Conference Session

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies: Electrical and Control Engineering

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dustyn Roberts P.E., University of Delaware; Andrew Peter Borowski, University of Delaware

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

theoretical ideas, (2) reflect important real-life problems, (3)give visual and acoustic sensation, (4) have a suitable timescale, (5) be nonhazardous, (6) beinexpensive, and (7) be easy to understand and use. With today’s technological advances,designing a laboratory course that addresses all of these constraints is more feasible than ever.However, many existing laboratory courses and off the shelf modules violate one or more ofthese constraints, and therefore fail to deliver an optimal lab experience.There are two opposing routes to take when designing an undergraduate controls laboratory: usecommercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware and accompanying software, or design the hardwareand use or design open source software. There are many advantages to

Conference Session

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies: Laboratory Pedagogy

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Renee M. Clark, University of Pittsburgh; Arash Mahboobin, University of Pittsburgh

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

that included their decision justifications. The students, rather thanpassively taking in information from the instructor, became actively involved in theapprenticeship. As part of this transformed role, the students were encouraged to reflect onchanges in their problem solving approaches in the final progress report. The students’ reflectiveresponses were then qualitatively analyzed for insight into their problem solving processes. Astatistical comparison of the project scores was also done to assess improvement. Theinstructor’s assessment of the students’ use of his feedback and their problem solving approacheswas gathered via semi-structured interview and included as part of the overall evaluation.1. IntroductionEngineering education must

Conference Session

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies: Laboratory Pedagogy

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Julianne Vernon, University of Michigan; Deborah E. Goldberg, University of Michigan; John P. Wolfe, University of Michigan

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

: Designed to measure students’ initial interest Harackiewicz et al.7 F1 Initial & and the maintained or “hold component of situational interest” Ferrell & Barbera8 Maintained Self-Perceived Measures students sense of ability, which can Ferrell & Barbera8 F2 Ability reflect on a student’s persistence Intellectual Students feel how obtainable the knowledge of F3 Bauer11 Accessibility the subject is to them Importance & Students feel how useful and important the F4

Conference Session

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies: Electrical and Control Engineering

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Harry Courtney Powell, University of Virginia; Maite Brandt-Pearce, University of Virginia; Ronald D. Williams P.E., University of Virginia; Robert M. Weikle, University of Virginia; Lloyd R. Harriott, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

experiential nature of our approach, the second half of the class meetingperiod is dedicated to a sequence of “mini-projects.” These mini-projects take the form ofadditional homework problems in which students are asked to perform a set of measurementsand address a set of questions related to the project. By way of example, typical "mini-projects"for transmission lines include measuring characteristic impedance, propagation delay, standingwaves, and the determination of unknown loads by observing reflections, and the design andconstruction of impedance matching circuits and power splitters. A sampling of our experimentalhardware is shown in Figure 21 : (a) shows an image of an “artificial transmission line”(consisting of series of surface mount

Conference Session

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies: Best Papers

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Anahid Behrouzi, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Daniel Kuchma, Tufts University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

whichincluded (i) 6, (ii) 9, and (iii) 2 questions for each of the three sections. Comparatively, the end-term survey had 19 questions of (i) 11, (ii) 4, and (iii) 4 questions. All the original questionsfrom sections (i) and (iii) were maintained and supplemental questions were added. Section (ii)was modified to reflect class activities that had occurred since the mid-semester survey. Specificquestions will be discussed in greater detail in the following section analyzing student feedback.Summary of Student FeedbackEighteen of the twenty students enrolled in the DBE course consented to participate in theresearch study, sharing their assessment of this new curriculum. The remainder of this sectionaggregates both the responses from Likert scale rating

Conference Session

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies: Electrical and Control Engineering

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ismail Guvenc, Florida International University; Natalie Paul, Florida International University; Rhys Bowley, National Instruments; Maria Lorelei Fernandez, Florida International University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

offering due to time/hardware limitations. On the otherhand, OFDM modulation is still studied extensively during the lectures. Results in Table 2 showthat gain in OFDM modulation is only 28.5%, which is considerably lower than other technicalconcepts such as synchronization and channel estimation, and may have been improved via ahands-on lab experiments. The concept of MIMO is covered only briefly in the lectures, andthere is no lab experiment associated with this concept. This is also reflected in the lowimprovement (17%) in students’ learning perceptions on the topic of MIMO systems. As a last remark, we would like to comment on the 39.3% gain observed in least squareparameter estimation. Normally, least square estimation is a

Conference Session

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies: Laboratory Pedagogy

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Laura A. Garrison, York College of Pennsylvania; Timothy J. Garrison, York College of Pennsylvania

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

improvement in student learning, however it had itsown issues, the most troubling being the long waits that the students tended to encounter whentrying to get their pre-labs checked. The following is the Reflection section from the FCAR: What worked well: Needing to get the pre-labs 100% correct helped the students understand the concepts better and certainly made the post-labs drastically better. I felt that the students learned more and fewer were just going through the motions when doing the experiments. My post-lab grading time was cut to almost nothing. The field trip was great. What didn’t work as well: I spent A LOT of time checking and re-checking pre-labs and helping students. The lines were long

Conference Session

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies: Laboratory Pedagogy

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Bridget M. Smyser, Northeastern University; Sahar Tariq, Northeastern University

Tagged Divisions

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

andgraduate work. High level skills in scientific and academic argument and analysis requirestudents to make inferences from their data, relate their data to previously published results, anduse their data in order to justify their conclusions.5 Since lab reports typically require tasks suchas statistical data analysis, graphical presentation of results, and uncertainty analysis, theybecome an excellent medium to assess the development of these high level skills.A variety of methods have been employed to teach writing skills and related data analysis skills.The Science Writing Heuristic6 is a method of guided inquiry that leads students to reflect onwhat they are learning and ask a series of standard questions about their data and observations.This