The Implementation and Evaluation of a University-Based Outreach Laboratory Program in Electrical Engineering

In the current climate of shortages of high-quality engineering graduates, exacerbated by reduced high school enrollments in physics and mathematics, engineering faculties are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of K-12 outreach programs. Such programs can result in students being better prepared for and better informed about engineering careers, with a consequent increase in the number of engineering undergraduates. Almost all outreach programs described in the literature are school-based; by contrast, this paper describes a university-based program. The program was born out of a desire for a university department and a neighboring high school to forge closer links and a need for the high school to provide its students with certain laboratory experiences that would best be realized with the use of specialist equipment. The outreach program provides both formal laboratory experiences and informal presentations by graduate students of their research interests. Follow-up surveys showed that the high school students found the experiences both instructive and motivating, and their knowledge of and interest in electrical engineering increased significantly as a result. All final-year physics students from the high school took part in the 2007 outreach program, and 42% of these students subsequently enrolled in the Bachelor of Engineering degree at the university in 2008.      

Hands-On Summer Camp to Attract K–12 Students to Engineering Fields

This paper explains the organization and execution of a summer engineering outreach camp designed to attract and motivate high school students as well as increase their awareness of various engineering fields. The camp curriculum included hands-on, competitive design-oriented engineering projects from several disciplines: the electrical, environmental, mechanical, civil, and chemical engineering fields. The camp also provided additional information on financial aid, the academic programs in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) offered at Texas A&M University–Kingsville (TAMUK), as well as various career options for prospective engineers. The implementation of the camp activities and the well-designed hands-on projects not only increased the students' satisfaction, but also improved their self-confidence and their interest toward engineering disciplines. The engineering outreach camp survey results clearly indicated the success of the camp and the effectiveness of the hands-on, competitive engineering design experiences to attract students to engineering professions. Thus, it demonstrated an effective, feasible, and sustainable engineering recruitment approach.      

Engineering Outreach: A Successful Initiative With Gifted Students in Science and Technology in Hong Kong

The primary goal of engineering outreach is to attract prospective students to engineering education and the engineering profession. Gifted students, especially those identified as possessing unusually high abilities in science and technology, are especially promising students to attract to careers in engineering. It is critical to cultivate these students' interests and develop their potential for engineering while encouraging them to pursue engineering studies beyond K-12 education. This article presents examples of the successful learning outcomes of an ongoing University-based Electronics Technology Project Study (UETPS) program, a joint endeavor between the IEEE Hong Kong Section, the Education Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government, and the Hong Kong Academy of Gifted Education (HKAGE). The UETPS program promotes electrical, electronic, and computer engineering education in Hong Kong and is aimed particularly at gifted students as well as their parents, teachers, and schools. Project applicants underwent formal identification procedures by the Gifted Education Section of the HKSAR Education Bureau and were identified as being gifted in the area of science and technology. Selected participants then participated in one-year research projects in electronics and computer engineering under the guidance of university professors in their respective engineering departments. This program addresses an urgent need of the engineering education sector by reaching out to highly talented K-12 students and their surrounding communities. According to the evaluation results, the UETPS program has significantly enhanced the participating students' interest in engineering as a career choice and encouraged them to pursue undergraduate studies in engineering. This article also discusses lessons learned and proposes strategies for future potential implementers.      

The new electrical and computer engineering curricula at Universityof California-Davis

In Fall 1993 the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of California, Davis introduced a new electrical engineering and a new computer engineering curriculum, each characterized by a well-coordinated junior core leading to a carefully chosen set of senior design elective courses. Through integration of a select but powerful set of computer tools into the junior core, students will be able to concentrate on understanding basic engineering principals while simultaneously obtaining important analytic and computer skills for senior elective courses. The number of required courses has been decreased but the number of units has remained roughly the same while maintaining the lower-division (freshman and sophomore) program essentially unchanged as required by the California higher education plan. The result is a curriculum that focuses on fundamentals through modern design techniques in such a way that both on-campus students and community college transfer students will be able to complete the engineering curriculum in four years     

Engaging Robots: Innovative Outreach for Attracting Cybernetics Students

Cybernetics is a broad subject, encompassing many aspects of electrical, electronic, and computer engineering, which suffers from a lack of understanding on the part of potential applicants and teachers when recruiting students. However, once the engineering values, fascinating science, and pathways to rewarding, diverse careers are communicated, appropriate students can be very interested in enrolling. At the University of Reading, Reading, U.K., a key route for outreach to prospective students has been achieved through the use of robots in interactive talks at schools, competitions (often funded by Public Understanding of Science projects), a collectable fortnightly magazine, exhibitions in museums, open days at the University, and appearances in the media. This paper identifies the interactive engagement, anthropomorphic acceptability, and inspirational nature of robots as being key to their successful use in outreach activities. The statistical results presented show that the continued popularity of degrees at Reading in cybernetics, electronic engineering, and robotics over the last 20 years is in part due to the outreach activities to schools and the general public.      

A new undergraduate computer arithmetic software laboratory

An undergraduate computer engineering laboratory that supports a one-quarter computer arithmetic course is described. This course is required for the computer engineering degree and is taken as a technical option by many students in electrical engineering and computer science. The features of this state-of-the-art laboratory include a local area network of computers, remote access via the campus network, electronic mail, online documentation, and automatic program submittal, grading, and plagiarism detection     

An electromagnetics course with EMC applications for computerengineering students

When computer engineering students follow a different (separate) program of study from the electrical engineering students, only a single course in engineering electromagnetics can be accommodated in the computer engineering (CE) core program. An outline for a course on electromagnetics for computer engineering is given combining traditional electromagnetics topics with definitions, concepts, and discussions drawn from EMC. In this way engineering electromagnetics is made relevant and vital for the CE student. Specific EMC topics are included as they arise in a presentation based on a standard engineering electromagnetics text. Shielding, radiated emissions, susceptibility, the electromagnetic environment, EMC test methods, open sites, shielded anechoic rooms, screen rooms, TEM cells, and EMC test antennas are discussed. The goal of the computer engineering electromagnetics course is to prepare the student for a full-scale EMC course to be taken as an elective in the final undergraduate year or the first year of graduate study     

Robotics-Centered Outreach Activities: An Integrated Approach

Nowadays, universities are making extensive efforts to attract prospective students to the fields of electrical, electronic, and computer engineering. Thus, outreach is becoming increasingly important, and activities with schoolchildren are being extensively carried out as part of this effort. In this context, robotics is a very attractive and effective tool for fostering interest in science and technology among children and young people and for attracting them toward engineering. In this article, experience with different robotics-centered outreach activities in the Universidad de Chile (UCH), Santiago, Chile, will be shared. These activities include robotics courses for children, social robots as keynote speakers, mechatronics design courses, and participation in international robotics competitions, which contribute synergistically to the goal of attracting students to UCH's Electrical Engineering (EE) Department. Owing to its novelty, the use of social robots as keynote speakers for schoolchildren will be described in detail. Experimental results that demonstrate how sophisticated social robots can be used to foster the interest of young people in technology will be shown. Altogether, more than 3000 schoolchildren have participated directly in these outreach activities here in Chile, creating a sizeable impact in this country.      

Engaging High School and Engineering Students: A Multifaceted Outreach Program Based on a Mechatronics Platform

If we aim to enhance the interest of students in engineering and therefore produce the best engineers, it is essential to strengthen the pipeline to high school education. This paper discusses several outreach activities undertaken by the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa (UO), Ottawa, ON, Canada, to help the transition between high school and engineering education and to make students aware of the engineering profession. At the heart of these activities is mechatronics education, which demands an interdisciplinary approach, connects to fundamental math and science concepts, and promotes collaborative project-based learning (PBL). Connected to this focus, a multifaceted program of outreach activities has been initiated. The program includes creation of design-simulate-and-build projects by engineering and high school students, as well as an interactive presentation program whereby engineering students connect with high school students through the sharing of projects that they create in their engineering courses. The survey results indicate that for the high school students, these programs promote students' awareness of engineering and how the mathematics and science they take in school connects to engineering concepts. For the engineering students, they are provided with a meaningful context within which to share their projects and explain their own understanding of engineering principles.      

Microwave Educational Program: An Industry-University Alliance

Attracting high quality students to study microwave engineering has been difficult in recent years because the glamour fields of computer engineering and computer science have attracted many students away from the more traditional disciplines of electrical engineering. At the same time, the need for microwave engineers in both the commuications and aerospace industries has increased as the role of microwave technology has become more important in these businesses. This paper provides a model for an educational program which can be developed in a specialized area to quickly alleviate the shortage of a critical engineering skill in a timely and effective manner. It further describes the synergistic growth in microwave research and the catalyzation of microwave industry interaction which have occurred at the University of Massachusetts. Moreover, it describes the recruiting benefits to the sponsoring organization, Raytheon Company, and to many of its local subcontractors due to the increased stimulation of undergraduate interest in microwave engineering manifested by a tripling over a two year period of the number of electrical engineering graduates having a concentration in microwaves.     

Engineering ethics cases for electrical and computer engineeringstudents

Rarely is electrical technology at the focus of the classic case studies used in engineering ethics courses and textbooks. This makes it sometimes difficult to excite and to motivate electrical and computer engineering students to study and discuss these cases. In teaching engineering ethics to these students, it can be valuable to employ case studies that involve technical issues that electrical and computer engineers have already studied in other courses. In this paper, four engineering ethics case studies covering topics that have been shown to interest electrical and computer engineering students are presented     

Electrical Engineering at the Crossroads

The rapid growth of computer sciences is presenting electrical engineering with a serious problem. Should electrical engineering departments adapt their curricula to meet the special needs of computer engineers and scientists or should they leave the field to computer science departments? An argument is made in favor of establishing special programs in computer sciences within electrical engineering, and a new curriculum in electrical engineering at Berkeley, which includes such a program, is outlined.     

Establishment of a university course in electromagneticcompatibility (EMC)

The establishment, content, and experience with an undergraduate course in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) in an electrical engineering program is described. The course has met with very favorable student reaction and enthusiasm. Current college/university curricula do not generally contain such a course although the material is rapidly becoming fundamental aspect of electrical engineering design. The means for implementing the course into an already crowded curriculum along with the use of several brief laboratories to motivate the students are discussed     

Use of web-based materials to teach electric circuit theory

Beginning fall 2001, the Electrical Engineering Department at Texas A&M University, College Station, significantly altered the instructional philosophy of the ELEN 214 Electric Circuit Theory course by introducing more engineering design into the curriculum and adopting the WebCT-based interactive homework submission system. This paper will discuss the use of the Quiz tool within WebCT for the construction of question banks and their publication to a WebCT server. An example, deriving mathematical expressions, which describes electric circuit behavior and helps customize the homework problems to each individual student, are discussed. In other words, in a class of 200 students, each student is presented with an individual homework assignment with a unique set of problems not repeated to anyone else via WebCT. A help desk staffed by senior undergraduates assists the course students in completing the WebCT-based homework on time. WebCT is an essential ingredient in the delivery of the course. The approach presented in this paper can be adapted to any other course in engineering/science that involves mathematical calculations. So far, the course evaluations suggest that the students are more motivated and excited about electrical and computer engineering as a career.     

Zero Credit Student Engineering Projects That Worked

Four student engineering projects that were designed and carried out by sophomore electrical engineering students at Texas A. & M. University are described and discussed. The projects were done outside of the regular class schedule and were not required or given credit.     

Real-time systems course in undergraduate CS/CE programs

Interactions with industry hiring new software engineers from undergraduate computer science and engineering programs show, case after case, that universities do not pay enough attention to the practical aspects of software development. Another well-known deficiency of the undergraduate programs is in the area of time-critical, reactive programming. The present paper describes a senior course in a computer science undergraduate program designed to address some of the above problems. The real-time course provides the students not only with the basic concepts of real-time programming, but also provides a vehicle for development of small class projects which address methods, tools and the critical aspects of a modern software development life cycle. The experience with teaching the course may serve as a model for similar offerings in other computer science, computer engineering and software engineering college programs. The paper describes lessons learned and future plans     

Programmed Instruction for Use of the Oscilloscope

Programmed instruction is being used to teach use of the oscilloscope in the first electrical engineering laboratory course at the University of Texas. A programmed text was developed that breaks down the process of operating a scope into a series of logical steps starting with deflection of the electron beam and continuing through proper use of the triggering controls to measure the phase difference between two waveforms. Students take from 8 to 45 hours to complete the program, which requires both preparation and laboratory work. Results from practical examinations and observation of student performance in later courses indicate that students learn to use the oscilloscope more effectively from the program than from conventional laboratory instruction. Use of programmed instruction in the first course assures that every student learns to use the oscilloscope and provides for a wide range of individual abilities.     

Communications engineering: a new discipline for the 21st century

Communications engineering, a new undergraduate degree program, is being introduced in the Department of Systems and Computer Engineering at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. At a time when increased specialization is questionable, the case is made that communications engineering, i.e., telecommunications and computers, is such a broad and fundamental area that a distinct degree is an appropriate approach to meet the requirements for engineering in this area. The objectives of the new program and the role that its graduates will play are discussed. The curriculum proposed for the new degree is presented. In the new degree, which is derived from the telecommunications stream in electrical engineering and from computer systems engineering, students will receive a comprehensive education ranging from a one and one-half gear common core, to communications theory, design and practice, with consideration of economic, regulatory, and social issues with a strong background in real-time computer systems. Graduates will participate in the engineering of a variety of private and public telecommunications systems, and be at home in many related areas of information technology and signal processing     

ECE as a pre-professional undergraduate program

Rapid changes and broadening scope in electrical and computer engineering (ECE) combine with other pressures to make BS degree-level preparation for the future increasingly difficult. The proposed solution is a pre-professional degree, focusing on broad educational outcomes and featuring nontraditional learning experiences, leading to a variety of graduate school career tracks. It is argued that this approach is potentially a productive way in which to address declining interest in engineering by its traditional students, as well as marginal increases in interest by women and minorities. The pre-professional degree is the logical result of the forces on undergraduate ECE education, and it can address the challenges of preparing students for leadership and success, not just survival, in a future in which the only constant will be change. Representative educational objectives and program outcomes for such a pre-professional program are presented.