Enhancing Undergraduate Education in Signals and Signal Processing using Advanced UltraWideband Technology

项目描述超宽带（UWB）是一种无线电技术，可以在非常低的能量水平上运行，用于使用大部分无线电频谱的短距离高带宽通信。该技术为下一代消费电子设备的未来连接需求提供了一种解决方案，这是当今无线局域网和WPAN技术无法满足的。高带宽、高保真度、低功耗、低成本和紧凑的物理尺寸使UWB成为实现无线连接的理想选择，也是电气工程师学习信号和信号处理基本概念的实用仪器平台的理想选择。该项目通过将高性能超宽带仪器的最新进展纳入实验室，以提高学生的学习能力，从而加强电气工程本科教育。这种方法允许信号和信号处理中的关键基本概念（例如，脉冲响应，调制，时域/频域对偶性，采样，信号正交性，相关性和滤波）从使用UWB技术的数学理论中出现，并在实践实验中实现。该项目旨在为学生提供独特的实际技术实践，将信号和信号处理概念与系统性能之间的点联系起来。学生们渴望这些实践练习，这样他们就能看到“大局”，并理解为什么学习这些概念是重要的。这个实验室填补了课程中一个长期被忽视的空白。该项目有望通过实际实验室环境中的经验弥合理论信号处理概念与无线操作之间的差距。作为未来的雇员或研究生研究员，学生可以立即参与设计过程，这通常是一种罕见的商品。行业提供的外部反馈促进了沟通，从而使课程内容与当前技术趋势更好地结合起来。最后，在项目期间开发的目标材料增加了其他机构采用课程的可能性。

PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS: University of Alabama in HuntsvillePROJECT DESCRIPTION UltraWideband (UWB) is a radio technology that operates at a very low energy level for short-range, high-bandwidth communications using a large portion of the radio spectrum. The technology offers a solution to the future connectivity needs of the next -generation consumer electronic devices that cannot be met with today's wireless LAN and WPAN technologies. The attributes of high bandwidth, high fidelity, low power, low cost, and compact physical size which make UWB ideal for enabling wireless connectivity is also ideal for a hands-on instrumentation platform for learning the basic concepts in signals and signal processing for an electrical engineer. This project is enhancing undergraduate education in electrical engineering by incorporating recent advances in high performance UWB instrumentation into laboratories to improve student learning. This approach allows key fundamental concepts in signal and signal processing (e.g., the impulse response, modulation, time-domain/frequency-domain duality, sampling, signal orthogonality, correlations, and filtering) to emerge from mathematical theory using the UWB technology and materialize in hands-on experiments.The project is addressing the need to provide students unique hands-on practice with real-world technology to connect the dots between signal and signal processing concepts and system performance. Students crave these practical exercises so they can see the "big picture" and understand why learning these concepts is important. This laboratory fills a void in the curriculum that has been long overlooked. BROADER SIGNIFICANCE The project holds promise to bridge the gap between theoretical signal processing concepts and wireless operations via experiences in a practical laboratory environment. As future employee or graduate researchers, the students can immediately engage in the design process, an often-rare commodity. External feedback provided by industry is facilitating a line of communication, which is creating a better alignment of course content with current technology trends. Finally, the targeted materials developed during the project increase the likelihood of curriculum adoption by other institutions.