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Board # 63 : Teaching Microcontrollers with Emphasis on Control Applications in the Undergraduate Engineering Technology Program

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Conference

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Columbus, Ohio

Publication Date

June 24, 2017

Start Date

June 24, 2017

End Date

June 28, 2017

Conference Session

Engineering Technology Division Poster Session

Tagged Division

Engineering Technology

Page Count

20

DOI

10.18260/1-2--27895

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/27895

Download Count

786

Paper Authors

biography

Wangling Yu Purdue University, North Central

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Dr. Wangling Yu is an assistant professor in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Technology Department of the Purdue University Northwest. He was a test engineer over 15 years, providing technical leadership in the certification, testing and evaluation of custom integrated security systems. He received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the City University of New York in 1992, specializing in control theory and electronic technology.

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biography

Omer Farook Purdue University Northwest

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Omer Farook is a member of the faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology at Purdue University, Nothwest. Farook received the diploma of licentiate in mechanical engineering and B.S.M.E. in 1970 and 1972, respectively. He further received B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. in 1978 and 1983, respectively, from Illinois Institute of Technology. Farook’s current interests are in the areas of embedded system design, hardware-software interfacing, digital communication, networking, image processing, and biometrics, C++, Python, PHP and Java languages. He has a keen interest in pedagogy and instruction delivery methods related to distance learning. He has a deep commitment to social justice and in achieving economic and educational equity.

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biography

Jai P. Agrawal Purdue University Northwest

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Jai P. Agrawal is a professor in electrical and computer engineering technology at Purdue University Northwest. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1991, dissertation in power electronics. He also received M.S. and B.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, in 1970 and 1968, respectively. His expertise includes analog and digital electronics design, power electronics, and optical/wireless networking systems. He has designed several models of high frequency oscilloscopes and other electronic test and measuring instruments as an entrepreneur. He has delivered invited short courses in Penang, Malaysia and Singapore. He is also the author of a textbook in power electronics, published by Prentice-Hall, Inc. His other books are, Analog and digital communication laboratory, and First course in Digital Control, published by Creatspace (Amazon). His professional career is equally divided in academia and industry. He has authored several research papers in IEEE journals and conferences. His current research is focused on renewable energy technology and wireless power transfer.

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Ashfaq Ahmed P.E. Purdue University Northwest

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Ashfaq Ahmed is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology at Purdue University Northwest. Ahmed received his bachelor's of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Karachi in 1973 and master's of applied science degree in 1978 from University of Waterloo. He is the author of a textbook on power electronics, published by Prentice-Hall. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Indiana. He is a senior member of IEEE. Ahmed’s current interests include embedded system design, electric vehicle, and VHDL design.

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Abstract

The paper expounds the practices utilized in teaching introductory undergraduate microcontrollers class. The microcontrollers have become ubiquitous in our daily life. They have been the engine behind automatically-controlled products and devices. As a result this course is taken by many of the non-electrical majoring students. In this paper, we present our pedagogies for teaching a microcontroller introductory course with emphasis on detection and control applications. The proposed course uses Arduino, which is an open-source electronics platform, based on easy-to-use hardware and software. The course cover the architectural details of ATmega328P. The course is unique in instructing students utilizing standard C (C11 (formerly C1X) is an informal name for ISO/IEC 9899:2011) [1], the current standard for the C programming language. This approach is a departure from the plethora of code written by none standardized coding schemes, so prevalent on the Arduino net based community. Another unique feature of instructions of the course is coding methodology. The instruction for the course is done following strict adherence to Structured Coding mythology. Most of the technology students prefer visualization activities and hands-on experiences in their learning environment. The SparkFun Inventor’s Kit [2] with Arduino Uno and resources have become an effective tool for the entry-level microcontroller course. In this course, we teach necessary programming skills and knowledge of computer interfacing with input and output devices. Various types of transducers, sensors and actuators used in the course are described in the paper. Through class examples and lab experiments, students establish the concept of using microcontrollers to make open-loop and closed-loop control systems, and demonstrate knowledge learned by their course projects. The course adhere to the teaching philosophy of Outcome Based Education [3] (OBE), as such utilizes and employ various standard tools and techniques. The paper discuss the pedagogies implanted in the course.

Yu, W., & Farook, O., & Agrawal, J. P., & Ahmed, A. (2017, June), Board # 63 : Teaching Microcontrollers with Emphasis on Control Applications in the Undergraduate Engineering Technology Program Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--27895

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