Genuine lab experiences for students in resource constrained environments: The RealLab with integrated intelligent assessment.

Laboratory activities are indispensable for developing engineering skills. Computer Aided Learning (CAL) tools can be used to enhance laboratory learning in various ways, the latest approach being the virtual laboratory technique that emulates traditional laboratory processes. This new approach makes it possible to give students complete and genuine laboratory experiences in situations constrained by limited resources in the provision of laboratory facilities and infrastructure and/or where there is need for laboratory education, for large classes, with only one laboratory stand. This may especially be the case in countries in transition. Most existing virtual laboratories are not available for purchase. Where they are, they may not be cost friendly for resource constrained environments. Also, most do not integrate any form of assessment structure. In this paper, we present a very cost friendly virtual laboratory solution for genuine laboratory experiences in resource constrained environments, with integrated intelligent assessment

Modeling Solder Ball Array Interconnects for Power Module Optimization

PowerSynth is a software platform that can co-optimize power modules utilizing a 2D topology and wire bond interconnects. The novel 3D architectures being proposed at the University of Arkansas utilize solder ball interconnects instead of wire bonds. Therefore, they currently cannot be optimized using PowerSynth. This paper examines methods to accurately model the parasitic inductance of solder balls and ball grid arrays so they may be implemented into software for optimization. Proposed mathematical models are validated against ANSYS Electromagnetics Suite simulations. A comparison of the simulated data shows that mathematical models are well suited for implementation into optimization software platforms. Experimental measurements proved to be inconclusive and necessitate future work

Electromagnetic modelling of bundle of single-walled carbon nanotubes with circular geometry for antenna applications

This paper aims to present an effective electromagnetic (EM) modelling approach for circular bundle of single-walled carbon nanotubes (CBSWCNTs), based on the electrical conductivity, relative complex permittivity and linear distribution impedance by applying General Ohms law for this bundle. The equivalent single conductor material (ESCM) model for personification the CB-SWCNTs is presented in this paper. The main target of this modelling approach is to estimate and investigate the EM properties of CBSWCNTs using common EM engineering tool solver CST (MWS). For this purpose, the CB-SWCNTs and ESCM dipole antennas will be designed and implemented using CST (MWS). Mathematically, the equivalent conductivity model, relative complex permittivity and other parameters of the CB-SWCNTs will be derived in this paper and considered as equivalent material parameters for the ESCM. This modelling technique is expected to provide new avenues for designing different antenna structures

An Applied Electromagnetics Course with a Conceiving-Designing-Implementing-Operating Approach in Engineering Education

This paper describes and discusses the implementation of a project-based undergraduate course on applied electromagnetics in electronics engineering with a conceiving-designing-implementing-operating (CDIO) approach involving active project-based learning (PBL). The course, which requires a combination of mathematical and physics concepts for its completion, allows students to understand the principles of electromagnetic transmission theory in wireless communication systems. This paper presents the course proposal, its project description, and results hinting at the relationship with the CDIO process. The proposed projects allow students to engage in core concepts such as complex vectors, Maxwell’s equations, boundary conditions, Poynting\u27s theorem, uniform plane waves, reflection and transmission of waves, waveguides, cavity resonators, and computer-assisted design. The proposed methodology results suggest that students lowered their perception of the difficulty of the course, and most students recognized a better learning process of the core concepts for this course. In addition, students’ final course grades showed an average improvement of approximately 6% compared with the final grades of other groups with different methodologies

Electric potential and field calculation of charged BEM triangles and rectangles by Gaussian cubature

It is a widely held view that analytical integration is more accurate than the numerical one. In some special cases, however, numerical integration can be more advantageous than analytical integration. In our paper we show this benefit for the case of electric potential and field computation of charged triangles and rectangles applied in the boundary element method (BEM). Analytical potential and field formulas are rather complicated (even in the simplest case of constant charge densities), they have usually large computation times, and at field points far from the elements they suffer from large rounding errors. On the other hand, Gaussian cubature, which is an efficient numerical integration method, yields simple and fast potential and field formulas that are very accurate far from the elements. The simplicity of the method is demonstrated by the physical picture: the triangles and rectangles with their continuous charge distributions are replaced by discrete point charges, whose simple potential and field formulas explain the higher accuracy and speed of this method. We implemented the Gaussian cubature method for the purpose of BEM computations both with CPU and GPU, and we compare its performance with two different analytical integration methods. The ten different Gaussian cubature formulas presented in our paper can be used for arbitrary high-precision and fast integrations over triangles and rectangles.Comment: 28 pages, 13 figure

Bush Project Anthology Volume 1

Well over a decade ago, the late Ernest Boyer authored his much heralded work titled Scholarship Reconsidered, and academia quickly began to recognize a variety of meaningful scholarship activities including the scholarship of discovery, integration, application and teaching. Boyer insisted that the scholarship of teaching is a serious and very meaningful form of scholarship associated with what faculty members do to achieve success in the profession of teaching. He also insisted that the scholarship of teaching needs to be transformed from a very private form of scholarship to a much more public form of scholarship. The scholarship of teaching that Boyer sought to promote includes observations that we make as classroom professors regarding challenges to our effectiveness as teachers, our ideas for overcoming those challenges, steps we take to introduce changes in our teaching strategies, how we ultimately assess the results of those changes, what additional ideas for improved teaching effectiveness emerge and finally the sharing of this scholarship with our colleagues in a manner similar to how we ultimately assess the results of those changes, what additional idea for improved teaching effectiveness emerge and finally the sharing of this scholarship with our colleagues in a manner similar to how we share the scholarship of discovery. This publication is an initial effort of South Dakota State University to provide teaching faculty members a scholarship of teaching medium that will allow them to make public or to share their scholarship of teaching with colleagues on campus and beyond the walls of SDSU