Asee peer logo

An Interactive Web Based Analog Grade Computer As An Electrical Circuits Capstone Project

Download Paper |

Conference

2001 Annual Conference

Location

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Publication Date

June 24, 2001

Start Date

June 24, 2001

End Date

June 27, 2001

ISSN

2153-5965

Page Count

15

Page Numbers

6.171.1 - 6.171.15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--9446

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/9446

Download Count

434

Paper Authors

author page

Kevin Davis

author page

Frank Severance

author page

Damon Miller

Download Paper |

Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 2793

An Interactive Web-Based Analog Grade Computer as an Electrical Circuits Capstone Lab Project

Kevin Davis, Damon Miller and Frank Severance Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Western Michigan University

Abstract

This paper describes the use of an interactive web-based circuit demonstration system to provide a mid-semester superposition capstone experience for electrical circuit fundamentals lab students. The particular circuit to be interactively demonstrated is a simple electronic artificial neural network which is used to compute individual and class average grades in our Electrical and Computer Engineering 100 Fundamentals of Circuits course. This provides a simple example of analog computing using a summing circuit. The analog grade computer is more fully described in a 1999 ASEE North Central Section Spring Conference paper by two of the authors of this paper entitled: "Neural Networks as a Source of Introductory Electrical Circuit Analysis Problems." The interactive system is based on a recently developed LabVIEW application for web-based circuit demonstrations which was subsequently enhanced to add distributed control of the circuit of interest. The resulting circuit demonstration emphasizes the key concepts of voltage division, superposition, circuit loading, and the principle of duality.

I. Introduction

We perennially update our fundamentals of electrical circuits course for non-majors (ECE 100). There are multiple dimensions of opportunities for updating what would otherwise could become rather prosaic – if not for the students then at least for the instructor. Regardless of whatever updates are selected we need to remain faithful to introducing electrical circuits in a manner such that the students gain competence in circuit analysis using fundamental circuit laws.

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Education

Davis, K., & Severance, F., & Miller, D. (2001, June), An Interactive Web Based Analog Grade Computer As An Electrical Circuits Capstone Project Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9446

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2001 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015