MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

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Yacob Astatke, Craig Scott, Kemi Ladeji-Osias, Ken Connor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

ARCEE 2013 LAGOS September 9, 2013

Improving ECE Education in developing Sub-Saharan African Countries Using the Mobile Studio

Technology and Pedagogy

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Outline

• Introduction

• Overview of MSU and our ECE program • Current State of higher education in Africa • Current State of higher education in Ethiopia • Proposed Solution  Collaboration

• Results of Collaboration with Ethiopian Univ. • Future Work

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Overview of MSU

 Morgan State University (MSU) is an HBCU located in Baltimore, Maryland

~8,000 students (Institution)

~1,100 students (Engr)

~500 students (ECE)

Growing the Future, Leading the World

MEB opened in 1991

(4)

Engineering at MSU

 Outstanding Engineering Program

 School of Engineering founded in 1984

 Bachelor of Science Degrees (*ABET accredited)  Civil*  Electrical*  Industrial*  Transportation Systems (Fall 2009)

SEB opened in 1998

(5)

Current State of Higher Ed in Africa



Human capital

is very important in today’s

global and highly competitive world.



It is very critical for African nations to find,

develop, and

retain highly qualified

workers

in Science Technology

Engineering and Mathematics

(STEM)

areas.

(6)

Current State of Higher Ed in Africa



Africa has been

losing 20,000

professionals per year

since 1990



BRAIN DRAIN !



Close to

500,000 African professionals

currently

reside outside

their

home

continent



what would happen even if

10% return back home

to help their

country ?

(7)

Current State of Higher Ed in Africa



Major shortage in in STEM : Why ?



Require

advanced training

for the

instructors



Expensive equipment

to conduct

the

hands-on laboratories

.

(8)

Current State of Higher Ed in Africa



The

lack of dependable laboratory

equipment



Universities

focus more on the

theoretical

aspect of STEM education

as compared to the

practical

applications

.



What is the solution ?

(9)

Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia

 Ethiopia lost 75% of its

skilled workforce between

1980 and 1991

 University Capacity Building Program (UCBP)

construction project of 13 universities at different sites throughout Ethiopia

(10)

Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia

 Goal is to increase the number of students

from around 90,000 in 2010 to around 130,000

when the project is completed in 2015

 “The students will form the backbone of a

qualified and adaptable human resource base

that will drive Ethiopia’s development forward.”

(11)

Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia



Key problem with ambitious goals



lack of qualified and properly trained

university teachers.



Problem is

worse in STEM areas

that

require

specialized training

and

equipment

that are very expensive to

purchase and maintain.

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Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia



The

impact of STEM education

is also

minimized

and

compromised

when:

 the ratio between the available equipment

and the number of students becomes high.



Hawassa University’s Institute of

Technology (iOTech-HU) has over

4,500

students

in its seven engineering

programs.

(13)

Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia



ECE dept at AAiT has around

1000

students

who are enrolled in second to

fourth year courses

that require the use

of the laboratory equipment

.



Most ECE lab sessions have

student/lab

equipment ratio from 8/1 up to 20/1

.

(14)

Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia



Typical ECE department laboratory station

(bench set-up) costs around

$5,000 USD

($100,000 ETB) per station.



A new laboratory classroom with

10 stations

will cost costs around

$50,000

USD ($1 Million ETB)

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Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia



The solution to such a problem is to

either

decrease

the

student/laboratory equipment

ratio

, or

increase

the availability of

laboratory equipment.



Can we achieve both goals ?

YES !!!

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Current State of Higher Ed in Ethiopia



The development and availability of

state of the art

portable

teaching/training laboratory

equipment

has started making this

vision a reality.

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Proposed Solution



Step#1: develop collaborations with

higher education institutions in the

developed nations



Step#2: provide targeted training on

new pedagogy and state of the art

mobile laboratory technology

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Proposed Solution



I will present results of an on-going

four year collaboration

between the

ECE departments of MSU and two

universities in Ethiopia.



This model can be replicated in other

African nations

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 Project funded by the NSF in 2008. It involves 5 universities

 Goal: to enable hands-on exploration of STEM education principles.

Phase I – Implementation of the Mobile

StudioTM Technology and Pedagogy

(20)

 It is a small, and inexpensive ($150) hardware platform for use in a home, classroom or remote environment.

 Advantage  it replaces a rack of equipment that is

equivalent to $5,000 to $10,000 USD.

(21)

 The I/O Board contains 6 EE lab instruments

 Key issue: device is USB powered  Max Voltage is: +4V or – 4 Volts. We also use 9V batteries

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Results of Collaboration

with Ethiopian Universities



MSU has been collaborating with four

Ethiopian universities for the past 4

years

 MSU donated 60 Mobile Studio Boards and

15 laptops to the 5 universities through grants

(23)

Results of Collaboration

with Ethiopian Universities



Some universities use the new

equipment to

strengthen 2

nd

to 4

th

year

lab courses.



Other universities use the new

equipment to allow their

5

th

year

students

to work on

advanced senior

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Results of Collaboration

with Ethiopian Universities

 The MS boards have improved the ECE lab experience of close to 500 students per

year in five universities.

 I will present three examples to show how

5th year students from AAiT used the new

equipment.

 Students work on advanced projects in

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Results of Collaboration

with Ethiopian Universities

 Project#1: Clamp

activated Switch Project

They used the spectrum analyzer function to

observe the sampled audio input from the

microphone and analyze its general properties in the frequency domain.

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Results of Collaboration

with Ethiopian Universities

 Project#2: Induction Machine Test Project

The students needed

equipment that can supply

signals with specific

phase differences to test a phase detection circuit they designed.

(27)

Results of Collaboration

with Ethiopian Universities

 Project#3: Vector-Cardiographic (VCG) Imaging System

Goal of their project was to design system for

displaying the VCG of a human heart

The key problem was that they only had access to very poor quality metallic electrodes

Solution#1: They downloaded ECG

recordings of a real patient from a medical database.

(28)

Results of Collaboration

with Ethiopian Universities

 Project#3:

Vector-Cardiographic (VCG) Imaging System

Solution#2: they analyzed the clinically pre-recorded ECG signals through the two output ports of the MS-IOBoard

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Results of Collaboration

with Ethiopian Universities



iOTech-HU implementation of

MS-IOBoard

They used it to expand the lab.

equipment used in sophomore and

junior level courses.

Goal: they significantly decreased the student to lab equipment ratio from 20-to-1 to 5-20-to-1.

(30)

Results of Collaboration

with Ethiopian Universities

(31)

Results of Collaboration

with Nigerian Universities

 Pre-Conference planning for the 5th_African

Regional Conference in Engineering Education (ARCEE 2013)

(32)

Conclusion

 The implementation of the MS-IOBoard technology and pedagogy has greatly

enhanced and improved the learning

experience of ECE students enrolled at five

universities in Ethiopia

 Senior students at AAiT explored and

discovered the various advanced features of

the MS-IOBoard on their own.

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Conclusion



We plan to conduct similar workshops at the

ARCEE 2013 Conference in Lagos Nigeria

in September 9-12, 2013.



Morgan State is working with the

Global

Engineering Dean’s Council (GEDC)

and

the

International Federation of

Engineering Education Socities (IFEES)

(34)

Future Work



Our goal is to replicate this approach

at various universities throughout

Africa.



Growing the Future, and Leading the

World !!!

QUESTIONS ???

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References

• http://www.qmprogram.org/files/QM_Standards_2011-2013.pdf

• J. Bourne, D. Harris, F. Mayadas, Journal of Engineering Education 9, 131-146 (2005)

• Y. Astatke, J. Ladeji-Osias C. J. Scott, “Developing and Teaching

Sophomore Level Electrical Engineering Courses Completely Online”, Journal of Online Education, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2011.

• Dutton, J. D.; Dutton, M.; Perry, J. “How do Online Students Differ from Lecture Students?” JALN. Vol. 6, no.1, July. (2002)

• E. Allen, J. Seaman, “Going the Distance: Online Education in the United States, 2011”, The Sloan Consortium, published November 2011

• L. Ragan, C. Sax, “Defining and Implementing Quality Assurance Standards in Online Courses”, EDUCAUSE 2005, October 18–21 in

Orlando, Florida

• D. Millard, M. Chouikha, and F. Berry, "Improving Student Intuition via Rensselaer‛s New Mobile Studio Pedagogy", ASEE 2007 Annual

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Online ECE Course Design

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Online ECE Course Design

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Online ECE Course Design

Phase I – Implementation of Online Labs on Filter Design using the Agilent X Series Scopes with LAN Access ($1,000 USD)

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Online ECE Course Design

Phase I – Implementation of Online Labs on Filter Design using the Agilent X Series Scopes with LAN Access

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Online ECE Course Design

Phase I – Implementation of Online Labs on Filter Design using the Agilent X Series Scopes with LAN Access

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Online ECE Course Design

Phase I – Implementation of Online Labs on Filter Design using the Agilent X Series Scopes with LAN Access -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 50 500 5000 50000 Gain(dB) vs Frequency(Hz)

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Online ECE Course Design

 We tested the new technology

and pedagogy on face to face

(F2F), i.e. regular students for 2 years.

 Students completed their

design projects at home, in their dormitories, or in the library.

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Online ECE Course Design

 Advantage for students 

freedom to work on design

projects anywhere/anytime.

 Advantage for department 

decreases the wear and tear

on expensive equipment.

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Online ECE Course Design

 MS Board (RPI)  $150  MyDaq (TI)  $200-$250  Electronics Explorer (Digilent)  $199 - $250  Agilent X-Series Scope+FG  $1,000  Analog Discovery (Digilent)  $99 - $150

Phase I – Comparison of Portable ECE Lab equipment

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Online ECE Course Design

 Evaluated the advantages and

disadvantages of synchronous and

asynchronous modes of content delivery

 Goal: make the course content and

experience of online students as close as

possible to the F2F students

Phase II – Implementation of the Panapto

(46)

Online ECE Course Design

 We used it to capture and record a synchronized version of the text (using PowerPoint), audio, and video from the

daily lectures of the F2F ECE courses.

 Goal: allow online students to follow the

lectures and class discussions that occur

in the regular courses.

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Online ECE Course Design

 The online students follow the lessons at

their own pace and time: live stream or

podcasts

 They can also send their questions to the instructor using email, video conferencing, chat rooms, or over the telephone.

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Online ECE Course Design

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Online ECE Course Design

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Online ECE Course Design

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Online ECE Course Design

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Online ECE Course Design

 To allow the online students to complete

their project and laboratory experiment

demonstrations completely online.

 Course instructor can schedule an online

project or laboratory experiment

demonstration time with students.

Phase III – Implementation of the Adobe

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Online ECE Course Design

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Online ECE Course Design

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Online ECE Course Design

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Online ECE Course Design

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Online ECE Course Design

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 The MS-Board contains the 6 different instruments 1. 2 Channel Scope & Function Generator

2. +4V & -4V DC power supplies

3. 16 Digital I/O ports & Spectrum Analyzer

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Portable ECE Lab Set-up

Course Development Approach



Phase I

- Implementation of the Mobile

Studio

TM

Technology and Pedagogy



Phase II

- Implementation of the Panopto

Focus

TM

Lecture Capture technology



Phase III

- Implementation of the Adobe

Connect

TM

Video Conferencing software

(60)

Core

and Lab

Courses

Adobe Connect Panopto Focus Searchlight Blackboard Mobile Studio

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Engineering at MSU

 The availability of low cost portable instrumentation allows us to offer our

program fully online (last

2 years)

 MSU offers to first and only completely online

ECE program in the State

of MD