ECE 145

https://canvas.illinois.edu

This course will provide resources for first-year students to apply electrical and computer engineering concepts to an open-ended project design in their first year on campus. Students will generally work in teams of two to three students to plan and execute the project, resulting in a working prototype.

• The Engineering Design Algorithm
• Project ideation
• Top-down and bottom-up design
• Functional decomposition
• Useful circuits for design
• Intro to state machines for design
• Efficient and effective breadboarding
• Schematics and simulation for design
• Research documentation for analysis, validation, and education

Students will prepare research journal entries every two weeks. Those entries will be used to produce midterm and end-of-term written reports and video-recorded demonstrations.

Students will first complete a procedural mini-project in the first weeks of the semester as they learn fundamental skills in the discipline. Once the mini-project is completed, students will work on their open-ended project design producing journal entries, midterm, and final written reports and demonstration videos.

DC Power Supply

Function Generator

Benchtop and Handheld Multimeters

Oscilloscope

https://falstad.com/circuit, LTspice, or other circuit simulator. Onshape CAD design for (optional) 3D printing.

Students must be co-enrolled in either ECE 110 or ECE 120.

Required: None

Recommended: Practical Electronics for Inventors, 4th Ed. by Scherz and Monk

Elective.

ECE 145 is a freshmen design course. Students will construct a first-year appropriate design project using hardware circuitry like that used in first-year courses ECE 110 and/or ECE 120. They will use project ideation techniques to generate high-level open-ended project ideas. Through discussion, they will form teams then convert a broad project idea into well-defined modular components to place structure to the design process. Each modular component will be described by a circuit diagram, constructed, and individually validated for proper operation using appropriate tools of the trade, including benchtop power supplies and oscilloscopes before being assembled to complete the design. There is an emphasis on engineering design utilizing ECE concepts, documentation of research, and application of the engineering tools and methods learning in the co-requisite courses. Students will learn to document the successes, failures, and challenges of the project and to place more focus on the journey of discovery and less focus on the final “product.” The progress is cataloged in a weekly journal and regular analysis aids to complete a report and generate a team presentation video. The teams will then provide, in person, a brief demonstration of their completed work and each teammate will answer questions and provide measurements as requested.

By the end of week 4, students working in teams will have:

• ideated a project (ABET 1, 5),
• diagramed a flowchart to describe the tasks required to achieve that project (ABET 1, 3),
• constructed an approximate circuit schematic for implementing the functions of the flowchart (ABET 1, 3, 6),
• generated a parts list and cost analysis (ABET 1, 2), and
• provided a timeline complete with three or more milestones to mark achievements of the project (ABET 1, 6).

By the end of week 5, students working individually (but consulting in pairs) will:

• have completed a partially guided mini-project where they build circuit modules (ABET 6, 7),
• locate and report important information from multiple component datasheets (ABET 6, 7),
• analyze circuit behavior using an oscilloscope (ABET 6, 7),
• validate the anticipated behavior of circuit modules (ABET 6), and
• revise the design where deviations from the intended solution exist (ABET 1, 7).

By the end of week 10, students working in teams will have:

• built circuit modules (ABET 5, 6, 7),
• leveraged information from additional component datasheets (ABET 6, 7),
• analyzed circuit behavior using an oscilloscope (ABET 6, 7),
• validated (or invalidated) the behavior of circuit modules (ABET 6), and
• Revised their own design as needed to move toward their intended solution (ABET 1, 7).
• They will also have completed five journal entries where, as a team, they report on their successes and failures (ABET 5, 6), present analysis and conclusions (ABET 6), propose and implement pivots on their designs (ABET 7), and propose a plan for the following week (ABET 5).

By the end of week 11, students working in teams will have compiled three journal entries into a mid-term report demonstrating the structured progression of their timeline and any achieved milestones such that the focus is on the process of research (ABET 1, 3, 5, 6).

By the end of the course, the students working in teams will have completed a final report and a video demonstration appropriate for a technical audience that again focuses on the process of research through the validation of modules and careful builds, test and measurement, evaluation, and pivoting the design as needed (ABET 3, 5, 6, 7). In an in-class presentation, the students, working in teams, will demonstrate the working (or mostly working) prototype of their design in a short, high-level presentation appropriate for the general public (ABET 3). The students of that team will then be asked to demonstrate specific measurements or answer specific questions regarding the prototyped device (ABET 3, 6).

Tutorials provided throughout the semester will emphasize the need for lifelong learning (ABET 7) and provide students with additional skills (ABET 1, 7) that might be applied to their projects as desired or needed.