International Journal of Electrical Engineering & Education

Arguing that engineering educators may be prey to various kinds of self-delusion, the paper challenges some of the tacit assumptions we make. It makes a plea for greater realism in engineering education, and makes some suggestions for expanding the range and scope of practical work in the laboratory.

A method of posing short questions for tutorials, tests and examinations is presented. Short questions test a wide range of knowledge, reasoning and judgemental ability. Short questions supplement traditional problems and are quicker to mark by hand than full problems. Examples from circuit theory illustrate the approach.

The CAD software package Electronic Workbench has been used for computer assisted learning for analogue electronics in the second year of a degree course. After a description of the package, the approach used to generate text files to describe the subject matter for transistor biasing, small signal analysis and frequency response is described. The student response is considered, as are the problems encountered in using the package for CAL.

Assertive logic can become a most useful tool by simplifying complex logic circuitry. In assertive logic, all combinational circuitry can be viewed as an AND, OR, or NOT operation and is invaluable when mixing systems of negative and positive logic. This approach has been proven to be a good foundation to understanding logic fundamentals.

The paper describes how the software package MATLAB has been used to remove the burden of numerical calculation from tutorial and laboratory work in the Systems and Control courses at the University of Natal. The package has been enhanced through the addition of two simple commands to enable it to be used to implement real-time control in a laboratory environment.

C has gained considerable popularity in the field of embedded computer systems. However, C is an inherently unsafe language that has resulted in unsafe practices. We present an evolutionary approach derived from the ADA ‘package’ concept. The method has been used in teaching as well as industrial environments.

This paper extends the concept of driving point impedance used in analog electronic systems to dynamic mechanical systems. The similarity between the equations and the bus-impedance matrix equations in power systems is pointed out. Examples have been given to demonstrate the application of the method.

Simulation and laboratory results are presented of an SCR forced commutation d.c. chopper. Chopper and model operation are discussed and compared.