Integrated System-Level Design in Electrical Engineering

这个项目通过开发系统级设计项目来改革犹他大学的ECE项目，这些项目可以整合到单个课程中，也可以跨越多个课程。这极大地增强了项目的实验室成分。它建立在该系的一个特殊优势之上，该系已经拥有一流的工业赞助高级设计序列和具有强大系统设计项目的课程。通过这种变化，该项目是(1)增加学生的招收和保留，(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。该项目要求学生从上课的第一天起就使用他们在课堂上学到的大部分概念来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，并且在整个过程中与研究生结合在一起。在其他地方，他们正在帮助为一个新的儿童科学中心建造科学探索单元，经常在一个拓展环境中与高中生一起工作。在学期结束时，这些系统将被整合和测试。学生们很兴奋，很有动力，如果一个零件坏了，他们就会焦急地修理它。在某些情况下，两门或两门以上课程的系统被整合在一起，提醒学生上学期学了些什么。这是学生在课程中的体验，在整个课程中彻底整合了系统级设计，将本科生直接带入研究和发现过程的兴奋中，并与他人分享他们天生的兴奋和好奇心。

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.