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The Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at Duke University, Durham, NC, is undergoing extensive curriculum revisions that incorporate novel content, organization, and teaching methods. The cornerstone of the new curriculum is a theme-based introductory course, Fundamentals of ECE. To introduce students to the major areas of ECE in their first year of study, this course is organized around three concepts: 1) how to interface with the physical world; 2) how to transmit energy and information; and 3) how to extract, interpret, and analyze information. To provide insight and motivation, the course is designed to introduce multiple areas of ECE, emphasizing how they are interrelated and how they contribute to the design and functioning of real-world applications. Also, the course must engage its students, many of whom are evaluating ECE as a prospective major and career. To achieve these goals, the course adopts a unifying theme, tightly couples lecture and laboratory exercises, and includes a laboratory experience that emphasizes design, integration, and real applications. The interactive classroom content and laboratory exercises are developed iteratively so that each course component supports the other, rather than one being dominant and driving the other. As the context focus of the laboratory, a robotic platform enables the exploration of a broad range of ECE concepts, both independently and integrated into an entire system. For their final design project, students form small groups, which in turn combine into larger teams, to create robots that work together to overcome realistic challenges. This paper describes the curricular objectives and key course elements that guide course development, the resulting content and structure of the course, and the assessment data that indicate successful achievement of the curricular goals. Index Terms--Electrical and computer engineering (ECE) curriculum, freshman design, introductory course.

The expansion in the fields of optical engineering and optoelectronics has made it essential to introduce optical engineering concepts into undergraduate courses and curricula. Because of limits on the number of course requirements for the B.S. degree, it is not clear how these topics should he introduced without replacing some of the traditional requirements. This paper demonstrates how optical engineering concepts can be easily presented as an integral part of electrical engineering subjects, with a minimal amount of replacement, while enhancing the depth and understanding of both fields. Courses such as linear signals and systems, electricity and magnetism, and electronics which traditionally represent the core requirements of the undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum contain subjects that have direct correlations with optical engineering concepts. The major changes that are needed are the creation of textbooks that contain concepts and examples in areas of both optical and electrical engineering and some relearning and familiarization on the part of instructors. This approach allows for a fresh look at courses being offered in electrical engineering, while providing the necessary background in optical engineering for students. Index Terms - Integrated optical courses, optoelectronics courses.

This paper describes our new attempt to introduce a 10-hour lecture on low voltage (LV) distribution system with a 5-hour design exercise and a 5-hour project work for all electrical engineering students. It is felt that most of the electrical engineering graduates will possibly encounter more applications in the LV system rather than the traditional power system analysis. The system earthing and the associated electrical parts for the LV network can be easily implemented in a laboratory for students to test and operate. In the design exercise, the PC-based integrated tool not only guides the students in a step-by-step approach and provides a CAD tool to automate the repetitive design process, it also evaluates the student's performance in the design exercise by using error log and a demerit point system. In the guided project work, the students are exposed to a physical LV simulator identical to an industrial installation to carry out inspection, testing, turn-on supply, fault diagnosis and restoration of supply. In a survey from 600 students, 24% strongly agreed, and 52% agreed that this 10-hour design and project works are useful and challenging. Many students expressed that they are interested in their first exposure to a power engineering project. Keywords: Power engineering education, low voltage system, design exercise, simulator, guided project work.

Undergraduate courses in electromechanical energy conversion are typically oriented toward the steady-state analysis of electrical machines. The advent of low-cost computer power and the availability of numerical software tools provide the opportunity to fundamentally reorient the pedagogical approach to the topic. A new approach is consistent with the developing need to emphasize the study of new machine designs and machines employed for control purposes as well as machines for use in more traditional power applications. This paper presents the results obtained from simulations developed as an integral part of an undergraduate electrical machines course at the University of Dayton. Sample simulation files are presented to demonstrate the ease with which the matrix model of the machine is transferred to the program. The matrix models and simulation results of the following machines are included: the single-phase transformer, the variable-reluctance machine, the cylindrical-rotor dual-winding machine, the symmetrical two-phase induction motor, a PWM-controlled dc machine, and an inverter-driven brushless machine. The selected machines provide a systematic framework for analysis and simulation and present problems of increasing complexity to the student. Index Terms - Electrical machines, motors, simulation.

The process of complex political, economical, and social changes in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe involves far-reaching transformations. To transform educational contents, form, and organization is one of the urgent needs, having in mind the semi-total isolation that lasted nearly half a century. In this paper, historical background of the ongoing transformations of the system of higher education is briefly outlined, with emphasis on analysis of its consequences for the current situation. The transformations must aim not only at overcoming certain weaknesses of the present system, but also cope with new challenges that any curriculum in a discipline developing so swiftly as Informatics is facing today. Approaches taken to transform the Informatics curriculum in Slovakia are discussed. A role of projects for international collaboration is mentioned. Index Terms - Central and Eastern Europe curricula changes, engineering curriculum, engineering education in Slovakia.

In this paper, an innovative model for course development that promotes a cooperation of educational institutions and a manufacturing company is described. This linkage, which provides state-of-the art technical education for senior students, resulted from the collaboration between the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at Indianapolis (IUPUI) and the Electronic Manufacturing Productivity Facility (EMPF) and brings together the theoretical study, laboratory design, and actual product manufacturing of surface-mount printed-circuit assemblies. The impact of the course on electrical engineering graduates will be discussed.

This paper reports on our experience with respect to a major revision of the introductory Electrical Engineering curriculum at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The new curriculum incorporates classroom and laboratory experience in electrical engineering for first-year students. The new courses are based on the 'spiral' approach to education in which concepts are introduced at an applications-oriented level, and then repeatedly revisited with successively greater levels of detail and theoretical sophistication. The plan that has been adopted was the result of extensive study within the department in which current students and alumni participated through surveys. An assessment plan and preliminary assessment results are discussed.

Two aspects of innovation in electrical engineering education are summarized: the membership and goals of the NSF Engineering Education Coalitions, and recent innovations implemented at individual schools. The latter summary results from responses to a survey of electrical engineering department heads. Responses from 35 schools were received; they are organized in this report under the categories of major program/curriculum revisions, curricular revisions, first-year experience, undergraduate engineering design experience, course innovations, and innovations in graduate education. Also reported are issues in electrical engineering education that merit attention, as reported by the department heads responding to the survey.

This paper describes the design and implementation of a 5-KW microcomputer-controlled thyristor bridge rectifier (TBR) that has been introduced in the undergraduate electric machinery laboratory at Montana State University. The unit is used in an independent experiment on the operation of the TBR and its control by a microcomputer, as well as for controlling the applied voltage to the armature of a dc motor for controlling its speed. Since the operation of the motor speed controller is based on control of the TBR, it was noticed that the addition of the TBR experiment will help students better understand its operation as well as the operation of the dc motor speed controller experiment. Experimental results are presented on the operation of the rectifier, and evaluation of the experiment is reported.

Today it is essential that electronic and computer engineering graduates not only know about the various modern microelectronic manufacturing alternatives, but that they have some experience when they graduate. Such experience should include computer-aided design, fabrication and testing of devices. This paper describes an undergraduate course where, through a number of innovative ideas, a wide selection of microelectronic technologies is taught with hands-on training at a relatively low cost. Examples include leaded and surface mount printed circuit board, thick film hybrid, gate array, full custom VLSI (analog and digital) and integrated circuit manufacture.

After a short description of the engineering education system in Italy, and a brief historical account of the introduction of microwave courses in such studies, the paper illustrates the present situation of microwave education. Data are provided on schools where courses on microwaves and related disciplines are available, types of degrees, laboratories and computing facilities, and number of students. Typical syllabi in some universities are also discussed.

A two-quarter senior-level sequence in control systems is described. The first course covers classical control and is accompanied by a laboratory. A parallel activity is the planning of a capstone design project which students execute as part of the second course. The second course offers students new material on modern control theory plus a capstone design experience that includes implementation and testing of the design project in the laboratory. These capstone design projects provide the basis for new experiments for the laboratory that accompanies the first course., A two-course senior-level sequence in control systems at the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Electrical Engineering is discussed. The first course deals with single input/output systems using Laplace equations while the second course covers a deeper analysis of the systems. The integration of these courses into a single subject resulted in the students' renewed interest in control systems applications and designs.

Spreadsheet programs can be used to introduce practical considerations in introductory electrical engineering courses., Incorporation of spreadsheet programs in introductory electrical engineering courses to tabulate the results of engineering calculations is discussed. Engineering calculations can be organized and displayed more effectively through tabular presentations, and spreadsheet programs can create the necessary tables for a systematic arrangement of such calculations. However, the limited storage capacity of these programs prevents its application to large-scale problems.

Engineering educators have always been concerned with teaching good methodology so that students learn how to efficiently approach problems in design, analysis, and manufacturing. But the definition of 'good methodology' has changed with the advent in engineering of computer-aided design (CAD). Curriculums need to be updated so that students learn methods appropriate for the environments in which they will work Though interest in incorporating computer aids into courses is high, a number of challenges are encountered in implementing such changes. Teaching CAD tools takes time; what can be left out of courses to make room? Required computing resources are costly to acquire and to maintain. Faculty members, especially those having less computer sophistication, are sometimes hesitant to take on the additional burden of making their classes dependent on CAD. Several years ago, the circuits and computer hardware courses at the University of Michigan's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science were restructured. A uniform set of electronic design automation (EDA) tools was incorporated, beginning early in the undergraduate curriculum. The ability to teach good engineering in the Department has been significantly strengthened by these changes. This article describes the program and the details which have made it successful. They include: using a consistent set of well-supported commercial tools throughout the curriculum; providing adequate computing resources through a tuition surcharge for engineering students; and offering department-wide support through CAD short courses and consulting hours., The incorporation of computer-aided (CAD) design in the undergraduate curriculum of University of Michigan's electrical engineering and computer science courses improved the students' designing and computational skills. CAD was used by the students as their main design automation tool in constructing functional electrical circuits. As a result, the time and effort required in the designing and computational processes were greatly reduced.

Abstract - Course and implementation recommendations are presented for establishing a B. S. degree in photonics, a discipline combining elements of both physics and electrical engineering with an emphasis in modern optics., A proposed curriculum in photonics seeks to equip the student with the qualifications needed by the optoelectronic industry in view of changing industrial trends. Students will be accorded academic guidance to support a student's career plan, familiarizing the student with personnel and management concepts and the changing demands of the industry. The program is also flexible enough to prepare the student to go on to graduate studies.

Abstract - Photonics is becoming an increasingly important area of study for those involved in applications typically considered within the domain of electrical engineering. This report describes how the conventional undergraduate electrical engineering curriculum can accommodate, and be enriched by, an infusion of optical-related subjects., Electical engineering graduates with qualifications needed by the photonics industry can be produced by enriching the electrical engineering curriculum. Basic and elective courses on Photonics should be included in university and college curricula since Photonics is significant to the electrical engineering and not merely an applied technology which can be rendered obsolete in time. Photonics is applicable to several important areas such as computers, communications and circuits among others.

This article describes a senior-year sequence in design required of all electrical engineering students at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Commencing in the Fall quarter, students form groups of either three or four and formulate a problem having multiple possible solutions which must be approved by their instructor. They must then conduct a feasibility study and present their approach to solving the problem by the end of the Fall quarter. During the Winter quarter, they perform the paper design and analysis and begin prototyping. Spring quarter consists of prototyping, testing, modifying, retesting, and final documentation. All projects are displayed in a 'trade show' type format during the day before Spring Commencement. Five senior classes have completed the nine-credit sequence to date., Three sequential design courses for electrical engineering students at the Milwaukee School of Engineering are discussed. Students enrolled in any of the three courses organized themselves into groups of three or four and devised engineering problems with multiple solutions. These problems were presented to their instructors for approval. The students were then required to present their solutions to the problems within a certain time frame.

We have recently added a strong writing component to one of our freshman courses in electrical engineering. The students prepared two kinds of reports--memoranda and formal engineering project reports. Our instructional objectives were to execute well these two forms: to write with a professional tone, and to make good choices about which technical material to include. To meet these objectives, model memos and engineering project reports were developed, lectures about these memos and reports were presented, a Web site for the course was developed, the technical aspects of the reports were graded by a student hourly grader, the writing aspects of the reports were evaluated by a professor, and followup debriefings were conducted at the lecture class meetings. We report on the development process and discuss student response to the course. Index Terms--Electrical engineering education, engineering writing, freshman, project report, technical reports, technical writing, writing.

WEB-BASED ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY LABORATORY. Adel Salama and Ashraf Saad, Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee, and University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. Distance Education over the Web is increasing at an [...]