MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Transcription

1 ARCEE 2013 LAGOS September 9, 2013 Improving ECE Education in developing Sub-Saharan African Countries Using the Mobile Studio Technology and Pedagogy MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY Yacob Astatke, Craig Scott, Kemi Ladeji-Osias, Ken Connor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

2 Outline Introduction Overview of MSU and our ECE program Current State of higher education in Africa Current State of higher education in Ethiopia Proposed Solution Collaboration Results of Collaboration with Ethiopian Univ. Future Work

3 Overview of MSU Morgan State University (MSU) is an HBCU located in Baltimore, Maryland ~8,000 students (Institution) ~1,100 students (Engr) ~500 students (ECE) MEB opened in 1991

4 Engineering at MSU Outstanding Engineering Program School of Engineering founded in 1984 Bachelor of Science Degrees (*ABET accredited) Civil* Electrical* Industrial* Transportation Systems (Fall 2009) SEB opened in 1998

5 Current State of Higher Ed in Africa Human capital is very important in today s global and highly competitive world. It is very critical for African nations to find, develop, and retain highly qualified workers in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) areas.

6 Current State of Higher Ed in Africa Africa has been losing 20,000 professionals per year since 1990 BRAIN DRAIN! Close to 500,000 African professionals currently reside outside their home continent what would happen even if 10% return back home to help their country?

7 Current State of Higher Ed in Africa Major shortage in in STEM : Why? Require advanced training for the instructors Expensive equipment to conduct the hands-on laboratories.

8 Current State of Higher Ed in Africa The lack of dependable laboratory equipment Universities focus more on the theoretical aspect of STEM education as compared to the practical applications. What is the solution?

9 Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia Ethiopia lost 75% of its skilled workforce between 1980 and 1991 University Capacity Building Program (UCBP) construction project of 13 universities at different sites throughout Ethiopia

10 Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia Goal is to increase the number of students from around 90,000 in 2010 to around 130,000 when the project is completed in 2015 The students will form the backbone of a qualified and adaptable human resource base that will drive Ethiopia s development forward.

11 Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia Key problem with ambitious goals lack of qualified and properly trained university teachers. Problem is worse in STEM areas that require specialized training and equipment that are very expensive to purchase and maintain.

12 Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia The impact of STEM education is also minimized and compromised when: the ratio between the available equipment and the number of students becomes high. Hawassa University s Institute of Technology (iotech-hu) has over 4,500 students in its seven engineering programs.

13 Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia ECE dept at AAiT has around 1000 students who are enrolled in second to fourth year courses that require the use of the laboratory equipment. Most ECE lab sessions have student/lab equipment ratio from 8/1 up to 20/1.

14 Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia Typical ECE department laboratory station (bench set-up) costs around $5,000 USD ($100,000 ETB) per station. A new laboratory classroom with 10 stations will cost costs around $50,000 USD ($1 Million ETB)

15 Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia The solution to such a problem is to either decrease the student/laboratory equipment ratio, or increase the availability of laboratory equipment. Can we achieve both goals? YES!!!

16 Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia The development and availability of state of the art portable teaching/training laboratory equipment has started making this vision a reality.

17 Proposed Solution Step#1: develop collaborations with higher education institutions in the developed nations Step#2: provide targeted training on new pedagogy and state of the art mobile laboratory technology

18 Proposed Solution I will present results of an on-going four year collaboration between the ECE departments of MSU and two universities in Ethiopia. This model can be replicated in other African nations

19 Portable ECE Lab Set-up Phase I Implementation of the Mobile Studio TM Technology and Pedagogy Project funded by the NSF in It involves 5 universities Goal: to enable hands-on exploration of STEM education principles.

20 Portable ECE Lab Set-up Phase I Implementation of the Mobile Studio TM Technology and Pedagogy It is a small, and inexpensive ($150) hardware platform for use in a home, classroom or remote environment. Advantage it replaces a rack of equipment that is equivalent to $5,000 to $10,000 USD.

21 Portable ECE Lab Set-up Phase I Implementation of the Mobile Studio TM Technology and Pedagogy The I/O Board contains 6 EE lab instruments Key issue: device is USB powered Max Voltage is: +4V or 4 Volts. We also use 9V batteries

22 Results of Collaboration with Ethiopian Universities MSU has been collaborating with four Ethiopian universities for the past 4 years MSU donated 60 Mobile Studio Boards and 15 laptops to the 5 universities through grants from Analog Devices Inc (ADI) in 2012

23 Results of Collaboration with Ethiopian Universities Some universities use the new equipment to strengthen 2 nd to 4 th year lab courses. Other universities use the new equipment to allow their 5 th year students to work on advanced senior year projects.

24 Results of Collaboration with Ethiopian Universities The MS boards have improved the ECE lab experience of close to 500 students per year in five universities. I will present three examples to show how 5 th year students from AAiT used the new equipment. Students work on advanced projects in groups of 3 to 5 students.

25 Results of Collaboration with Ethiopian Universities Project#1: Clamp activated Switch Project They used the spectrum analyzer function to observe the sampled audio input from the microphone and analyze its general properties in the frequency domain.

26 Results of Collaboration with Ethiopian Universities Project#2: Induction Machine Test Project The students needed equipment that can supply signals with specific phase differences to test a phase detection circuit they designed.

27 Results of Collaboration with Ethiopian Universities Project#3: Vector-Cardiographic (VCG) Imaging System Goal of their project was to design system for displaying the VCG of a human heart The key problem was that they only had access to very poor quality metallic electrodes Solution#1: They downloaded ECG recordings of a real patient from a medical database.

28 Results of Collaboration with Ethiopian Universities Project#3: Vector- Cardiographic (VCG) Imaging System Solution#2: they analyzed the clinically pre-recorded ECG signals through the two output ports of the MS-IOBoard

29 Results of Collaboration with Ethiopian Universities iotech-hu implementation of MS-IOBoard They used it to expand the lab. equipment used in sophomore and junior level courses. Goal: they significantly decreased the student to lab equipment ratio from 20- to-1 to 5-to-1.

30 Results of Collaboration with Ethiopian Universities

31 Results of Collaboration with Nigerian Universities Pre-Conference planning for the 5 th African Regional Conference in Engineering Education (ARCEE 2013)

32 Conclusion The implementation of the MS-IOBoard technology and pedagogy has greatly enhanced and improved the learning experience of ECE students enrolled at five universities in Ethiopia Senior students at AAiT explored and discovered the various advanced features of the MS-IOBoard on their own.

33 Conclusion We plan to conduct similar workshops at the ARCEE 2013 Conference in Lagos Nigeria in September 9-12, Morgan State is working with the Global Engineering Dean s Council (GEDC) and the International Federation of Engineering Education Socities (IFEES)

34 Future Work Our goal is to replicate this approach at various universities throughout Africa. Growing the Future, and Leading the World!!! QUESTIONS???

35 References J. Bourne, D. Harris, F. Mayadas, Journal of Engineering Education 9, (2005) Y. Astatke, J. Ladeji-Osias C. J. Scott, Developing and Teaching Sophomore Level Electrical Engineering Courses Completely Online, Journal of Online Education, Vol. 2, No. 2, Dutton, J. D.; Dutton, M.; Perry, J. How do Online Students Differ from Lecture Students? JALN. Vol. 6, no.1, July. (2002) E. Allen, J. Seaman, Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011, The Sloan Consortium, published November 2011 L. Ragan, C. Sax, Defining and Implementing Quality Assurance Standards in Online Courses, EDUCAUSE 2005, October in Orlando, Florida D. Millard, M. Chouikha, and F. Berry, "Improving Student Intuition via Rensselaer s New Mobile Studio Pedagogy", ASEE 2007 Annual Conference, Honolulu, HW, June 2007

36 Online ECE Course Design Phase I Implementation of the Mobile Studio TM Technology and Pedagogy

37 Online ECE Course Design Phase I Implementation of the Mobile Studio TM Technology and Pedagogy

38 Online ECE Course Design Phase I Implementation of Online Labs on Filter Design using the Agilent X Series Scopes with LAN Access ($1,000 USD)

39 Online ECE Course Design Phase I Implementation of Online Labs on Filter Design using the Agilent X Series Scopes with LAN Access

40 Online ECE Course Design Phase I Implementation of Online Labs on Filter Design using the Agilent X Series Scopes with LAN Access

41 Online ECE Course Design Phase I Implementation of Online Labs on Filter Design using the Agilent X Series Scopes with LAN Access 0 Gain(dB) vs Frequency(Hz)

42 Online ECE Course Design Phase I Implementation of the Mobile Studio TM Technology and Pedagogy We tested the new technology and pedagogy on face to face (F2F), i.e. regular students for 2 years. Students completed their design projects at home, in their dormitories, or in the library.

43 Online ECE Course Design Phase I Implementation of the Mobile Studio TM Technology and Pedagogy Advantage for students freedom to work on design projects anywhere/anytime. Advantage for department decreases the wear and tear on expensive equipment.

44 Online ECE Course Design Phase I Comparison of Portable ECE Lab equipment MS Board (RPI) $150 MyDaq (TI) $200-$250 Electronics Explorer (Digilent) $199 - $250 Agilent X-Series Scope+FG $1,000 Analog Discovery (Digilent) $99 - $150

45 Online ECE Course Design Phase II Implementation of the Panapto Focus TM lecture capture technology Evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of synchronous and asynchronous modes of content delivery Goal: make the course content and experience of online students as close as possible to the F2F students

46 Online ECE Course Design Phase II Implementation of the Panapto Focus TM lecture capture technology We used it to capture and record a synchronized version of the text (using PowerPoint), audio, and video from the daily lectures of the F2F ECE courses. Goal: allow online students to follow the lectures and class discussions that occur in the regular courses.

47 Online ECE Course Design Phase II Implementation of the Panapto Focus TM lecture capture technology The online students follow the lessons at their own pace and time: live stream or podcasts They can also send their questions to the instructor using , video conferencing, chat rooms, or over the telephone.

48 Online ECE Course Design Phase II Implementation of the Panapto Focus TM lecture capture technology

52 Online ECE Course Design Phase III Implementation of the Adobe Connect TM video conferencing software To allow the online students to complete their project and laboratory experiment demonstrations completely online. Course instructor can schedule an online project or laboratory experiment demonstration time with students.

53 Online ECE Course Design Phase III Implementation of the Adobe Connect TM video conferencing software

58 Portable ECE Lab Set-up Phase I Implementation of the Mobile Studio TM Technology and Pedagogy The MS-Board contains the 6 different instruments 1. 2 Channel Scope & Function Generator 2. +4V & -4V DC power supplies Digital I/O ports & Spectrum Analyzer

59 Portable ECE Lab Set-up Course Development Approach Phase I - Implementation of the Mobile Studio TM Technology and Pedagogy Phase II - Implementation of the Panopto Focus TM Lecture Capture technology Phase III - Implementation of the Adobe Connect TM Video Conferencing software

60 Portable ECE Lab Set-up Adobe Connect Mobile Studio Core and Lab Courses Panopto Focus Blackboard Searchlight

61 Engineering at MSU The availability of low cost portable instrumentation allows us to offer our program fully online (last 2 years) MSU offers to first and only completely online ECE program in the State of MD