Collaborative Research: A Systems-Centric Foundation for Electrical and Computer Engineering Education

参与组织：北亚利桑那大学佛蒙特大学和南弗罗里达州立农业学院夏威夷大学明尼苏达大学双子城项目该项目正在开发一种率先整合电路和系统概念的教育模式，为电气和计算机工程(欧洲经委会)学生形成一套新的概念基石。其目标是通过将其主题与相关和引人注目的挑战联系起来，同时向学生介绍基本的系统思维原则，激发和丰富欧洲经委会基础课程《电路》的学习经验。该项目的重点是健康、能源和环境三个广泛的领域，所有这些领域都非常重要，并为学生提供了吸引人的、相关的应用领域。正在开发用于电路课程的原型学习模块，以提高学生的兴趣并提高他们从复杂系统角度思考的能力。BROADER SIGNIFICANCE多所大学的合作伙伴关系带来了多个电气工程学科的专业知识。该项目团队在提供这种以系统为中心的方法并在无线传感器网络设计课程中产生积极成果方面具有经验。这一努力使团队能够在另一个课程领域的较低学术水平上扩展和进一步测试这一有希望的方法，这可能会导致一个可扩展的模型。参与该项目的五个机构正在协调和实施这一努力，涉及不同的工科学生群体和地点，从而提供了广泛接触和影响的潜力。该项目正在为如何开发工程课程材料创造一个模式，这些材料可以被广泛的、不受地理限制的大学使用。

PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS:Northern Arizona UniversityUniversity of Vermont & State Agricultural CollegeUniversity of South FloridaUniversity of HawaiiUniversity of Minnesota-Twin CitiesPROJECT DESCRIPTIONThis project is developing an educational model that pioneers the integration of circuits and systems concepts, forming a new set of conceptual cornerstones for electrical and computer engineering (ECE) students. The goal is to motivate and enrich the learning experience in a fundamental ECE course, Circuits, by connecting its topics to relevant and compelling challenges; while simultaneously introducing students to underlying systems-thinking principles.The effort is designing a systems-centric educational model for electrical and computing engineering courses in the context of developing electronic solutions for applied problems. The project focus is on three broad areas of health, energy, and environment, all of which are of great importance and provide students with engaging, relevant application arenas. Prototype learning modules are being developed for use in Circuits courses to increase student interest and improve their ability to think in terms of complex systems.BROADER SIGNIFICANCEThe multi-university partnership brings expertise in multiple disciplines of electrical engineering. The project team has prior experience in offering this systems-centric approach and producing positive results in a wireless sensor network design curriculum. This effort allows the team to extend and further test this promising approach at a lower academic level in another course area, which can lead to a model that can be scaled. The five institutions involved in the project are coordinating and implementing the effort across a diverse set of engineering student populations and locations, thus offering the potential for broad exposure and impact. The project is creating a model for how to develop engineering course material that can be adapted for use by a wide range of universities that are not limited by geographical constraints.