Leveraging the final project to improve student motivation in introductory digital design courses

Student retention rates in engineering, especially among traditionally underrepresented groups, remain an obstacle to training a large, diverse engineering workforce. The NSF\u27s Science and Engineering Indicators 2016 indicate that of students entering college with an intent to major in engineering, only 63% graduate with an engineering degree [1]. With research suggesting that misperceptions or a lack of knowledge about what work in a certain field is like can deter students from studying that discipline [2], [3], it is possible that providing a meaningful project experience at the introductory level could provide a strong positive impact on retention rates. This could be especially true for disciplines like Digital Design, where students of have little to no exposure to the discipline before starting college. This paper discusses my work to develop a representative design project for introductory digital design students with the goal of increasing retention. My work uses the framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) [4] to design a project with the potential for increasing a student\u27s intrinsic motivation for pursuing their studies in engineering and digital design in particular. I use adapted versions standard SDT survey instruments, such as the Perceived Competence for Learning Scale (PCS) [5] and the Self Regulation in Learning Questionnaire (SRQ-L) [6], to determine whether my project is having the desired effect and to what extent. The preliminary results of my work show that my introductory digital design project improved one measure of Perceived Competence-“I feel confident in my ability to learn this material.”-by almost 15% with a significance of P = 0.05. There was no statistically significant change in student responses to the PCS as a whole, however, and the extent to which students experienced controlled regulation as measured by the SRQ-L was unchanged (P = 0.003)

Leveraging the final project to improve student motivation in introductory digital design courses

Student retention rates in engineering, especially among traditionally underrepresented groups, remain an obstacle to training a large, diverse engineering workforce. The NSF\u27s Science and Engineering Indicators 2016 indicate that of students entering college with an intent to major in engineering, only 63% graduate with an engineering degree [1]. With research suggesting that misperceptions or a lack of knowledge about what work in a certain field is like can deter students from studying that discipline [2], [3], it is possible that providing a meaningful project experience at the introductory level could provide a strong positive impact on retention rates. This could be especially true for disciplines like Digital Design, where students of have little to no exposure to the discipline before starting college. This paper discusses my work to develop a representative design project for introductory digital design students with the goal of increasing retention. My work uses the framework of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) [4] to design a project with the potential for increasing a student\u27s intrinsic motivation for pursuing their studies in engineering and digital design in particular. I use adapted versions standard SDT survey instruments, such as the Perceived Competence for Learning Scale (PCS) [5] and the Self Regulation in Learning Questionnaire (SRQ-L) [6], to determine whether my project is having the desired effect and to what extent. The preliminary results of my work show that my introductory digital design project improved one measure of Perceived Competence-“I feel confident in my ability to learn this material.”-by almost 15% with a significance of P = 0.05. There was no statistically significant change in student responses to the PCS as a whole, however, and the extent to which students experienced controlled regulation as measured by the SRQ-L was unchanged (P = 0.003)

Exploring abstract interfaces in system-on-chip integration

Modern mobile devices are marvels of computation. They can encode high defnition video, processing and compressing over 350MB/s of image data in real time. They have no trouble driving displays with as much resolution as a full laptop, and smartphone manufacturers boast of running games with console quality graphics. Mobile devices pack all of this computational power into a 12\ handheld package by integrating a number of specialized hardware accelerators (IP) along with conventional CPU and GPUs in a system on chip (SoC). Unfortunately, creating these specialized systems is becoming increasingly expensive. Since hardware accelerators come from a number of different sources and design cycles, different accelerator blocks will often contain incompatible hardware interfaces. Therefore, a large portion of SoC design cost comes in the form of designers manually interfacing each accelerator into a system. This work includes everything from building custom logic to wire up a block, to developing the drivers and API needed to take advantage of the hardware. My research focuses on generating these interfaces, including the physical hardware used to tie IP blocks into a system and the associated software collateral. Leveraging recent trends such as High Level Synthesis and other hardware generator methodologies, I propose an IP interface abstraction and parameterization designed to describe the interface of most current IP blocks. By encoding this knowledge at a higher level of abstraction, I am able to construct and demonstrate a hardware generator that maps an interface protocol description into synthesizable register transfer language (RTL), and that can automatically create hardware bridges between different interconnect standards. iv To ease the integration of the next generation of IP blocks-blocks that are automatically generated based of of user specification. I propose a set of interface primitives. \hen integrated into an IP generator, these primitives can automatically generate an interface that my interface system can tie to the rest of the system. I also demonstrate how the information stored in these types of primitives can be used to automatically generate a low level software driver that manages access to the IP blocks. Finally, I show how the simulation environment provided with an IP generator can be used to provide a domain appropriate application programming interface (API) to drive the software. Using an image signal processor generator as my platform, I demonstrate the construction of a map between the simulation software and hardware driver that enables a full one-button flow from algorithm development to applications running on specialized hardware within a working system

Instructables.com as a tool to improve student outcomes and promote community engagement (Work-in-progress)

Project-based Learning (PBL) has become a popular pedagogical tool in Engineering. Projects force students to put theory learned in lecture into practice, exposes students to some of the nonidealities of real systems (imperfect instruments, uncooperative systems, etc.) that are difficult to convey in lecture or homework, and ideally motivates students by showing how course material is related real-world engineering problems. This work discusses my preliminary and ongoing research into using Instructables.com—a user-content generated website of “Do It Yourself” tutorials—as a tool to help amplify the benefits students derive from PBL. Specifically, I require students to document their projects in an Instructable in lieu of a final report, and I encourage students to post their Instructable to Instructables.com. This work discusses three ways in which the use of instructables.com may improve PBL outcomes. First, instructables.com may improve students’ motivation for pursuing further study in the field of engineering. This belief is rooted in the framework of Self Determination Theory, which stresses the importance of a task’s “Relatedness” for developing intrinsic motivation. By using instructables.com as a motivation for project ideas and as a publication venue for project results, students can see how their work relates to work being done outside of academia. Second, by requiring students to write a step-bystep tutorial of their final project, the use of the “Instructable” format encourages students to reflect on their designs and design decisions, potentially improving student outcomes. Finally, this work briefly touches on how encouraging students to document their designs on instructables.com may lead to more interaction between the “maker” and engineering communities, thereby enhancing public awareness of the Engineering Profession

Group work versus informal collaborations: Student perspectives

A substantial body of research exists showing that, when implemented correctly, the use of group work in a class can improve student learning outcomes. When implemented incorrectly, however, group-based assignments can lead to dysfunction and inter-personal conflicts that can hamper overall student success. This problem can be especially acute in first and second year engineering fundamentals courses where advanced students who learn the concepts faster may end up completing—and reaping the benefits of—a lions-share of the group work. As the course material starts to build on itself, those students who initially underperformed in their group may lack the understanding to keep up with new material, and find themselves falling ever further behind. To avoid this issue, my study looks to the use of informal collaborations—where students are encouraged to seek help from and work with their classmates on an assignment, but are ultimately responsible for their own submission—as potential alternative to formal group assignments. I conducted my experiment in a sophomore-level Introductory Digital Design, a course that has traditionally required students to work in fixed pairs to complete a number of VHDL circuit modeling and design labs. For each lab, I required students to submit their own work, but I also encouraged students to seek help from and form informal collaborations with their classmates to model and verify their circuits. To further encourage students to form collaborations, I did not alter or reduce the scope of the lab assignments to account for the fact that students were no longer necessarily working in pairs. At the end of the course, I conducted an anonymous survey to measure student reactions to the use of informal collaborations versus traditional group work, and whether students still chose to work with their classmates to complete the labs. The survey also measured whether shifting from a group-submission model to an individual-assignment model produces undue strain on students. Data collected from my pilot course shows promising results. All respondents agreed that being responsible for each lab helped them to learn the material better. Additionally, 77% of respondents reported that being responsible for the lab increased their confidence in their ability to learn the material. All but one respondent either agreed or strongly agreed that they often collaborated with classmates to complete the assignment, indicating that students are still developing some of the interpersonal skills and peer learning techniques provided by formal group work

Engineering Students Coping With COVID-19: Yoga, Meditation, and Mental Health

In 2020, we conducted a nationwide online survey of undergraduate engineering students in the United States to examine how the novel coronavirus pandemic was affecting engineering students\u27 mental health and what strategies they were using to cope with mental health challenges. The survey was a compilation of validated mental health instruments that screen for depression, anxiety, somatoform disorders, eating disorders, non-specific psychological distress, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Given that prior research has shown that yoga and meditation can help people suffering from anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, we were interested in exploring the subset of respondents who said that they were using yoga and/or meditation to cope with mental health challenges during the pandemic. The research questions addressed in this paper are: 1) What are the demographic characteristics of students who used yoga and/or meditation to cope with mental health challenges of the 2020 novel coronavirus pandemic? and 2) Does the mental health of the students who used these strategies differ in any from the mental health of students who did not use yoga and meditation coping strategies? Based on 669 responses from students at 140 different universities, we found that there were 20 survey items for which the yoga/meditation group fared statistically significantly differently than the non-yoga/meditation group. These 20 items appeared in the screens for depression, anxiety, somatoform disorders, eating disorders, non-specific psychological distress, and post-traumatic stress disorder. For example, yoga and meditation practitioners were significantly less likely to have experienced feelings of hopelessness during the prior 30 days, as well as to have experienced feelings of being so depressed that nothing could cheer them up. A causative relationship cannot be claimed, but the correlations we found align with prior research showing that yoga and meditation can support many aspects of mental health

Mental Health in Engineering Education: Identifying Population and Intersectional Variation

Contribution: Screening rates for engineering students for several major and moderate mental health issues are reported, including unspecified psychological distress as captured by the Kessler 6 screening instrument; screening rates for depressive, anxiety, and eating disorders as measured by the patient health questionnaire (PHQ); and screening rates for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as measured by the primary care post-traumatic stress disorder (PC-PTSD) instrument. This work also explores how mental health issues affect different student demographic groups within engineering. Background: Anecdotal evidence has long suggested that stress and certain mental health issues are particularly acute in the field of Engineering, and some recent research has shown elevated rates of mental health issues at different institutions around the country. This article presents the results of a previously validated mental health survey conducted with first- and second-year students at eight universities. Intended Outcomes: A better understanding of which mental health issues affect engineering students as a population, and an understanding of what mental health disparities exist among different demographics in engineering. This information is intended to allow engineering programs, student groups, and other stakeholders to better target mental health resources for all engineering students. Application Design: This work combines several widely used population-scale mental health diagnostic tools into a single comprehensive survey instrument that was deployed to first- and second-year engineering students at eight universities nationwide. Findings: This study finds that 50% of respondents screening positive for a major mental health condition - including depression, anxiety, PTSD, an eating disorder, or major psychological distress - while only 16% of respondents report having ever received a diagnosis for a mental health condition. Women respondents are more likely to screen positive for anxiety disorders (4.4× for panic disorder, 2.2× for other anxiety, and 1.9× for PTSD) and major depressive disorder (2.3×) relative to men. Respondents reporting physical disabilities have significantly higher likelihoods of suffering from mental health issues than peers with no reported physical disabilities and are 2.9× more likely to screen positive for PTSD. Identifying as Hispanic was also a significant predictor of major depressive disorder (3.2×more likely) and PTSD (2.5× more likely)

Characterizing mental health and wellness in students across engineering disciplines

Anecdotal evidence has long supported the idea that engineering students have lower levels of mental health and wellness than their peers. It is often posited that the large number of courses, low overall retention, difficult courses, and the abundance of intensive engineering projects lead to an unhealthy work-life balance and eventually lower levels of mental health for this population. To date, however, there has been no comprehensive study on the prevalence and types of mental health conditions that afflict engineering students, or any data on whether certain disciplines within engineering may see a greater prevalence of certain mental health conditions among students than other disciplines. This paper presents the results of a one-year study performed at California Polytechnic State University to address the knowledge gap surrounding mental health across students in different engineering disciplines in higher education. For this study, the authors developed and administered a comprehensive mental health questionnaire to both undergraduate and graduate students across eleven different engineering disciplines. The instrument screens for likelihood of depression, anxiety, PTSD, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, and other major mental illnesses. An analysis of the data shows that while mental health and wellness issues are prevalent across all majors, specific disciplines appear to have very different mixes of conditions and issues affecting their students

Leveraging new platforms to provide students with a realistic SoC design experience

Recently there have been a slew of digital design products released that promise to simplify the task of giving students a real-world System-on-Chip (SoC) design experience. These “programmable SoCs” from companies such as Xilinx, Cypress, and Altera combine modern multi-core ARM processors connected to an FPGA through a widely used SoC interconnect standard. This paper discusses a Real Time Embedded System Course I designed that uses the Xilinx Zynq platform to give students first-hand experience with modern System-on-Chip design methodologies and the challenges that designers face in both hardware and software bring-up for a modern IP-based design. The first portion of this paper discusses how students were trained to use the Zynq platform. The first weeks of the class were dedicated to teaching students the basics of real-time system and custom hardware design. Students used a Zynq-based port of Free-RTOS to learn about Real-time operating systems. Through a series of laboratory assignments, students are taught how to interface the RTOS with custom hardware that they place on the FPGA portion of the chip. The course material developed for this portion of the class will be posted online so that other educators may use it in their teaching. The second part of this paper discusses some of the projects proposed and completed by students, and any difficulties the students faced along the way. From two weeks into the class, students are asked to form groups of up to four and propose a final project. For their final project, students are required to design and build a complete working system of their choice. Their final project is required to make use of both the processor running RTOS and at least one custom IP block running on the FPGA. In the final section of this paper I examine student feedback for the course, and comment on some of the challenges I faced in integrating the Zynq PSoC platform, and its corresponding development tools, into the classroom

Teaching systems and robotics in a four-week summer short course

This paper describes a four-week summer short-course designed to introduce students with limited hands-on technical experience to the low-level details of embedded systems and robotics. Students start the course using a Raspberry Pi 3 to learn the basics of Linux and programming, and end the course by competing in a capture-the-flag type competition with the web-configurable GPS-guided autonomous robots they designed and tested in the course. Throughout the course, students are introduced to programming languages including Python and PHP, advanced programming concepts such as using sockets for inter-process communication, data interchange formats such as JSON, basic API development, system concepts such as I2C and UART serial interfaces, PWM motor control, and sensor fusion to improve robotic navigation and localization. This course was offered to students for the first time in the summer of 2016, and though formal feedback collection was limited, informal feedback indicated that students found the course to be challenging, engaging, and beneficial to their overall understanding of engineering. The paper walks the reader through the background of this course. It then discusses the weekly lesson plans, supplemental material provided to the students, and our general strategy for teaching the course\u27s programming and system design concepts in such an accelerated time frame. Finally, the paper discusses the student and instructor reactions to the course, lessons learned, and suggestions for future offerings. The material developed for this course will be posted online so that other educators may use it in their teaching