Integrated System-Level Design in Electrical Engineering

该项目通过开发系统级设计项目来改革犹他州大学的ECE课程，这些项目将整合到各个课程中，并跨越多个课程。这大大加强了该计划的实验室组成部分。它是建立在该部门的一个特殊优势，该部门已经拥有一流的工业赞助的高级设计序列和课程，具有强大的系统设计项目。通过这种变化，该项目（1）增加学生的招募和保留，（2）增加学生的动机，（3）增加知识的获取和保留，（4）发展系统级设计的理解。该项目从上课的第一天开始就挑战学生，使用他们在课堂上学习的大部分概念构建一个简单但完整的系统。在某些课程中，这个项目是教授更大的研究计划的一部分，他们在整个过程中与研究生相结合。在其他地方，他们正在帮助建立一个新的儿童科学中心的科学发现单位，往往与高中生在一个外展环境。在学期结束时，这些系统正在进行集成和测试。学生们很兴奋，也很有动力，如果某个部分不起作用，他们会焦急地修复它。在某些情况下，两门或多门课程的系统被整合在一起，提醒学生上学期所学的内容。这是一门课程中的学生体验，该课程将系统级设计彻底整合到整个课程中，将本科生直接带入研究和发现过程的兴奋中，并与他人分享他们的自然兴奋和好奇心。

This project is reforming the ECE program at the University of Utah by developing system-level design projects to be integrated within individual courses and also spanning multiple courses. This is greatly enhancing the laboratory component of the program. It is building on a particular strength of the department, which already has a top-notch industrially-sponsored senior design sequence and courses with strong system design projects. Through this change, the project is (1) increasing student recruitment and retention, (2) increasing student motivation, (3) increasing knowledge acquisition and retention, and (4) developing system-level design understanding.The project challenges the students right from the first day of class, to build a simple but complete system using most of the concepts they are learning in the class. In some classes, this project is part of the professor's larger research program, and they are integrated with graduate students throughout the process. In others, they are helping to build science discovery units for a new children's science center, often working with high school students in an outreach environment. At the end of the semester, the systems are being integrated and tested. The students are excited and motivated, and if a part didn't work, they are anxiously fixing it. In some cases, systems from two or more courses are integrated together, reminding the students what it was that they learned last semester. This is the student experience in a curriculum that thoroughly integrates system-level design throughout the curriculum, bringing undergraduate students directly into the excitement of the research and discovery process, and sharing their natural excitement and curiosity with others.