Freshman Experience Course in Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology Emphasizing Computation, Simulation, Mathematical Modeling, and Measurements

Abstract

Omer Farook is a member of the faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology at Purdue University, Nothwest. Farook received the diploma of licentiate in mechanical engineering and B.S. M.E. in 1970 and 1972, respectively. He further received B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. in 1978 and 1983, respectively, from Illinois Institute of Technology. Farook's current interests are in the areas of embedded system design, hardware-software interfacing, digital communication, networking, image processing, and biometrics, C++, Python, PHP and Java languages. He has a keen interest in pedagogy and instruction delivery methods related to distance learning. He has a deep commitment to social justice and in achieving economic and educational equity.Dr. Jai P. Agrawal, Purdue University Northwest Jai P. Agrawal is a professor in electrical and computer engineering technology at Purdue University Northwest. He received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1991, dissertation in power electronics. He also received M.S. and B.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, in 1970 and 1968, respectively The pedagogy of the course delivery is based on "Interactive Learning Model", utilizing the methodology of Outcome Based Education. Outcome Based Education's end result is the students' design projects performed at the end of the course. The course is conducted in a lab or studio like settings, that integrates both lecture and laboratory work in the same settings. The paper elaborates the benefits derived through the pedagogical approaches of keeping the learner actively engaged in all aspects of discovery and design. The course interactively involves the learner in directing and defining the material under discourse.Paper provides a road map and serves as pointer to host of design tools that are available that can be incorporated in a similar freshman course offering for Engineering Technology and Engineering programs. Paper provides the content details in terms of topics covered as well as all the labs performed during the course. The paper presents the details of pedagogical approach that was implemented in successful implementation of this course.

Impact of a Modeling Intervention in an Introductory Programming Course

“…• Computational Models: Computational models, in the context of this work, are often seen in the form of simulations (e.g., [21][22][23]). Where computational modeling is often taught is in the context of programming courses (e.g., [18]), but rarely is it referred to as computational modeling or simulation.…”

A Smart Grid Implementation for an Engineering Technology Curriculum

“…There have been other studies on how to attract engineering students to cyber-attacks on the power grid and how to establish green energy and sustainability minors. There have been a number of innovative ways suggested to embed renewable energy concepts into engineering education through unique power system simulations and senior design project implementations [16][17][18][19].…”

Comparing Students’ Solutions to an Open-ended Problem in an Introductory Programming Course with and without Explicit Modeling Interventions

“…Computational models are based on mathematical models and utilize computer programs to enable users to interact with the underlying model [15][16]. A specific type of computational model are simulations, which require a visualization of outputs in addition to the manipulable user inputs (e.g., [15,[21][22][23]). Simulations are more commonly being implemented in courses as a tool to enable more exploration of concepts (e.g., [19]).…”