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.

>> Read more

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. 

>> Read more
 

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
 

  

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

  

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 

  

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 

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   

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  

 

  

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!

  

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

 

  

 

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.

  

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.

  

   

  

Todd Atkins, Educational Technical Marketing, MathWorks

   

  

Ian Burgess, Development Manager - Higher Education, Mentor Graphics

  

ECEDHA Perspectives offer in-depth interviews with leading industry executives.

  

  

     Sam Fuller
    CTO and Vice President of Research
    and Development
    ADI
    

  

  

    

In This Issue

Outstanding Leadership and Service Award Nomination Deadline

Innovative Program Award Nomination Deadline

Diversity Award Nomination Deadline

ECEDHA Industry Award Nomination Deadline 

ECEDHA Annual Survey CLOSES for collection (all responses due)

ECE Webinar: Supporting Inductive Learning in Engineering Courses
Sponsored by Maplesoft

Online Education and Distributed Learning Workshop
Presented at the 2014 ECEDHA Annual Conference and ECExpo

The Meritage Resort & Spa

Napa, California

ECE Webinar: Equation-Based Modeling
Sponsored by COMSOL 

  

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 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

>> Download Application

  

Innovative Program Award

>> Download Application

  

Diversity Award

>> Download Application

Industry Award

>> Download Application