Video games have emerged as a medium for learning by creating engaging environments, encouraging creative and deep thinking, and exposing learners to complex problems. Unfortunately, even though there are increasing examples of video games for many basic science and engineering concepts, similar efforts for higher level engineering concepts such…

This article describes an experiment that can be done in the classroom in a simple way, with the support of a "homemade" device or as a laboratory practice with the support of PASCO equipment. Through a theory-practice sequence, kinematic and dynamic equations were checked with qualitative and quantitative analysis, emphasizing the…

Learning and understanding physics requires more than studying physics texts. It requires doing physics. Doing research is a key opportunity for students to connect physical principles with their everyday experience. A powerful way to introduce students to research and technique is through subjects in which they might find interest. Presented is…

This column provides background science information for elementary teachers. When the author was young he used to think that the ideal design for a concert hall would contain walls that were composed of sound-absorbing material, like foam or egg cartons or such. He noticed, though, that this was not the case. Most concert halls contain curtains…

While highly cohesive groups are potentially advantageous they are also often correlated with the emergence of knowledge and information silos based around those same functional or occupational clusters. Consequently, an essential challenge for engineering organisations wishing to overcome informational silos is to implement mechanisms that…

In this article, we discuss the use of Pellerin's Four Dimension Leadership System (4-D) as a way to manage teams in a classroom setting. Over a 5-year period, we used a modified version of the 4-D model to manage teams within a senior level Software Engineering capstone course. We found that this approach for team management in a classroom…

ADCs (analog-to-digital converters), especially Pipeline and Sigma-Delta converters, are designed using complex architectures in order to increase their sampling rate and/or resolution. Consequently, the learning of ADC devices also encompasses complex concepts such as multistage synchronization, latency, oversampling, modulation, noise shaping,…

In this article, a course on high-frequency wireless communications systems is presented. With the 145-MHz baseband subsystem available from a prerequisite course, the present course emphasizes the design and implementation of the 2.45-GHz front-end subsystem as well as system integration issues. In this curriculum, the 2.45-GHz front-end…

The semiconductor industry is lacking qualified integrated circuit (IC) test engineers to serve in the field of mixed-signal electronics. The absence of mixed-signal IC test education at the collegiate level is cited as one of the main sources for this problem. In response to this situation, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at…

The current generation of students coming into food science and engineering programs is very visually oriented from their early experiences. To increase their interest in learning, new and visually appealing teaching materials need to be developed. Two diverse groups of students may be identified based on their math skills. Food science students…

An overview of a course on modeling and simulation offered at the Nanotechnology Engineering undergraduate program at the University of Waterloo. The motivation for having this course in the undergraduate nanotechnology curriculum, the course structure, and its learning objectives are discussed. Further, one of the computational laboratories…

Embedded systems have been applied widely, not only to consumer products and industrial machines, but also to new applications such as ubiquitous or sensor networking. The increasing role of software (SW) in embedded system development has caused a great demand for embedded SW engineers, and university education for embedded SW engineering has…

This paper reports on a novel approach taken by the author to the teaching of an Internet programming course targeted at final year diploma and second year degree students. The uniqueness of engineers and their identity is discussed, as is the self-constructed world and ways of knowing in which humankind operates. The novel approach to teaching a…

Presents a technique for the numerical inversion of Laplace Transforms and several examples employing this technique. Limitations of the method in terms of available computer word length and the effects of these limitations on approximate inverse functions are also discussed. (JN)

Discusses development of an analog simulation program for microcomputers similar to those available on mainframe computers. The program is interactive, more user-friendly than batch mode mainframe simulators in use, and has user help, error detection, and medium resolution graphics for presentation of system responses. (JN)