A New Application-Oriented Electronic Circuits Course for non-Electrical Engineering Students Using Arduino and NI VirtualBench

Hooman Rashtian; Jun Ouyang

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Conference: 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Publication Date: June 24, 2017
Start Date: June 24, 2017
End Date: June 28, 2017
Conference Session: Electrical and Computer Division Technical Session 6
Tagged Division: Electrical and Computer
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--27490
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/27490
Download Count: 809

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Paper Authors

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Hooman Rashtian University of California, Davis

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Hooman Rashtian received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada in 2013 and the M.Sc. and B.Sc. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran, in 2008, and 2006, respectively. He was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Davis MM-Wave Research Center (DMRC) at University of California, Davis from 2014 to 2016. Since July 2016, he has joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of California, Davis as a Lecturer with Potential Security of Employment (Teaching Professor). His teaching interests include circuit theory as well as analog, digital and RF electronic circuits and systems. His educational research interests include applying technology to design modern circuits courses and laboratories.

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Jun Ouyang University of California, Davis

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Jun Ouyang received two bachelor degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from University of California, Davis, CA, United States. He worked as an IT professional prior to his college years. He is currently a Master's student at University of California, Davis and works on designing analog integrated circuits. As a development teaching assistant, he works on designing modern laboratory materials for undergraduate electrical engineering students. In his spare time, he enjoys working on automating solutions for physical problems using different programming languages.

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Abstract

Teaching circuits to non-electrical engineering students has always been a challenging task since many of these students find the circuit theory difficult, abstract and unrewarding. This can be partly associated with the fact that oftentimes the first circuits course that is offered to non-electrical engineering students (Circuits I), is the same as the one offered to electrical engineering students. While in Circuits I students learn about the basic circuit theory, many of them may find the specific arrangement of the circuits elements in most of the circuits that they study, random and arbitrary. Consequently, they do not appreciate the importance and applications of the theory which is taught to them and thus lose their interest in circuits.

A good opportunity to win back students’ interest in learning circuits, is the second circuits course which for non-electrical engineering students can be an introduction to electronic circuits and systems. In this research experiment, we have designed a new application-oriented course which provides students with insight in the application and role of circuits in larger systems. Considering that most of the non-electrical engineering students need to learn how to build circuits for instrumentation applications, the course is structured to be about different building blocks of a practical measurement system. In the lectures, the instructor starts with different types of sensors followed by sensor circuits, analog (op-amp) amplifiers, analog signal processing circuits and filters, basics of analog-to-digital conversion (ADC), digital signals and digital logic circuits with an emphasis in their applications in an instrumentation system. In the laboratory, students work on individual building blocks of a light meter and at the end, they connect the different building blocks together to build a system that can show the light intensity on scale of 0 to 9 on a 7-segment display. The availability of Arduino-based boards such Teensy 3.2 which are extremely easy to work with, provides the opportunity to have the students work on the full chain of blocks in a sensor system and build a circuit that completes a meaningful task. Moreover, the adoption of National Instruments VirtualBench, facilitates a more efficient measurement experience in the laboratory. Based on the early feedback results, students have shown to be more interested in learning circuits and are more motivated in the lectures and lab sessions. A student survey will be conducted at the end to provide preliminary results on the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Citation
Format

Rashtian, H., & Ouyang, J. (2017, June), A New Application-Oriented Electronic Circuits Course for non-Electrical Engineering Students Using Arduino and NI VirtualBench Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--27490

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Teaching circuits to non-electrical engineering students has always been a challenging task since many of these students find the circuit theory difficult, abstract and unrewarding. This can be partly associated with the fact that oftentimes the first circuits course that is offered to non-electrical engineering students (Circuits I), is the same as the one offered to electrical engineering students. While in Circuits I students learn about the basic circuit theory, many of them may find the specific arrangement of the circuits elements in most of the circuits that they study, random and arbitrary. Consequently, they do not appreciate the importance and applications of the theory which is taught to them and thus lose their interest in circuits. 

A good opportunity to win back students’ interest in learning circuits, is the second circuits course which for non-electrical engineering students can be an introduction to electronic circuits and systems. In this research experiment, we have designed a new application-oriented course which provides students with insight in the application and role of circuits in larger systems. Considering that most of the non-electrical engineering students need to learn how to build circuits for instrumentation applications, the course is structured to be about different building blocks of a practical measurement system. In the lectures, the instructor starts with different types of sensors followed by sensor circuits, analog (op-amp) amplifiers, analog signal processing circuits and filters, basics of analog-to-digital conversion (ADC), digital signals and digital logic circuits with an emphasis in their applications in an instrumentation system. In the laboratory, students work on individual building blocks of a light meter and at the end, they connect the different building blocks together to build a system that can show the light intensity on scale of 0 to 9 on a 7-segment display. The availability of Arduino-based boards such Teensy 3.2 which are extremely easy to work with, provides the opportunity to have the students work on the full chain of blocks in a sensor system and build a circuit that completes a meaningful task. Moreover, the adoption of National Instruments VirtualBench, facilitates a more efficient measurement experience in the laboratory. Based on the early feedback results, students have shown to be more interested in learning circuits and are more motivated in the lectures and lab sessions. A student survey will be conducted at the end to provide preliminary results on the effectiveness of the proposed approach.  

AU  - Hooman Rashtian
AU  - Jun Ouyang
CY  - Columbus, Ohio
DA  - 2017/06/24
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - A New Application-Oriented Electronic Circuits Course for non-Electrical Engineering Students Using Arduino and NI VirtualBench
UR  - https://strategy.asee.org/27490
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--27490
ER  -