Promoting Undergraduate Research in the Electrical Engineering Curriculum

David Hoe

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Conference: 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Publication Date: June 15, 2014
Start Date: June 15, 2014
End Date: June 18, 2014
ISSN: 2153-5965
Conference Session: Projects in ECE
Tagged Division: Electrical and Computer
Page Count: 13
Page Numbers: 24.1023.1 - 24.1023.13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--22956
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/22956
Download Count: 396

Paper Authors

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David Hoe The University of Texas at Tyler

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David H. K. Hoe did his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Toronto. His professional experience includes positions at General Electric’s Research and Development Center as a Staff Engineer and at the University of Texas at Arlington as a Research Associate and Adjunct Professor. He assumed his present position as an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Texas at Tyler in August 2008. He teaches classes in Computer Architecture and VLSI Design. His research interests include the areas of reconfigurable computing, mixed-signal and analog circuit design, and engineering education.

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Abstract

Promoting Undergraduate Research in the Electrical Engineering CurriculumEngaging undergraduate students in meaningful research experiences is considered a highimpact educational practice. Benefits for the students include development of criticalthinking skills, career preparation, improved retention within STEM disciplines, andincreased interest in graduate school. Managing effective undergraduate research projects cantake significant time and planning on the part of the faculty. One of the main challengeswhen working with undergraduate researchers is finding projects which are accessible tothem based on their current skills and knowledge and yet is original work with potentialimpact. This paper reports on our initial attempts to organize a course that promotesundergraduate research at the University of _______. While opportunities already exist forundergraduate students to do research with faculty through an independent study elective,past results have been mixed and their organization has been rather ad hoc. With this in mind,an undergraduate research elective was formed with specific course objectives to helpstudents become competent researchers. The two main objectives are: (1) to develop theabilities of the students to do scientific research, and (2) to improve the technicalcommunication skills of the students in the areas of reading, writing, and speaking. The firstobjective is accomplished through mentoring of the student research and the second throughpractice and constructive feedback in four activities: (a) reading of technical articles for formand content, (b) weekly group meetings where students give short presentations on theirprogress, (c) the formal presentation of a poster, and (d) writing a technical paper forsubmission to a conference. In addition, the students were required to keep a lab book torecord their results and reflect on their experiences throughout the semester. The course metformally once per week. The main purpose of the meetings was to make the studentsaccountable for keeping up with their research, to discuss the journal articles that they wereassigned, to provide opportunities for presenting their results, and interacting with their peersand the faculty supervisor.Four motivated students were recruited to take part in this pilot course. This paper willprovide an overview of the research that the students did in the area of computer engineeringand their subsequent impact. The impact includes assessment of their poster presentations atthe campus wide student research day, the presentation of a conference paper, and statisticson the number of students making decisions for graduate school. The projects include a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) implementation of a video compression algorithm,acceleration of a sparse FFT algorithm involving general purpose graphical processing units(GPGPUs), computer modeling of a red fire ant colony, and low-power encryption circuitswith differential power analysis (DPA) immunity.Specific assessment instruments in the form of rubrics were utilized to assess thedevelopment of the students’ communication skills. The students were given an opportunityto self-assess their research experiences through an end of semester survey which includedratings for the research course (meeting of objectives, mentoring by the professor, weeklymeetings) as well as rating for the usefulness of various facets of the course. Based onstudent and faculty assessments, specific recommendations will be presented for improvingfuture offerings of this undergraduate research course.

Citation
Format

Hoe, D. (2014, June), Promoting Undergraduate Research in the Electrical Engineering Curriculum Paper presented at 2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Indianapolis, Indiana. 10.18260/1-2--22956

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                        Promoting Undergraduate Research                    in the Electrical Engineering CurriculumEngaging undergraduate students in meaningful research experiences is considered a highimpact educational practice. Benefits for the students include development of criticalthinking skills, career preparation, improved retention within STEM disciplines, andincreased interest in graduate school. Managing effective undergraduate research projects cantake significant time and planning on the part of the faculty. One of the main challengeswhen working with undergraduate researchers is finding projects which are accessible tothem based on their current skills and knowledge and yet is original work with potentialimpact. This paper reports on our initial attempts to organize a course that promotesundergraduate research at the University of _______. While opportunities already exist forundergraduate students to do research with faculty through an independent study elective,past results have been mixed and their organization has been rather ad hoc. With this in mind,an undergraduate research elective was formed with specific course objectives to helpstudents become competent researchers. The two main objectives are: (1) to develop theabilities of the students to do scientific research, and (2) to improve the technicalcommunication skills of the students in the areas of reading, writing, and speaking. The firstobjective is accomplished through mentoring of the student research and the second throughpractice and constructive feedback in four activities: (a) reading of technical articles for formand content, (b) weekly group meetings where students give short presentations on theirprogress, (c) the formal presentation of a poster, and (d) writing a technical paper forsubmission to a conference. In addition, the students were required to keep a lab book torecord their results and reflect on their experiences throughout the semester. The course metformally once per week. The main purpose of the meetings was to make the studentsaccountable for keeping up with their research, to discuss the journal articles that they wereassigned, to provide opportunities for presenting their results, and interacting with their peersand the faculty supervisor.Four motivated students were recruited to take part in this pilot course. This paper willprovide an overview of the research that the students did in the area of computer engineeringand their subsequent impact. The impact includes assessment of their poster presentations atthe campus wide student research day, the presentation of a conference paper, and statisticson the number of students making decisions for graduate school. The projects include a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) implementation of a video compression algorithm,acceleration of a sparse FFT algorithm involving general purpose graphical processing units(GPGPUs), computer modeling of a red fire ant colony, and low-power encryption circuitswith differential power analysis (DPA) immunity.Specific assessment instruments in the form of rubrics were utilized to assess thedevelopment of the students’ communication skills. The students were given an opportunityto self-assess their research experiences through an end of semester survey which includedratings for the research course (meeting of objectives, mentoring by the professor, weeklymeetings) as well as rating for the usefulness of various facets of the course. Based onstudent and faculty assessments, specific recommendations will be presented for improvingfuture offerings of this undergraduate research course.
AU  - David Hoe
CY  - Indianapolis, Indiana
DA  - 2014/06/15
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Promoting Undergraduate Research in the Electrical Engineering Curriculum
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/22956
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--22956
ER  -