Assessing Students’ Understanding of Solid-State Electronics in the First Introductory-Level ECE Course

The first Electric Circuits course is a core component of all engineering undergraduate curricula that include not only Electrical but other engineering disciplines such as Computer, Mechanical and Civil Engineering programs worldwide. The Electric Circuits Concept Inventory (ECCI) is a set of multiple choice questions that measures students' understanding of DC Circuit analysis. The topics include (i) fundamental conceptual circuit topics (ii) Circuit laws and (iii) Circuit analysis techniques. In a companion paper [1], we presented a rationale for ECCI. In this paper, we present a set of multiple-choice questions suggested for inclusion in the ECCI focusing on (ii) DC Circuit laws and (iii) DC Circuit analysis techniques. We examine the various concepts tested in each question and relate its importance to a quality overall course in Electric Circuits. We welcome more additions to this growing repertoire of questions that we plan to build and use in finalizing the ECCI test especially in AC Circuit analysis topics.

Several engineering programs have introduced courses related to sustainability following the Brundtland Commission report in 1987. Available literature suggests that environmental engineering programs have initiated most of such activity, but only a few activities are reported in electrical and computer engineering programs. To fill this gap, a project to infuse sustainability into the electrical and computer engineering curriculum was initiated in 2009 in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Kansas State University with support from the National Science Foundation. The goal of the project is to prepare engineers, who are equipped to meet the growing needs of society, as well as to bolster enrollment by aligning the curriculum with needs of the current generation of students, who wish to involve themselves in work that benefits society. The paper describes activities related to sustainability including hands-on experiments in renewable energy, development of a rooftop solar and wind generation system, and associated outreach activities. Finally, results of assessments conducted in freshman classes provide a view of student knowledge related to sustainability and renewable energy as they enter their college experience.

Many students majoring in electrical engineering do not understand electrical circuit material, causing students to have difficulty determining Ohm's law and Kirchhoff's law and resistor color codes. Therefore, one solution is to develop interactive learning media based on web learning in electrical circuit courses. This research aims to develop valid and practical learning media. This research was carried out with research and development to produce products in the form of learning media. Development models can be in the form of procedural models, conceptual models and theoretical models, procedural models are considered suitable for the development objectives to be achieved, namely to produce a product and test the feasibility of the product produced, where to achieve these objectives certain steps must be followed to produce a particular product. Based on the research carried out, it can be concluded that the development research carried out produced a valid and practical web learning-based interactive media product in the Electrical Circuits course at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Padang State University. This is proven by the validation results of interactive learning media based on web learning from two validators, that the interactive learning media developed was tested as valid. Testing the practicality of interactive learning media from lecturers' practicality is very practical, and the practicality test results are very practical. So, the development of interactive learning media based on web learning in electrical circuit courses is valid and practical.

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract Attracting and Retaining Women in Computer Science and Engineering: Evaluating the Results Abstract Computer science and engineering communities have been exploring a variety of activities and techniques to attract and retain more students, especially women and minorities, to computer science and computer engineering degree programs1. This paper briefly describes the efforts and results of a plan for actively recruiting young women into undergraduate computer engineering and computer science programs hosted by the University of North Texas (UNT). It also describes a series of activities aimed at improving the retention rate of students already in our programs, particularly during the freshman year. Such recruitment and retention efforts are critical to the country’s efforts to increase the number of engineering professionals, and are a priority for the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Department at UNT. We initially designed a three-part plan to achieve our recruitment and retention goals: • Sponsorship of portable and mobile summer computer engineering robotics camps for middle and high-school women students, coordinating with the regional Girl Scouts councils and other organizations to help with the recruitment; • Creation of an Ambassador program using young women currently enrolled in the upper division of current computer science and computer engineering programs as a form of outreach to area high schools and junior colleges; and • Expansion of our successful undergraduate mentoring program by using the Ambassador cohort mentioned above as mentors for incoming freshman and first-year transfer women entering our programs. This paper will focus primarily on the summer camp program and present an analysis of the results we have seen to date after 2 years of camp activities. Results from student surveys and parent surveys will be presented. The paper concludes with recommended changes and improvements in the program, as well as a discussion of adaptations that would create programs suitable for implementation at other institutions as well as programs aimed at a different target population. The three phases previously enumerated each build upon currently accepted educational practices. The robotics summer camp in particular used problem-based learning approaches, similar to those described in The Power of Problem-Based Learning2. This study clearly demonstrates the significant benefits of teaching students how to think by using a problem-based approach. We also developed a mobile laboratory so that the summer camp can be held at several locations, thus broadening and expanding the reach of the camps to traditionally underserved populations and geographical regions. Similarly, both the ambassador and mentoring programs derive from research showing how the recruitment and retention of women in engineering- related fields can be increased by providing opportunities to develop student-to-student relationships3, 4.

It is with pleasure that the IEEE Computer Society welcomes this opportunity to participate with ACM members concerned with education of computer scientists and computer engineers. It is hoped that this cooperation will continue in the future. Described in this panel presentation will be the results of two years of concentrated development by members of the IEEE Computer Society Education Committee towards cohesive and flexible model curricula for 4-year computer science and engineering programs. This effort was initiated in May 1974, and since has resulted in eight working sessions, has involved 20 active module developers, has called upon nearly 40 outside reviewers, and has sought cooperation with academia, industry, the ACM and the DISE Committee. The first test of the model curricula was held in June 1976 at a IEEE Computer Society Educators Workshop; a test that seemed to be passed as judged by those attending the workshop.Specifically, this panel presentation will introduce the IEEE Computer Society effort, will place the effort in historical perspective, and will describe in detail the need as seen by many educators. It will dwell briefly on past contributions by similar committees, will provide a definition of computer science and engineering and will provide a pictorial outline of the 17 modules that comprise the five subject areas of the proposed curricula. This will be followed with selected examples of possible implementation strategies. The presentation will close with a summary of future work and a short comparison of the IEEE and ACM efforts.

It is an important and challenging task to develop concepts and skills of undergraduate engineering students in computer programming course and hence their evaluation on higher order skills. Already several methods are developed to evaluate the students of this course for various engineering programs, but a method for undergraduate electrical and electronic engineering (EEE) program was not found in the literature. In this paper, a simple evaluation method for the students of computer programming course of undergraduate EEE (BSc in EEE) program has been reported using result-oriented learning. Detail methodology, course syllabus design, course outcomes (COs) and mapping it with program outcomes (POs) of BSc in EEE, question setting following Bloom’s taxonomy, laboratory experiment, assessment plan, course and PO evaluation data and graphs have been presented along with relevant statistics. All data are presented for a cohort of students who took this course in summer 2019 Semester at EEE Department of Southeast University. It has been observed that the target set by the course teacher has been achieved by the students. Recommendations of the course teacher for further improvement of the COs’ achievement have also been presented. Keywords: CO evaluation, programming course, OBE

The Universal Virtual Laboratory (UVL) is a realistic, real-time, electrical engineering virtual laboratory. The software developed targets individuals who do not have adequate mobility of their upper bodies to perform laboratory experiments. To provide a more realistic and enhanced learning experience, the users of the virtual laboratory are allowed the freedom to build and test a wide variety of realistic electrical circuits, and be able to perform curriculum-based experiments. Typically, this laboratory would accompany an introductory electrical circuits course sequence. The virtual laboratory also contains an intelligent lab assistant that can guide the student and answer student queries.

Guest Editorial

There is an emphasis today throughout many academic programs on developing and sustaining information assurance (IA) programs. While we often refer to such programs collectively as information assurance, they tend to be decidedly different in approach and content depending on many factors. This paper does not attempt to differentiate between such approaches but rather outlines a discovery approach to information assurance pedagogy – regardless of course content or curriculum. Such an approach is applicable whether or not the IA curriculum is a standalone degree or contained within a computer science, business information systems, or computer engineering program. The examples given in this paper were from a computer science and engineering program.

Providing immediate feedback to students of their level of understanding of a concept is important for effective learning and for the instructor to decide to either review the concept or move forward to another. This paper demonstrates concept mapping and a student response system to provide immediate feedback in an Electrical Circuits course. We showed how students’ learning is improved when they receive immediate online feedback about their state of learning from their peers and the instructor. The same course was taught differently in two consecutive years, one with immediate feedback and concept mapping and the other without. The assessment of the impact on students learning using immediate online feedback and concept mapping presented through the student grades for the same course in the two years. The results showed that immediate feedback and concept mapping have a significant and positive effect on student performance.

During recent years the interest in Engineering Studies has declined at universities both in the United States and in many Western European countries including Sweden. In addition, among those students that do enroll, an increasing number drop-out. This paper presents an attempt to mitigate these worrying problems in the form of a new kind of introductory course for first-year engineering students studying on a 5-year long Master of Science program in Computer Science and Engineering. The course is novel in that it takes a holistic approach to motivate and prepare students for their further studies. Core subjects and useful tools are mixed together into an intense 10-week course with 12 separate course modules on different topics, often running in parallel. The course has a total of 21 individual examinations to take, tasks to carry out, and deadlines to meet. The examinations and tasks are chosen among those common in our School of Engineering. Evaluations show that, although demanding for the students, the course works well and fulfills its goals.

Guest Editorial: Situational awareness of integrated energy systems

This study concerns on how reading text are developed for vocational school. This study was conducted by using Research and Development (R&D) design. It was started from collecting the data, analyzing data, designing course grid, designing new reading material by using Scientific Approach, validating by experts, and revising for final product. The new reading material contained of five stages namely; observing, questioning, exploring, associating, and communicating. The source of data of this study was the grade X students of Computer Engineering and Networking Program at SMKS Taman Siswa Medan consisting 24 students. Instrument of collecting data were observation, questionnaire, and interview. After analyzing data, the researcher got the students‟ need in learning English in term of vocation that they have. The interview and questionnaire result proved that the students need English reading materials which contain English for Computer Engineering and Networking program. The materials which were developed were focused on descriptive text. The product had been validated by the experts. The average scores are 3,4 both from English teacher and English lecturer. It means the developing materials categorized as relevant for students of Computer Engineering and Networking program grade X.

Faculty members from three departments at North Dakota State University (Physics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Chemistry) have cooperated to develop a joint program in optical science and engineering. An option in Optical Engineering has been established within the major in electrical engineering and an option in Optical Science and Engineering has been established within the major in physics. A core course, Optics for Scientists and Engineers, was introduced in Fall Semester, 2001 and is being offered again in 2002. This new course provides students with the fundamentals necessary to enable them to successfully apply optics in their respective majors. Students learn applied optics through a sequence of multidisciplinary laboratory experiences. This course was adapted from a similar course in the Optical Science and Engineering Program, New Jersey Institute of Technology. During Fall Semester 2001, seventeen students successfully completed the course. Interest in the course offering in the fall of 2002 is high. In general the course has awakened an interest in optics among engineering and science majors.

“What is computer engineering? What is the difference between computer engineering and computer science? What is the difference between electrical engineering and computer engineering? Why study computer engineering? What computer engineering programs are available in the U.S.? What opportunities are there after graduation? How much does a computer engineer get paid?”