January 2014

Letter from the Editor
Badri Roysam, University of Houston
Dear ECE Colleagues,

Welcome to the January issue of the ECE Source. We take this opportunity to wish our members a happy and productive new year.

The Spring semester is upon us, and our student teams are excitedly working on their Capstone design projects. This is also the time when ECE department heads are usually planning laboratory improvements for the Fall semester.

This issue of the ECE Source may inspire you to consider CubeSats. These are small (10 cm) and lightweight (>1.33kg) cube-shaped satellites that can be built by student teams, and affordably launched into earth orbit by space agencies.

Current Views
Barry Sullivan
Barry Sullivan, ECEDHA
Thinking in Math

One of the news articles selected for this issue of the ECE Source is an editorial from the New York Times on the challenges of making math an interesting and relevant topic for young students. The editorial cites a study showing the importance of an introduction to numerical concepts in kindergarten or earlier to a child's future success in math. This seems consistent with the idea of exposing a child to foreign languages at an early age to encourage multilingual abilities. 

Featured Article
Elevating the ECE Capstone Design Experience with CubeSats
Small Student-built Satellites for Space Exploration & Research

By Prof. Badri Roysam (UH), Prof. David Jackson (UH), Prof. Ji Chen (UH), Audrey Grayson (UH), Robert Provence (NASA), and Steven Huning (NASA)
  
Earth-orbiting artificial satellites are complex engineered systems that provide vital earthbound services, including weather observation, television, telephony, and internet connectivity. Developing and launching a commercial satellite requires a diverse team of engineers to work together towards a common purpose. A budding engineer would consider it the ultimate capstone design experience. >> Read more
 
Course Offering
University of Texas Embedded Systems MOOC
  
Learn how to build your own arcade-style game using TI's TM4C123 Tiva™ LaunchPad Microcontroller in this hands-on, lab-based massive open online course (MOOC). This complimentary 15-week course starts Jan 22, 2014 and is open to college students, educators, hobbyists, or anyone in the engineering industry looking to develop their embedded skills! ti.com/UTMOOC

ECE in the News
NASA Helps Launch Student-Built Satellites as Part of CubeSat Launch Initiative  
Press Release: November 20, 2013 
  
NASA is beginning to receive confirmation 11 small cubesat research satellites, including the first developed by high school students, that were launched into space Tuesday night from the Virginia coast are operating as planned. The cubists were included as auxiliary payloads aboard a U.S. Air Force Minotaur 1 rocket that lifted off from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility at 8:15 p.m. EST. >> Read more 
Ad Takes Off Online: Less Doll, More Awl  
By Claire Caine Miller (November 20, 2013, The New York Times)
  
Who said girls want to dress in pink and play with dolls, especially when they could be building Rube Goldberg machines instead? That is the message of a video that has gone viral, viewed more than 6.4 million times since it was posted Monday on YouTube - an ad for GoldieBlox, a start-up toy company that sells games and books to encourage girls to become engineers. >> Read more 
Who Says Math Has to Be Boring?
By The Editorial Board (December 7, 2013, The New York Times)
  

American students are bored by math, science and engineering. They buy smartphones and tablets by the millions but don't pursue the skills necessary to build them. Engineers and physicists are often portrayed as clueless geeks on television, and despite the high pay and the importance of such jobs to the country's future, the vast majority of high school graduates don't want to go after them. >> Read more   

Olin Students Offer Classes for Local Kids
By Jaclyn Reiss (December 19, 2013, The Boston Globe)
  

About an hour before classes started at Needham's Mitchell Elementary School one recent day, when classrooms were still dark and the hallways were deserted, a ruckus emanated from the first-floor art room. About 20 third-graders were gathered around four tables, peering down at a poster-sized map with the outlines of fictional islands drawn on wide-ruled graphing paper. >> Read more  

 

Special Announcements
2014 ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo
Registration Now Open!
  

Registration is now open for the 2014 ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo, the largest gathering of ECE department heads from throughout the United States and Canada.

 

This year's program is hosted by Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, and Santa Clara University. Join us as we celebrate our 30th meeting anniversary March 21-25, 2014 at the Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa, California.

 

ECEDHA members will enjoy a world-class educational program focusing on the most pressing issues facing academia and ECE today. Special anniversary activities and spouse programs will also be available.

 

 

 

>> View ECEDHA Annual Conference Homepage

 

>> View Conference Schedule

 

>> View ECExpo Participants

 

>> Secure your Hotel

 

We look forward to having you join us at the 2014 ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo!

It's time for 2014 ECEDHA Membership Renewal
  

2014 ECEDHA membership renewal for ECEDHA department heads is now underway. ECEDHA membership runs on a calendar year beginning January 1 - December 31.

 

Renew your membership today to keep receiving ECEDHA membership benefits including:

  • Access to the ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo  
  • Complimentary registration for ECEDHA's NEW! ECE Webinars  
  • The opportunity to participate in the ECEDHA Annual Survey, a valuable tool in benchmarking your organization in lab and office space, faculty and department head salaries, research budgets, student retention, graduation rates, and much more.  
  • Access to specialized workshops held throughout the calendar year  
  • Complimentary job posting service via the ECEDHA website  
  • And much more!  
  
For questions, please contact Michelle Klein at mklein@ecedha.org or 312-559-3724.  
Upcoming ECE Webinar
Supporting Inductive Learning in Engineering Courses
  
February 6, 2014     11:00 am PT / 2:00 pm ET
 
This webinar explores how MapleSim, the advanced physical modeling and simulation software from Maplesoft, was successfully applied to an instrumentation course. Using MapleSim, students schematically represent electrical and mechanical systems, simulate their changes over time, and examine the analytical equations which underlie the model. These equations, which are generated automatically by MapleSim, are in a form that is similar to what students see in class, so students can examine them to derive further insight into the dynamics of their systems. MapleSim, used in conjunction with traditional hands-on electronics lab activities, permits the students to explore the behavior of the systems of interest in an inductive learning manner more representative of natural, everyday learning.

 

Corporate Features
ECE Spotlight Sessions
  
Captured live at the 2013 ECEDHA Annual Conference, ECE Spotlight Sessions offer the opportunity to view short corporate presentations and to learn more about what these companies can offer you.
  
Featured ECE Spotlight Sessions:
   

  
Presenter:
Todd Atkins, Educational Technical Marketing, MathWorks
   
Mentor Graphics ECE Spotlight: Teaching using Ltate of the Art Design Tools
  

Presenter:
Ian Burgess, Development Manager - Higher Education, Mentor Graphics
ECEDHA Perspectives
  
ECEDHA Perspectives offer in-depth interviews with leading industry executives.
  
Featured ECEDHA Perspectives:

     
 
    Brad Ruzicka     
    Manager, Worldwide Analog Channel
    Marketing and SC Distribution
    Communications 
    Texas Instruments
      




  


     Sam Fuller
    CTO and Vice President of Research
    and Development
    ADI

    
 
  

 

Produced by: 

ECEDHA
  
    
In This Issue
Calendar of Events
January 15, 2014
ECEDHA Annual Survey CLOSES for collection (all responses due)
March 21, 2014
Online Education and Distributed Learning Workshop
Presented at the 2014 ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo
March 21, 2014
Presented at the ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo
March 21-25, 2014
The Meritage Resort & Spa
Napa, California
April 17, 2014
ECE Webinar: Equation-Based Modeling
Sponsored by COMSOL 
ECEDHA News
ECEDHA Annual Survey - Deadline January 15!
  
The ECEDHA Annual Survey is now open for data collection. The survey will remain open through January 15, 2014.
  
To access the survey, visit: https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECEDHA

For questions, please contact Michelle Klein at mklein@ecedha.org of 312-559-3724.

ECEDHA Awards - Now Accepting Nominations!
  
ECEDHA is now accepting nominations for its 2013 Awards. Nominations are due January 15, 2014 and will be presented at the ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo in March. View more details.
  
Outstanding Leadership and Service Award
  
Innovative Program Award
  
Diversity Award

Industry Award
ECEDHA Member and Partner News

National Wireless Research Collaboration Symposium (MWRCS) Announcement and Call for Abstract 


The NWRCS 2014 will be held by the Idaho National Laboratory in collaboration with Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho. This symposium will bring together leading researchers from the academia, industry and government across the nation to:

  

* Provide a platform for discussing and identifying research that has near-term development and deployment potential

 

* Assist understanding cutting edge research solutions for rapid adoption into technology platforms and integration into global standardization efforts

 

* Provide a unique opportunity for researchers to understand and collaborate using the 890-square-mile outdoor National Wireless User Facility (NWUF) located at the Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID.

 

For more information, visit https://secureweb.inl.gov/nwrcs2014/

  
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