Lu, Z., & Pangborn, H., & Fitzsimons, K. (2023, March), Developing an Affordable Multi-Course Electronics Kit for Increased Software and Mechatronic Literacy in Mechanical Engineering  Paper presented at ASEE Zone 1 Conference - Spring 2023, State College,, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--45089

\bibitem{asee_peer_45089}
  Lu, Z., \& Pangborn, H., \& Fitzsimons, K. (2023, March), \emph{Developing an Affordable Multi-Course Electronics Kit for Increased Software and Mechatronic Literacy in Mechanical Engineering}
  Paper presented at ASEE Zone 1 Conference - Spring 2023, State College,, Pennsylvania.
  10.18260/1-2--45089

Zhiqing Lu, Herschel Pangborn, and Katie Fitzsimons.  "Developing an Affordable Multi-Course Electronics Kit for Increased Software and Mechatronic Literacy in Mechanical Engineering".  ASEE Zone 1 Conference - Spring 2023, State College,, Pennsylvania, 2023, March.  ASEE Conferences, 2023.  https://peer.asee.org/45089 Internet.  23 Jan, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_45089}
  Zhiqing Lu, Herschel Pangborn, and Katie Fitzsimons.
  "Developing an Affordable Multi-Course Electronics Kit for Increased Software and Mechatronic Literacy in Mechanical Engineering".
  \emph{ASEE Zone 1 Conference - Spring 2023, State College,, Pennsylvania, 2023, March}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2023.
  https://peer.asee.org/45089 Internet.  23 Jan, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_45089
author = "Zhiqing Lu, Herschel Pangborn, and Katie Fitzsimons"
title = "Developing an Affordable Multi-Course Electronics Kit for Increased Software and Mechatronic Literacy in Mechanical Engineering"
booktitle = "ASEE Zone 1 Conference - Spring 2023"
year = "2023"
month = "March"
address = "State College,, Pennsylvania"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/45089}
number = {10.18260/1-2--45089}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Several Mechanical Engineering (ME) faculty in Penn State used course-specific microcontroller-based hardware kits to provide students with hands-on lab experience during the transition to virtual learning in 2020. After returning to on-campus activities, these kits continued to be used to enable open-ended group projects, hands-on homework assignments, and pre-laboratory exercises. However, course-specific kits have presented logistical challenges and caused students to purchase redundant components. To alleviate these problems, we develop an affordable multi-course electronics kit by condensing three current hardware kits in the Instrumentation & Statistics course, the Mechatronics and the Design Methodology course. By removing redundant components and replacing expensive parts with cheap alternative, we reduce the cost of the condensed kit significantly compared to purchasing the three course-specific kits. To support the kit usage, we created an online repository with electronic safety, microcontroller tutorials, basic hardware and software instruction and coding example. We developed a pre-semester and post-semester survey to assess the impact of the use of an electronics kit on Mechanical Engineering students' basic electronics and programming skills and their engineering self-efficacy. Our preliminary results show that students' confidence in microcontroller usage, circuit prototyping and coding increases for students using the kits for the first time and with use in a subsequent course.
AU  - Zhiqing Lu
AU  - Herschel Pangborn
AU  - Katie Fitzsimons
CY  - State College,, Pennsylvania
DA  - 2023/03/30
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Developing an Affordable Multi-Course Electronics Kit for Increased Software and Mechatronic Literacy in Mechanical Engineering
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/45089
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--45089
ER  -