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、州立农业学院、南佛罗里达大学、夏威夷大学、明尼苏达大学双城分校项目描述该项目正在开发一种教育模式，该模式是电路和系统概念集成的先驱，为电气和计算机工程（ECE）学生形成一套新的概念基石。目标是通过将其主题与相关和引人注目的挑战联系起来，激励和丰富欧洲经委会基础课程电路的学习经验；同时向学生介绍系统思维的基本原理。在开发应用问题的电子解决方案的背景下，努力为电气和计算工程课程设计一个以系统为中心的教育模式。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，并为学生提供了引人入胜的相关应用领域。原型学习模块正在开发中，用于电路课程，以提高学生的兴趣，并提高他们在复杂系统方面的思考能力。更广泛的意义多所大学的合作伙伴关系带来了电气工程多个学科的专业知识。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先前的经验。这项工作允许团队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个有前途的方法，这可以导致一个可以缩放的模型。参与该项目的五所院校正在协调和实施各种工程学生群体和地点的努力，从而提供广泛曝光和影响的潜力。该项目正在为如何开发工程课程材料创造一种模式，这种材料可以被广泛的大学使用，而不受地理限制。

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.