Improving Electronics Preparation at the Undergraduate Level

在四年制大学的本科阶段，模拟和数字电子学方面的扎实课程是非常必要的。模拟电子学课程是一次极好的实验室体验。除了这种普遍的吸引力之外，如果物理专业的学生对电子学有很好的了解，他们就会很好地找到工业岗位。对于那些攻读物理专业（以及越来越多的化学专业）的学生来说，在模拟电子学方面做好准备是很重要的，因为这些知识在研究实验室中被认为是理所当然的。以上这些都适用于数字电子学，此外，这也是大量主修计算机科学的学生所需要的。为了教好这些课程，每两个学生都应该掌握五件主要设备：双迹示波器，一个好的函数发生器，直流电源，频率计数器，对于更复杂的数字电路，一个逻辑分析仪。在过去，这两种仪器在物理上是独立的。Ripon通过收购IBM at的插拔板，集成了其中的四个（除了电源之外）。这将降低成本，更重要的是，它将允许对波形进行数字处理（主要是傅立叶分析），从而提高对实验进行定量分析的能力。该学院将提供等额的奖学金。//

There exists a real need for solid courses in analog and digital electronics at the undergraduate level in four year institutions. A course in analog electronics is an excellent laboratory experience. Beyond this general appeal, physics majors who intend to find industrial positions will be well served if they have a good understanding of electronics. For those students of physics (and increasingly chemistry) who go on to graduate school, good preparation in analog electronics is important in research laboratories where such knowledge is taken for granted. All of the above can be said for digital electronics, which, in addition, is required for substantial numbers of students taking a computer science major. To teach these classes well, every two students should have at their disposal five major pieces of equipment: a dual trace oscilloscope, a good function generator, a D.C. power supply, a frequency counter and, for more sophisticated digital circuits, a logic analyzer. In the past, each of these would be physically separate instruments. Ripon is integrating four of them (all but the power supply) by acquiring plug in boards for IBM ATs. This will reduce the cost and, more importantly, it will allow digital processing of the waveforms (principally Fourier Analysis) resulting in an increased ability to do quantitative analyses of experiments. The college is matching the award with an equal amount of funds.//