Evolvable wireless laboratory design and implementation for enhancing undergraduate wireless engineering education

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Computer Science (31)The primary deliverable in this project is an easily replicable model of evolvable, low-cost Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based wireless communication and networking laboratories and associated teaching and learning materials. The target audiences for these learning materials are undergraduate students in wireless communication, mobile computing, and wireless sensor networks.The wireless laboratories being developed in this project are based on the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) boards that employ GNU software radio, a free software toolkit for the building of software radios designed to get code as close to the antenna as possible and to turn radio hardware problems into software problems. Laboratory-based resources being developed in this project include user manuals and teaching manuals. The project is pilot-testing the materials being developed to show their effectiveness in motivating, engaging, and enhancing student learning and skills.The project intends to transform education in wireless communication by blending prescribed and open-ended lab experiences where students work with tangible signals, wireless channels, and communication systems, thereby reinforcing mathematical theories and simulation examples and integrating concepts by building working systems.The laboratories in this project are low cost and portable, which makes the learning materials being developed accessible throughout the engineering education community, where the materials will be disseminated broadly.