Dennis Derickson, Electrical Engineering chair; Chuck Bland, Electrical Engineering alumnus and lecturer; Marcel Stieber, Electrical Engineering alumnus; and Jack Gallegos, Electrical Engineering student, were published in The Bridge magazine. Their feature article, “Great Impedance Match for Knowledge Transfer: Amateur Radio as Part of Electrical and Computer Engineering Education,” focuses on licensing, classroom projects and extracurricular applications of amateur radio.
Abstract
The amateur radio community is well-known for its creativity and ingenuity in projects constructed with a modest budget and basic laboratory equipment. The Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) community is known for its innovation and world-changing impact. When these two communities meet in the world of electrical and computer engineering education, great outcomes await for faculty and students. This article talks about how a university makes these connections to help student success. A starting point is to encourage students to take the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) amateur radio examination early on in their college education in order to get exposure to advanced topics in ECE well in advance of when they take courses on the topic. A second initiative is to encourage student creativity to design and implement their own projects, using amateur radio, in formal and informal laboratory settings of the university curriculum. Finally, amateur radio provides a rich set of topics for senior and graduate level project/thesis activity. This article will provide examples of how these amateur radio/ECE interactions occur along with specific project examples that demonstrate that amateur radio is still on the forefront of project innovation.
Read the entire article HERE.
