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Autonomous Vehicles: A Hands-On Interdisciplinary Freshman Course

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Conference

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Vancouver, BC

Publication Date

June 26, 2011

Start Date

June 26, 2011

End Date

June 29, 2011

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Mechanical and Architectural Engineering Laboratories

Tagged Division

Division Experimentation & Lab-Oriented Studies

Page Count

13

Page Numbers

22.271.1 - 22.271.13

DOI

10.18260/1-2--17552

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/17552

Download Count

434

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Paper Authors

biography

Nancy K Lape Harvey Mudd College

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Nancy K. Lape is an Assistant Professor of Engineering and Director of the Patton and Claire Lewis Fellowship in Engineering Professional Practice at Harvey Mudd College. She received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her research focuses on energy-efficient composite gas separation membranes, chemical transport across human skin, and engineering education.

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David L Harris Harvey Mudd College

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Prof. David Money Harris received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in Electrical Engineering and his M.Eng. and S.B. degrees from MIT in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics. His professional interests include integrated circuit design, computer arithmetic, and hands-on engineering education.

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Matthew Joseph Keeter Harvey Mudd College

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Matthew is a senior engineering major at Harvey Mudd College, focusing on electrical and computer engineering. He is planning to continue his education in graduate school, focusing on robotics and the interface between the digital and physical worlds.

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Madeleine S Ong Harvey Mudd College

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Madeleine Ong is a senior general engineering major at Harvey Mudd College, focusing on digital and chemical engineering. Her technical interests include digital circuit design, VLSI, computer architecture as well as physical chemistry and transport phenomena.

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Zachary Dodds Harvey Mudd College

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Zachary Dodds has been a professor of computer science at Harvey Mudd College since 1999. His interests include vision-based robotics and computer science education.

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Abstract

Autonomous Vehicles: A Hands-On Interdisciplinary Freshman CourseThe  authors  have  recently  developed  a  new  first-­‐semester  freshman  elective,  Autonomous  Vehicles,  as  a  hands-­‐on  interdisciplinary  introduction  to  mechanical,  chemical,  electrical,  and  computer  engineering,  computer  science,  design,  controls,  and  energy.  Course  goals  include  exposing  students  to  many  facets  of  engineering  and  computer  science  to  aid  in  major  choice,  developing  practical  technical  skills  relevant  to  subsequent  projects,  generating  enthusiasm  for  future  studies,  and  developing  teamwork,  design,  presentation,  and  technical  writing  skills.  Through  a  series  of  labs,  the  students  design,  build,  test,  and  optimize  autonomous  robots  to  compete  in  a  “Capture  the  Flag”  style  game.  These  labs  cover  C  programming,  drawing  and  3D  printing  a  robot  chassis,  assembling  a  customized  microcontroller  circuit  board,  building  sensor  circuits,  machining  and  characterizing  hydrogen  proton  exchange  membranes  (PEM)  fuel  cells,  and  generating  and  detecting  Gold  codes.  This  paper  will  describe  the  course  structure  and  content  and  summarize  assessment  results  from  the  Fall  2010  pilot  course.  

Lape, N. K., & Harris, D. L., & Keeter, M. J., & Ong, M. S., & Dodds, Z. (2011, June), Autonomous Vehicles: A Hands-On Interdisciplinary Freshman Course Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--17552

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