. To accompany the laboratory a textbook was written by representatives of different specialization areas in our department. In this paper, we present an overview of the course contents and the hardware developed for the laboratory.

Conte, T., & Baran, M., & Trussell, J., & Brickley, J., & Bilbro, G., & Byrd, G., & Townsend, C., & O'Neal, B., & Mortazavi, A., & Ozturk, M. (2003, June), A New Introductory Laboratory Course for Electrical and Computer Engineering Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--11988

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