The development of a hands-on course on "Computer Aided Experimentation and Instrumentation Techniques" is the second part of the engineering education reform project "Innovation of Basic Engineering Laboratory Curriculum". The project was initiated in 1994 in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of National Central University in Taiwan.

The main theme of this sub-project is the iterative process of "experimentation for hypothesis development." Two courses were developed under this sub-project. The first is an elective one semester course "Computer Aided Experimentation" which uses the computer simulation of interdisciplinary examples to demonstrate and to experience common ground knowledge and techniques applied in the process of experimentation, namely, hypothesis formulation, modeling, experiment design, data acquisition, data analysis, parameter estimation, hypothesis verification and improvements. The second is a mandatory one semester course "Electric and Electronic Circuits and Labs" which covers circuit analysis, electric machinery, basic electronic components, their applications, and "Computer Aided Instrumentation Techniques" emphasizing the verification of circuit models by the observed circuit responses.

Since these courses are all dense in materials, we pay special attention to teaching methods and the development of instructional technologies in order to encourage pro-active learning mood in the students to improve learning efficiency.

Key Words: engineering education reform, fundamental hands-on laboratory, computer aided experimentation, instrumentation

In Taiwan, political democratization has created pressure to make the higher education available to the general populace. The roles of many National Universities have been changed from educating only the elite students to those of median or even lower than average proficiency and interest in academic affairs. Therefore, we are getting more consciously aware that we are in a service business to produce useful human resources for the society, both the current and the future. We have to teach not only materials of advanced academic standing but also fundamental hands-on techniques of professional values. We have to make the class activities interesting to the students in order to improve learning efficiency. Our products should bear a life long warrantee and they shall not only be of current utilities but also become the catalyst to bring about future break through both technologically and sociologically.

The common complains about our products are:

1. inability to formulate concepts, nor to translate concepts into analytical terms, i.e., inability to solve practical problems,
2. lack of physical insight and hands-on experiences,
3. lack of the motivation, self confidence, and self respect to explore into new territories,
4. lack of the motivation and the discipline to guarantee the quality of works by verifying the results and thinking through ideas critically,
5. lack of the flexibility to employ a versatility of knowledge to solve problems from a holistic system point of view,
6. inability to convey ideas effectively and to work collectively as a team in order to bring out the best of the members.

In addition to making up the deficiencies above, we would also like to implant in our products the following:

1. the capability to apply computers for the efficiency in every aspect of the engineering life, e.g., automated engineering testing,
2. an engineering spirit to treasure the information and tools,
3. a life long curiosity and a hobby of life long learning.

Realizing that there is a lot to be implanted into our products in a short time, we need to be delicate on our approach. We need to be able to attract students' interest and coerce their mentality into a pro-active mode of learning. The approach is to devise efficient and reliable equipment, to select subjects which are versatile fascinating and daily life related, and, very importantly, to include only those contents which are fundamental and common to all engineering disciplines. The following are the approaches we adopted in developing the new courses as well as in renovating the existing ones.

1. Emphasize the universal applicability of not only the subjects but also the equipment to all disciplines as well as all the four years of their undergraduate lives and beyond.
2. Apply computers. Make computer a daily necessity of the students. Instructional materials such as lecture notes, the teacher's comments, examples, supplemental readings are on-line. All exercises involve computer simulation, computer data acquisition and analysis. All reports shall be written on computer by word processor and the results be e-mailed to the teacher. Only after you live and die with the computer, will you develop the gut feeling about how the hands-on works can become more efficient by applying computers properly.
3. Choose subjects which are of common utilities or are related to daily lives in order to inspire the association between the school works and their surrounding world. It may also improve the students' ability to translate concepts into analytical terms and to solve practical problems.
4. Apply modular approach [1,2,3] in order to drill the students for the entrepreneur instinct of "grasp the information and apply" with no fear. On each course subject, in addition to the course materials introducing the subject, there will be given at least two application examples. The two examples will be in different scientific or engineering disciplines with commonly known utilities. Minimal materials about the underlying physics will be provided, and the students will be assigned the exercise to simulate the utilization, measure the parameters and the performance of the actual implementations, and verify the provided information describing the supposedly underlying physics. That is, while the information provided by the teacher may be incomplete or misleading, the students have to discover the "bugs" through their assigned exercises.
5. Turn the lab into a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Center in order to coerce the students into adopting hands-on works as their life long hobby and also to appreciate and treasure the technical materials and tools as common wealth of all their peers. A collection of reference materials, sets of universal equipment, and other handy tools is provided in the laboratory for the students convenience. The students may work on both their course assignments as well as their extra-curricular projects. The collection of reference materials includes component data books, application notes, hobby magazines, trade magazines, manufacturer's registries, product catalogs, etc. The equipment may include a computer with data acquisition interface and network interface cards, a digital oscilloscope with RS232 port to transfer sampled data to the computer for analysis, a DC power supply, function generator, and multimeter, etc. The instruments are all contained in a mobile cabinet. The same equipment setup can also be adopted by all other lab courses. This is a good demonstration of universal applications and a way of self governance of group facilities for common wealth.
6. The most important of all, the teacher has to keep close eyes on the students and be a model and example to the youngsters to follow to be kin, faithful, and devoted to the engineering in life. The teachers of related courses have to orchestrate in coordination, upholding the same key hands-on principles, yet demonstrating a variety of styles.

Being inspired by the reasoning given above, we developed a concise series of fundamental hands-on courses as a prototype to experiment on how to improve the deficiencies of the existing courses. This concise series consists of three parts: the first part is "APPLICATION OF COMPUTER SOFTWARE IN ENGINEERING" for freshmen, and this second part is "Computer Aided Experimentation and Instrumentation Techniques" for sophomores, and the third part is "OPEN-ENDED ENGINEERING DESIGN, MANUFACTURING, AND TESTING" for junior and senior students.

The general philosophy and the impact of the reform program as a whole, together with the course contents and experiences of the first and third part of the project are discussed in a companion paper in this conference, "Innovation of Basic Engineering Laboratory Curriculum - A Spontaneous Bottom-Up Reform Initiated for Growth."

Briefly, the new courses are in a series. The first sub-project establishes in the students the capability of applying computer in their daily school life and the capability of programming as a training to solve engineering problems logically. The second sub-project establishes the student's capability of keen observation, objectivity, self consciousness, and basic hands-on instrumentation techniques. It also encourages the hobby of Do-It-Yourself. The third sub-project is a capstone exercise, a direct extension to the other fundamental hands-on courses. It serves as a collective conclusion and an examination on the effects of the reform efforts. In the rest of the paper, we will focus on the experiences and the contents of the second part. We will discuss the objectives, the approaches, the course contents, and the experiences and future improvements of the second sub-project.

Familiarize students with common experimentation and instrumentation techniques. Nurture Do-It-Yourself confidence and encourage students to take hands-on experiments as their hobby in their daily lives.

Use simple phenomena in various disciplines to demonstrate the common grounds in the process of experimentation for discovery: iterations of hypothesis, experiment design, data acquisition, data analysis, interpretation, hypothesis testing, verification and derivation.

• Common Grading standard: 60% for accuracy and the capture of the overall concepts, keywords and highlights, key logic, and reasonable results; 40% for detailed research, information collection and verification, and personal touches; extra bonus for creativity, special contributions to enhance group study environment, special tool maintenance and efficient resource management.
• Subject needs not be of advanced complexity. However, It is important to design a proper scenario and to put the context in good sense sophistication. It is also important to teach in such an enthusiasm that would arouse a psychological fume upon the students. This way the teacher and the students can remain in a tightly connected feedback loop.

• Application of computers in research, methodologies and common mistakes made in the experimentation for verifying hypothesis, the capacity of a modern engineer: devising tools, incubating creativity, experiments for verification, pro-active information gathering and application, diagnosing and resolving organizational difficulties, and experiencing a creation from ground level up - from concept to implementation and improvements.
• Demonstration by computer simulation.
• Most reports shall be turned in through electronic mail system, hand written class notes and drafting are also turned in for grades.

Term Project: [Nurture and Observe the Sprouting and Growth of a Life] - Gather seed or branches around the campus, try to plant it and grow it successfully, observe and record your efforts so that others can duplicate your experiment and even make improvements based on your experiences.

Reminder: Students must gather background information first in order to bootstrap their chance of success.

Weekly Projects:

(1) Getting familiar with the construct and installation of your computer - hardware assembling, software installation, and personal hygiene in using computer classroom facilities; Introduction of the iterative process of experimentation for verification.
(2) The introduction and propagation of uncertainties and errors; the concept of modeling and formulation.
(3) Restoration in fidelity - the influence of sampling density and data length.
(4) Information contents, and the efficiency of formulation in modeling; experiment design and value engineering.
(5) Getting prepared to become a good engineer I - training for creativity and communication capability; a hypothesis: the Ned Herrmann four-quadrant thinking model [4,5,6], its verification and application.
(6) An effective approach to derive models - dimensional analysis and the application of engineering data book.
(7) Practice the just-in-time application of knowledge and the process of reverse engineering.
(8) A practice of dynamic simulation and model verification.
(9) Getting prepared to become a good engineer II - a demonstration of group therapy for organizational difficulties, soul searching, piercing through the superficial politeness for truth discovery and fact finding, problem description, and deliberation for solutions.
(10) Getting prepared to become a good engineer III - a system engineering approach to solve engineering problem, the struggle between subjectivity and objectivity in research, fallacies coerced by the fantasy of desires [7], the importance of hypothesis verification.
(11) The "Can Do" Attitude and A Real Story of Hypothesis Development: Video Tape "Lorenzo's Oil" [8].
(12) "Now You Get It, Now You Don't" - The Elusive Bottom of Truth, A Cure v.s. A Treatment: Video Tape "Awakenings" [9].

* Application of basic electronic instruments; Computer aided data collection, analysis, and parameter estimation; Electronic circuit application, design and test planning; Circuit property simulation and verification by testing - the match between model and data; Circuit debugging;

* Group learning, shared team work, yet individually graded and examined for individual responsibility and independent self esteem; On-site certification of data and verification results by teaching assistants;

* Open shelf data book, equipment manuals, application notes, hobby books; Enforce hygienic behavior to treasure resources in the lab; Encouraging for Do-It-Yourself hobby;

* Lab instructions are designed to bring up the concept of "experiment design" - component parameters are not specified, instead, the intention of the experiment, the guide lines to enhance the phenomena to be observed and safety precautions are specified.

* The teacher and the teaching assistants work in concert around the students to herd them towards a successful conclusion of the experiments.

Weekly Projects:

1. The hygienic behavior in the lab - treasuring the lab resources (tools, instrument, components, data books, manuals, and hobby references);
   Knowing basic electronic components: their coding system, specifications, and measurements, verify the power endurance of a resistor;
   The instruments I: DC power supply, multimeter, RLC meter, and hand tools.
2. The instruments II: digital storage oscilloscope, function generator, computer data acquisition, recording and describing an observed signal, the audio signal of an electronic bird charm, transcribing a physical piece of the electronic bird charm into its circuit diagram.
3. In circuit properties of an electronic component - LED as an example, testing the component at its extreme limits.
4. Input and output equivalent circuits of an electronic equipment; interferences on the circuit under test by the measuring equipment, least square parameter estimation, experiment design to minimize estimation error.
5. Filtering and resonance; Verification of Kirchoff's Voltage Law and Current Law during a circuit break transient, proficiency in the application of the trigger function in the oscilloscope.
6. Measuring the frequency response of an R-L-C circuit, the stereo audio effect.
7. Basics of digital logic circuit: the definition of logic status, the concept of circuit loading, fan-in and fan-out capacity.
8. Application digital TTL IC and the phenomena of racing: propagation delay and the effect of capacitive load.
9. Digital logic circuit design: Karnaugh Maps and state transition design, a binary adder.
10. Simple transistor amplifier: transistor parameters and bias design.
11. Application of an operational amplifier IC: various analog computing modules, gain-bandwidth limitation.
12. A Do-It-Yourself Project: Develop a simple hybrid circuit which can trace the transistor characteristic curves on a regular oscilloscope with the help of a regular function generator.

The development and demonstration of a computer aided experimentation workstation equipped with domestic instruments has triggered an evolution of computer usage in other lab courses and a change of course designs for more versatility and liveliness.

Students are bewildered by the versatility of the course contents, and do have difficulties in capturing and digesting all the information. However, they do feel that the course is unique and they do not expect similar stimulation from other courses.

Improvements desired:

(a) preparation of on-line lecture notes and background information,
(b) immediate feedback to the students on their homework and reports,
(c) set up cases to demonstrate automated testing and experiments,
(d) build up in-house capabilities of on-site repair and calibration of all the equipment by the teaching staff and teaching assistants,
(e) still collecting cases and material evidences to demonstrate the invention of tools, investigative and forensic engineering, product defect clinics and improvements, etc.

The project has been mainly funded by the National Science Council (NSC) of the Republic of China with grants #NSC 83-0111-S-008-020 and #NSC 85-2511-S-008-001. The project was also partially funded by the Ministry of Education. Continuous and significant supports from the Department, the Engineering School, as well as the University President have allowed the project the luxury to mature after the initial jump start. The project benefited a lot from the generosity of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics of Drexel University to share their E4 experiences with us.

The authors owe their particular gratitude to Professor Tsou, Fu-Kang for his inspirations and continuous encouragement, Department Chairmen Professor Chen, Jyh-Chen and Chang, Chiang-Nan, the Dean of the Engineering School Professor Ou-Yang, Chiao-Huei, and the University President Professor Liu, Chao-Han for their trust and supports, Research Fellow Kuo, Yung-Wen and Miss Chen, Pao-Ling at the Science Education Division of NSC for their patience and administrative supports.

Finally and not the less, the authors also like to recognize the contributions of all the Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, and the volunteering students in the Project, without their devoted hand-in-hand efforts, this project would not have being possible.

[1] Tsou, F. K., D. H. Thomas, S. Carmi, "An Enhanced Engineering Program for Freshmen and Sophomores," Int. J. Engng Ed., Vol. 8, No. 6, pp413-418, 1992
[2] Thomas, D. H., S. Carmi, and F. K. Tsou, "An Experiment in Reforming the Freshmen and Sophomore Engineering Curricula at Drexel University," AlChE Symposium Series, Vol. 89, No. 295, pp 526-530, 1993
[3] Quinn, Robert G., "The E4 Introductory Engineering Test, Design and Simulation Laboratory," J. of Engng Ed., October, pp 223-226, 1993
[4] Herrmann, Nedd, The Creative Brain, revised ed., Brain Books, Lake Lure, North Carolina, 1990.
[5] Lumsdaine, Edward, and Monika Lumsdaine, Creative Problem Solving, McGraw-Hill, 1995, and also hand outs of their "Workshop on Teaching Creative Problem Solving," Department of Industrial Education, Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan, 11,14,1994
[6] selected topics on family educations and self growth from the the radio broadcast program series "The Confrontation Among the Dearest," (In Mandarin Chinese)
[7] Rousseau, Denis L., "Case Studies in Pathological Science," American Scientist, Vol 80, No. 1, pp 54-63, 1992
[8] Lorenzo's Oil, movie film directed by George Miller, Producer Mitchell/Miller, cast: Nick Nolte, Susan Sarandon, Peter Ustinov, Kathleen Wilhoite, Universal City Studios, 1992
[9] Awakenings, movie film, Director Penny Mrshall, Producer Walter F Parkes / Lawrence Lasker, cast: Robert Deniro, Robin Williams, based upon book by Oliver Sacks, M.D., Columbia Pictures, 1990

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