Aldeman, M. R. (2019, June), Improving Students’ Understanding of Electromagnetic Principles with an Alternator Design-Build-Test Project  Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32950

\bibitem{asee_peer_32950}
  Aldeman, M. R. (2019, June), \emph{Improving Students’ Understanding of Electromagnetic Principles with an Alternator Design-Build-Test Project}
  Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Tampa, Florida.
  10.18260/1-2--32950

Matthew R. Aldeman.  "Improving Students’ Understanding of Electromagnetic Principles with an Alternator Design-Build-Test Project".  2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida, 2019, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2019.  https://peer.asee.org/32950 Internet.  25 Apr, 2025

\bibitem{asee_peer_32950}
  Matthew R. Aldeman.
  "Improving Students’ Understanding of Electromagnetic Principles with an Alternator Design-Build-Test Project".
  \emph{2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition , Tampa, Florida, 2019, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2019.
  https://peer.asee.org/32950 Internet.  25 Apr, 2025

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_32950
author = "Matthew R. Aldeman"
title = "Improving Students’ Understanding of Electromagnetic Principles with an Alternator Design-Build-Test Project"
booktitle = "2019 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition "
year = "2019"
month = "June"
address = "Tampa, Florida"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/32950}
number = {10.18260/1-2--32950}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - As a required course in the Renewable Energy undergraduate major at a public university, students take TEC 259: Power Generation: Production, Conversion and Storage, typically in their junior or senior years.  The course covers the fundamental laws governing energy conversion and includes practical applications relating to the design of energy conversion systems.  Over an approximately one-month period in the latter half of the course, students design, build, and test their own AC electric alternator or generator.  During this time the class lectures include a discussion of electromagnetic principles, Faraday’s Law, and real-world generator designs.  For materials, students are given a block of wood, wooden dowel rods, aluminum angle iron, screws, pairs of ceramic and neodymium magnets, and thirty feet of 24 AWG magnet wire.  Students are encouraged to iteratively test and improve their designs.  The generators are tested by attaching an electric drill to the input shaft of the generator, and the output is measured with an oscilloscope.  The design objective is to maximize the output voltage of the machine.  After some experimentation, the instructor for the course has set a benchmark of 300 mV as the target voltage output.  Some students have achieved output voltages of more than 3V.  The assessment method consists of two parts: i) a quantitative assessment of the machine’s output voltage compared to the 300 mV benchmark, and ii) a qualitative assessment of the durability and reliability of the machine.  Students have given very positive feedback on the project, saying that it was their favorite part of the course, and have commented that the project greatly improved their understanding of electromagnetic principles and electric machine design.  The students’ exam scores on related material also show marked signs of improvement.
AU  - Matthew R. Aldeman
CY  - Tampa, Florida
DA  - 2019/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Improving Students’ Understanding of Electromagnetic Principles with an Alternator Design-Build-Test Project
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/32950
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--32950
ER  -