The following is a reflection and a proposal on the contents of the hardware related degrees in the Department of Electronics, Telecomunications and Informatics (DETI), at the University of Aveiro. In particular, it is focused mainly on the more hardware related undergraduate degree of this department, the “Licenciatura em Engenharia Eletrotécnica e de Computadores” (LEEC), the Bologna 1st Cycle degree on Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Background and Motivation

There is a general perception that, among the areas of expertise of DETI, student interest in the field of Electronics has been declining over the past few years. On the contrary, areas related to programming and computer science (particularly the Computer Engineering and Informatics courses at the undergraduate level) have been experiencing sustained, if not growing, interest from students entering higher education.

The decline in interest in the field of Electronics is not exclusive to our University, nor even to the country. The following figure clearly shows that the phenomenon also occurs elsewhere1.

Figure 1: Enrollments in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science courses in the United States

However, the need for Engineers with hardware training remains, as evidenced by companies that face difficulties when seeking to recruit new staff, frequently complaining that they cannot find candidates with the skills they need (i.e., with hardware expertise).

A Contribution for the organization of Hardware Courses

The attractiveness of courses in the field of Electronics depends, among other things, on our ability to demonstrate the relevance of hardware-related Engineering and, with that, to engage and involve students in the course activities.

Based on this assumption, my proposal is to anchor the practical activities of the LEEC course in projects related to physical quantities and sensory perception. In other words, projects involving aspects of:

  • Light
  • Sound
  • Motion

as a way of creating a positive differentiation of this course compared to those more focused on software. This differentiation is supported by activities that can only be developed based on hardware. These projects would give students the opportunity to develop, by themselves, various devices that they frequently use. Besides the aspect of making students the creators of these devices, it also allows them to adapt and design new or customized solutions, in an exercise of creative design.

Some specific activities that could fit into this approach are:

  • Building a Speaker
    • This project would initially involve building a speaker, with wired connections for power and sound. Later, it could evolve to battery-powered, incorporating circuits like voltage regulators and battery charge controllers, removing wires for power. At a more advanced stage, it could progress to Bluetooth connectivity, totally removing wired connections.
    • Skills involved: analog amplification circuits; battery management, PCB design.
  • Night Light
    • A project for a light that turns on when it’s dark.
    • Skills involved: light sensors; sensor reading circuits; actuation and feedback circuits, which can be either analog (based on op-amps) or digital (based on microcontrollers).
  • Temperature based controller
    • A device, based on a temperature sensor, that controls a heater or a fan, switching on and off depending on temperature.
    • Skills involved: temperature sensors; sensor reading circuits; actuation and feedback circuits, which can be either analog (based on op-amps) or digital (based on microcontrollers).
  • Desk Lamp / LED Ring
    • A lamp with LEDs powered by USB. The project could start with fixed lighting (in intensity and color) and evolve to intensity control (PWM) and color control (using multicolor LEDs).
    • Skills involved: PCB design; LED drive circuits; microcontroller programming; battery charging circuits and regulators.
  • Presence Lights for Bicycles/Running
    • A battery-powered circuit for running lights or bicycle lights. This could start as a non-rechargeable battery powered device, evolving later to a device based on Li-Po (or other) rechargeable batteries.
    • Skills involved: PCB design; LED drive circuits; microcontroller programming; battery charging circuits and regulators.
  • Kitchen timer
    • A timer device, working as an hour-glass, in which a accelerometer detects the position of the device. The user interface can be simply LEDs that go on or off as time passes, or have a graphic display.
    • Skills involved: PCB design; LED drive circuits; microcontroller programming; battery charging circuits; graphic displays.

Common elements

Some common elements emerge from this approach, such as the power supply, the user interface and communications interface. These elements can be organized in different alternatives of growing complexity, allowing a project to evolve from very simple, easy and direct solutions, to more elaborate alternatives, allowing students to start a project with simple, fairly easy to reach objectives and then increasing complexity, as students progress along their learning path.

Power supply

In most cases, the power supply can traverse several stages, from the simplest to the most complex, such as:

  • start with an external power supply (e.g., the circuit is powered from a bench voltage supply)
  • include non-rechargeable batteries, such as button batteries. When the project includes designing the PCB board, this implies the introduction of the batteries holder in the circuit.
  • include rechargeable batteries. Batteries can be recharged with an USB cable, introducing the circuits for battery charge management and potentially evolving to wireless charging of the batteries.

User interface

The user interface can be as simple as LEDs going on and off or have graphical LED displays

Communications

Again, several flavours can be selected. For devices requiring communication (in fact, a requirement that can be extended to all the circuits, as all may need to transmit their current status to some other device or system), the communication can be:

  • based on a USB connection, for the simpler cases, introducing devices that convert serial, UART communications to USB
  • based on radio communications, such as ad-hoc ISM links (e.g., radio links on the 868~MHz range), Bluetooth or other.

Societal impact

As much as possible, students should be led to reflect on the societal environment of these projects and on their impact. The issue of sustainability is one concern that students should address. Does the solution proposed by the students uses resources in an effective way?

For closing…

What I have presented here is just a sketch, a “mind dump” of some ideas that could help motivating our students. The main purpose is to make young engineering students knowledgeable of “how thinks work” and create the perception that they can first understand, and then create new solutions and have an impact in society.

  1. Dillinger, Tom. “A Crisis in Engineering Education – Where Are the Microelectronics Engineers?” Semiwiki (blog), July 3, 2022. https://semiwiki.com/events/314964-a-crisis-in-engineering-education-where-are-the-microelectronics-engineers/.

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