During the first semester we are giving an introductory course for engineering physics students for two years. In this course the students are asked to build the mechanical part of a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM), the other parts, that are the electronics and software, are provided by a home-build system, a LabView program made by the teachers, and commercial data acquisition system based on the PXI-bus from National Instruments. Most of the students succeeded in making a working STM. Their STMs are used in later courses such as mechanics to measure the resonance frequency of the mechanical part of the STM. In a second project coarse, in the second year, the students are building the electronics and constructing the software system.
Although we have not directly followed the CDIO initiative [1], which is an educational framework for engineers, our approach is somewhat similar in spirit. CDIO, which stands for conceiving, designing, implementing, and operating, are stressing engineering fundamentals set in the context of real-world products.
Here, we will describe our project-based approach as well as our plans to improve the courses.
[1] www.cdio.org |