Perspectives on a freshman treatment of electronic systems

The conventional approach to curriculum design is that students start with the basics of science and math and gradually progress towards a realistic integration of all their engineering skills in a senior capstone project. That approach is now challenged by changes in the assumed boundary conditions. Students no longer progress through the program in lock-step. Electronics applications have evolved far beyond the components level and many cross-disciplinary skills are needed. Finally, all students require a level of communications, team-working, trouble-shooting and representational skills that take a long time to mature so it is too late to wait till the senior year to introduce them. The paper presents a combined student-faculty appraisal of an alternative approach that covers these issues within the context of systems projects as the core of a 3-credit freshman class. The outcomes affirmed that a freshman group could analyze complex systems and that it is a good way to stimulate interest in electronics as a career.