Views, Experience, and Prospects for Education in Circuits and Systems

Many questions and open issues are related to the education in CAS

• The role of CAS education has drastically changed with internet, computers, and globalization. New challenges of environmental issues, energy shortages, globalization offer new opportunities for CAS education
• Is the link between research and teaching in CAS still important?
• Balance between theory, design, simulation, practice and experimentation. Is the experimentation in hardware still valuable or is software sufficient? What is the role of simulation tools like SPICE and MATLAB?
• Should systems and circuits be taught together or in sequence? Discrete time systems followed by continuous time systems or vice versa?
• Can you find good textbooks, reference material (e.g. The circuits and filters handbook by W.-K. Chen) or is there a need for new ones or updates or other ways to bring together knowledge like Wiki's?

Also several misconceptions circulate about CAS education

• CAS is mature, basic and generic for EEs, so CAS can be taught by any EE professor
• There is no need to introduce circuits or mathematics of circuits and systems (linear algebra, differential equations, Laplace, Fourier, z-transforms)
• There is no need to study CAS concepts like KVL, KCL, MNA, transfer functions, impedances, Bode diagrams.. but learn directly to simulate in SPICE
• Industry is not interested in concepts and methods of CAS but in electronic products

Outline

Main topics, among other:

• The core content: what are essential ingredients of CAS education [ e.g. KVL KCL, Thevenin, Norton, Tellegen, energy, passivity, graph theory, analysis, filter design, impedances, hybrid parameters,..]
• Methodology, dependencies [in 1984 Mac Van Valkenburg wrote:"No common agreement on what should be taught in a course on circuits" in "Teaching Circuit Theory", IEEE TCAS, Jan 1984]
• Impact of new technologies
• Impact of globalization and less developped countries
• Impact on educational reforms

Format

• More extensive presentations by invited speakers (15 minute presentation and 5 minute discussion)
• Short statements by active participants (3 minutes presentation and 1 minutes discussion)
• Brainstorming on common action plan (open to all participants)

Thursday May 22, 2008 (8:30am -4:30 pm) day after ISCAS in Willow room in ISCAS Sheraton hotel, Seattle

Workshop schedule:

• 8:30-8:50 Welcome and workshop objectives and outcomes Joos Vandewalle, Belgium
  
  
• 8:50-9:30 Viewpoints of industry and of GOLD graduates of the last decade Tuna Tarim, US
  Martin Di Federico, Argentina, Pui-In (Elvis) Mak, Gold members
  
  
• 9:30-12:00 Experiences with various educational approaches (25 minute presentations)
  Yannis Tsividis, US, Turning students on to circuits
  Charles Trullemans Belgium, From KCL to class D amplifier
  Babak Ayazifar, UC Berkeley (title of presentation expected)
  Ljiljana Trajkovic, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Teaching Circuit courses to engineering students: Two decades of ongoing debate
  Tapio Saramäki, Tampere University of Technology, Finland, DSP from Theory to Tool during the Past Three Decades: Impacts on DSP education
  
  
• 1:00-2:30 Important issues in CAS education (3 minute presentations)
  Raija Lehto, Finland, Learning is understanding
  Robert Rieger, Taiwan, Balance between theory and practical experimentation
  Tom Robins, US, Vision on an integrated engineering learning environment
  Soumitro Banerjee, India, The need for a new pedagogical approach to system modeling and analysis
  Arjuna Madanayake, Canada, Importance of teaching multidimensional Circuits and Systems
  Eduard Alarcon, Spain, The pivotal role of design in CAS.
  Anas A. Hamoui Canada, McGill University's educational approach in teaching integrated circuits to undergraduate students.
  
  
• 2:30-4:30 Open brainstorming on specific actions and educational plans and conclusions

Download here CASWorkshop_090508_electronic.pdf [512kb PDF]

Call for participation

We still have a number of places available for those who want to participate without an active contribution. As of Tuesday 5 May we can still accept the 14 interested participants. If you wish to participate just send me an email. There is no cost charged to you.

• Conceptual convergence on common approach for CAS education
• Joint report/paper for the CAS Magazine on the education in CAS with intended audience educators in EE
• Actions for making CAS more attractive to students like useful role models
• Common targets benchmarks for courses common experimentation, global competitions, virtual experiments
• Web based learning plans
• Plans for setting up reference material and wiki material
• CAS concepts, insights, expertise, skills and competences needed by every EE and link with the criteria for accreditation
• Need for more permantent reflection and action on CAS education?
• Ideas for setting up a new Technical Committee on CAS education?
• Links with other IEEE education initiatives and structures
• Action towards accreditation bodies like ABET

Panel discussion on CAS Education at ISCAS on Wednesday May 21 17:45-18:45

Speakers:

Josef Nossek, Technical University of Munich, merger of circuits and systems and design, Region 8 experiences
Yong Lian, National University of Singapore, experiences in Region 10
Randy Geiger, Iowa State University, views on design and undergraduate and graduate teaching
Tuna Tarim, Texas Instruments, views of the industry
Mark Yoder, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, experience with DSP first
Paolo Diniz, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, experiences in Latin America Region 9

Workshop follow up

This is a summary of the main action points of the workshop. More details in the slides of the presentation of Joos Vandewalle

• Conceptual convergence on common approach for CAS education
• Special issue for the CAS Magazine on the education in CAS with intended audience educators in EE expected publication date the beginning of 2009
• Actions for making CAS more attractive to students like useful role models
• Action for setting up a new Technical Committee on CAS education and outreach with goals for more permantent reflection and action on CAS education. If you are interested in signing up for this new Technical Committee please send an email to Joos Vandewalle Joos.Vandewalle@esat.kuleuven.be

Workshop presentations

This is a collection of the slides of the various presentations at the workshop. It was really exciting to discuss the various experiences and observe the convergence in the analysis of the educational situation.

• Prof. Joos Vandewalle, minutes-workeducation-seattle (PDF)

• Prof. Joos Vandewalle, Welcome and workshop objectives and outcomes (PDF)
• Viewpoints of industry and of GOLD graduates of the last decade Tuna Tarim, US Martin Di Federico, Argentina, Pui-In (Elvis) Mak, Gold members (PDF)
• Tuna Tarim, Circuits and Systems Education: An Industry Perspective (PDF)
• Martín Di Federico, GOLD Workshop Education (PDF)
• Yannis Tsividis, Turning students on to circuits (PDF)
• Charles Trullemans, From KCL to class D amplifier (PDF)
• Ljiljana Trajkovic, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Teaching Circuit courses to engineering students: Two decades of ongoing debate (PDF)
• Raija Lehto, Learning is understanding (PDF)
• Robert Rieger, Balance between theory and practical experimentation (PDF)
• Tom Robins, Vision for an Integrated Learning Environment (PDF)
• Soumitro Banerjee, The need for a new pedagogical approach to system modeling and analysis (PDF)
• Arjuna Madanayake, Importance of teaching multidimensional Circuits and Systems (PDF)
• Anas A. Hamoui, Hands-on Approach to Teaching Circuits & Systems in Undergraduate Education (PDF)

Remarks

• Andrzej Filipkowski, CASeducation remarks (PDF)