ECE @ HSI Workshop Series: Session 1

Course and Laboratory Curriculum

Interventions

Workshop Session 1

For the first installment, we will host presentations and discussions on interventions to improve student engagement and learning in ECE Laboratories and Courses. These activities have the potential to add excitement to electrical and computer engineering topics, which can attract students into the field, as well as provide students a better understanding of their chosen major, while also instilling in them foundational skills, building teamwork, increasing confidence, and improving self-efficacy. Six educators innovating in this area will be highlight and will share their work as well as their perspectives and advice in implementing similar activities in the classroom. Workshop presentations will be pre-recorded for viewing before the workshop face to face discussion session. An interactive Question and Answer format during the workshop will allow the audience to further learn from these developments and gain insight in how to implement course and laboratory level activities.

This workshop is part of the planning process that will inform the development of the concept paper to establish the Coalition for Inspiration, Education and Research in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Hispanic Serving Institutions (ECE@HSI) with the overarching goal of increasing participation and graduation of Hispanic students in electrical and computer engineering.

This planning grant is funded by NASA’s Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) under award 80NSSC20K1769.

Pre-Recorded Video Presentations

Speaker:
Ken Connor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Speaker:
Hector Ochoa, Stephen F. Austin State University

Speaker:
Alan Johnston, Villanova University

Speaker:
Brian Skromme, Arizona State University

Speaker:
Jon Valvano, The University of Texas at Austin

Title:
Robotics System Learning Kit

Web site:
https://university.ti.com/programs/RSLK/

Videos:

Panelists

Ken Connor
Emeritus Professor Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering (ECSE)
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Kenneth Connor is an emeritus professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering (ECSE) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) where he taught courses on electromagnetics, electronics and instrumentation, plasma physics, electric power, and general engineering. His research involves plasma physics, electromagnetics, photonics, biomedical sensors, engineering education, diversity in the engineering workforce, and technology enhanced learning. He learned problem solving from his father (who ran a gray iron foundry), his mother (a nurse) and grandparents (dairy farmers). He has had the great good fortune to always work with amazing people, most recently the members and leadership of the Inclusive Engineering Consortium (IEC) from HBCU and HSI ECE programs and the faculty, staff and students of the Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications (LESA) ERC, where he was Education Director until his retirement in 2018. He was RPI ECSE Department Head from 2001 to 2008 and served on the board of the ECE Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) from 2003 to 2008. He is a Life Fellow of the IEEE.

Edward Char
Assistant Chair Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Villanova University

Mr. Edward Char has Bachelor of Arts in Electrical Engineering and Master of Electrical Engineering degrees from Villanova. He has been a faculty member of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Villanova where he is currently a Professor of the Practice and Assistant Chair of the ECE department. He is the faculty advisor for Villanova’s chapter of Eta Kappa Nu and has received 5 teaching awards in his time there.

Alan Johnston
Associate Teaching Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering
Villanova University

Dr. Alan B. Johnston has a Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He worked for over twenty-five years in the telecommunications and internet communications industry. He is on the faculty of Villanova University Electrical and Computer Engineering Department as an Associate Teaching Professor, where he is the faculty advisor of the Villanova University CubeSat Club and the Amateur Radio Club. He also serves as AMSAT’s Vice President for Educational Relations. He has written five technical books and holds eighteen US patents.

Hector Ochoa
Assistant Professor Electrical Engineering
Stephen F. Austin State University

Dr. Ochoa holds a bachelor's degree in physical sciences from Universidad de Guadalajara and a master's degree in physical sciences and doctoral degree in computer and electrical engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso. His research interests include remote sensing, radar signals and analysis of high velocity targets. Ochoa has been at SFA since 2016. Ochoa is conducting undergraduate research in the fields of twisted coiled polymer actuators, machine learning and neural networks, and FPGA programming. He is always looking for passionate, hard-working students for his research lab.

Chris Roberts
Assistant Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Texas at El Paso

Dr. R Chris Roberts is presently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). From 2017-2018 he was a Lecturer and Senior Research Associate at The University of Hong Kong (HKU). From 2013 to 2017 he served as a the Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) and from 2012 to 2013 he served as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in EEE at HKU. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in 2012. His dissertation work focused on the development of inkjet-printed gold microsystems. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Systems & Control Engineering at CWRU, in 2005 and 2006, respectively. At UTEP Dr Roberts directs the Convergent Microsystems Laboratory. His research interests focus on the use of conventional and additive manufacturing to realize sensors, MEMS and cyber-physical devices for energy, healthcare and robotics. He has authored or coauthored over 42 publications and is a member of IEEE, Materials Research Society, the Surface Mount Technology Association and Eta Kappa Nu.

Brian Skromme
Professor Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering
Arizona State University

Brian J. Skromme is a Professor in the School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering at Arizona State University, which he joined in 1989. He was Assistant Dean in Academic & Student Affairs of the Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU from 2011-2019, and a Member of Technical Staff at Bellcore from 1985 to 1989. He holds a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (with high honors) and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has over 120 refereed publications in the areas of compound semiconductor materials & devices, and in the development of educational software for engineering education. His primary current focus is on the development of a step-based tutoring system for linear circuit analysis.

Jon Valvano
Professor Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Jon Valvano is a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and holds the Engineering Foundation Centennial Teaching Fellowship in Electrical Engineering.Jon Valvano received his S.B. and S.M. degrees in computer science and electrical engineering from MIT in 1977. He received his Ph.D. in medical engineering from Harvard-MIT, Division of Health Science and Technology in 1981. He joined the faculty at The University of Texas at Austin in 1981 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1986, and full professor in 1994. Dr. Valvano holds an Engineering Foundation Centennial Teaching Fellowship in Electrical Engineering. He has received several teaching awards and authored eight widely-used textbooks on embedded microcomputer systems.

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