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ELECTRONIC PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: A NASA SPONSORED EXAMPLE

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Conference

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Atlanta, Georgia

Publication Date

June 23, 2013

Start Date

June 23, 2013

End Date

June 26, 2013

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Product Development and Manufacturing

Tagged Division

Engineering Technology

Page Count

16

Page Numbers

23.472.1 - 23.472.16

DOI

10.18260/1-2--19486

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/19486

Download Count

383

Paper Authors

biography

Jay R Porter Texas A&M University

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Jay R. Porter joined the Department of Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution at Texas A&M University in 1998 and is currently the Program Director for the Electronics Program. He received the BS degree in electrical engineering (1987), the MS degree in physics (1989), and the Ph.D. in electrical engineering (1993) from Texas A&M University. His areas of interest in research and education include product development, analog/RF electronics, instrumentation, and entrepreneurship.

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biography

Joseph A. Morgan Texas A&M University

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Joseph A. Morgan has over 20 years of military and industry experience in electronics and telecommunications systems engineering. He joined the Engineering Technology and Industrial Distribution Department in 1989 and has served as the Program Director of the Electronics and Telecommunications Programs and as the Associate Department Head for Operations. He received his BS degree in electrical engineering (1975) from California State University, Sacramento, and his MS (1980) and DE (1983) degrees in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University. His education and research interests include project management, innovation and entrepreneurship, and embedded product/system development.

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Wei Zhan Texas A&M University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-9956-1910

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Dr. Wei Zhan is an Associate Professor of Electronics Engineering Technology at Texas A&M University. Dr. Zhan earned his D.Sc. in Systems Science from Washington University in St. Louis in 1991. From 1991 to 1995, he worked at University of California, San Diego and Wayne State University. From 1995 to 2006, he worked in the automotive industry as a system engineer. In 2006 he joined the Electronics Engineering Technology faculty at Texas A&M. His research activities include control system theory and applications to industry, system engineering, robust design, modeling, simulation, quality control, and optimization.

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Abstract

ELECTRONIC PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: A NASA SPONSORED EXAMPLE Recently, the Electronics Engineering Technology program at_______________________ University has undergone a major curriculum revision. Theprogram, once focused on producing graduates for the general electronics andtelecommunications industries, now has a strong emphasis on electronic product and systemdevelopment. This primary reason for this change involves the current job market for graduates.Virtually all recent former students now have careers that support either specific products orlarge systems through their life cycle, performing functions such as testing, product engineering,applications engineering, sustaining engineering, and systems integration. To a large degree, thiscan be attributed to the dramatic change in the faculty. Today, all faculty members have degreesin engineering fields and the majority of the faculty has five plus years of industry experiencesupporting products and systems. Thus, the new program not only emphasizes the technical aspects of electronics andcommunications, but now includes course topics in product testing, project management,customer interaction, and the business aspect of product development. As the faculty movesforward with this initiative, it has become increasingly important to ensure that all studentsexperience multiple product development opportunities while pursuing their degree. This notonly gives them hand-on experience, an important trait of any engineering technology program,but it also reinforces the concepts being taught in the classroom. To this end, the faculty, withthe help of industrial partners, now ensures that both course and capstone projects have a strongproduct development aspect. Through this vetting process, a “rubric” has been created thatallows projects to be assessed for their product development “value.” The rubric includesassessing funding, level of customer interest and support, and potential for commercialization. This paper will present the elements necessary for course and capstone projects targetedat delivering a real-world product development experience. Examples of projects conducive tothis initiative will be discussed including a detailed description of an ongoing NASA-fundedproduct development experience. Finally, feedback from both students and industry on thequality and success of projects will be presented.

Porter, J. R., & Morgan, J. A., & Zhan, W. (2013, June), ELECTRONIC PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS: A NASA SPONSORED EXAMPLE Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19486

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