Global Design Competition

Mircea Alexandru Dabacan; Clint S. Cole; Mihaela Radu; Joe Harris; Alex DUPE Wong; Monica Bot

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Conference: 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Publication Date: June 10, 2012
Start Date: June 10, 2012
End Date: June 13, 2012
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: New Trends in ECE Education I
Tagged Division: Electrical and Computer
Page Count: 12
Page Numbers: 25.671.1 - 25.671.12
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--21428
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/21428
Download Count: 402

Paper Authors

biography

Mircea Alexandru Dabacan Technical University of Cluj-Napoca

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Studies:
1979-1984, five year engineering program at Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, Polytechnic Institute in Cluj-Napoca.
1998 PhD in Electronics, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca
Professional Experience:
Design Engineer at IEIA Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 1984 – 1986
Research Engineer at IPA Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 1986 - 1991
Faculty member at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania: 1991 to date (professor since 2004)
Managerial Experience:
2006 - present, General Manager of Digilent RO
International Experience:
1999-2000, Visiting Professor at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA.

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Abstract

Global Design Competition: Enhancing Skill Development through Creative and Innovative Digital DesignAbstractCollege graduates should be prepared to work in culturally diverse workplaces, work acrossnational borders and understand global challenges. As compared to students in other fields,engineering students have less exposure to these topics and fewer opportunities to study them,due to a packed technical curriculum. Further, the technical curriculum is in a constant state offlux due to the rapid and continual increases in the complexity and amount of knowledgestudents must assimilate. New technologies and tools are frequently introduced into theengineering workplace, and educational programs must find a way to integrate many of theseinto their offerings.Integrating Digital Design competitions into undergraduate and graduate educational programcan introduce highly relevant design projects to students, exposing them to the latest trends usedby practicing engineers. Design competitions can be scaled up from smaller regionalcompetitions to international competitions, exposing students to students from around the world.Students can learn about designs and approaches from other international schools while alsosocializing and directly learning about life and challenges in other cultures. Such experiencesbetter prepare students to enter the field of engineering and make more meaningful contributionsto their firms earlier in their careers.Instructors at different universities in Europe, USA, China and India have recently joined effortsto create an international Digital Design Competition. The competition is open to studentsenrolled in Electrical and Computer Engineering and similar majors such as Electronics andTelecommunications, Computer Science, etc. Local competitions have been sponsored byDigilent Inc., and Xilinx, and others, and the winners of the local competitions were brought toMunich, Germany to compete for a grand prize.This paper presents the results of organizing and managing the regional competitions in Europe,USA, China and India, and the results of the First Global Digilent Design Competition whichwas combined with the FPGAWorld conference in Munich, Germany. The logistics andchallenges of the regional and global competitions, the results of the past editions and plansregarding the future of the regional and global competitions are presented. Evaluations of thecompetition and students’ perceptions as an alternative learning experience were investigatedthrough student surveys.

Citation
Format

Dabacan, M. A., & Cole, C. S., & Radu, M., & Harris, J., & DUPE Wong, A., & Bot, M. (2012, June), Global Design Competition Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21428

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                            Global Design Competition:           Enhancing Skill Development through Creative and Innovative                                 Digital DesignAbstractCollege graduates should be prepared to work in culturally diverse workplaces, work acrossnational borders and understand global challenges. As compared to students in other fields,engineering students have less exposure to these topics and fewer opportunities to study them,due to a packed technical curriculum. Further, the technical curriculum is in a constant state offlux due to the rapid and continual increases in the complexity and amount of knowledgestudents must assimilate. New technologies and tools are frequently introduced into theengineering workplace, and educational programs must find a way to integrate many of theseinto their offerings.Integrating Digital Design competitions into undergraduate and graduate educational programcan introduce highly relevant design projects to students, exposing them to the latest trends usedby practicing engineers. Design competitions can be scaled up from smaller regionalcompetitions to international competitions, exposing students to students from around the world.Students can learn about designs and approaches from other international schools while alsosocializing and directly learning about life and challenges in other cultures. Such experiencesbetter prepare students to enter the field of engineering and make more meaningful contributionsto their firms earlier in their careers.Instructors at different universities in Europe, USA, China and India have recently joined effortsto create an international Digital Design Competition. The competition is open to studentsenrolled in Electrical and Computer Engineering and similar majors such as Electronics andTelecommunications, Computer Science, etc. Local competitions have been sponsored byDigilent Inc., and Xilinx, and others, and the winners of the local competitions were brought toMunich, Germany to compete for a grand prize.This paper presents the results of organizing and managing the regional competitions in Europe,USA, China and India, and the results of the First Global Digilent Design Competition whichwas combined with the FPGAWorld conference in Munich, Germany. The logistics andchallenges of the regional and global competitions, the results of the past editions and plansregarding the future of the regional and global competitions are presented. Evaluations of thecompetition and students’ perceptions as an alternative learning experience were investigatedthrough student surveys.
AU  - Mircea Alexandru Dabacan
AU  - Clint S. Cole
AU  - Mihaela Radu
AU  - Joe Harris
AU  - Alex DUPE Wong
AU  - Monica Bot
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Global Design Competition
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21428
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21428
ER  -