ECE Technology Program

As autonomous systems become a ubiquitous part of our society, robotics has quickly emerged as a high demand field of study. By its nature, robotics is a multi-disciplinary study with its core in electrical and computer engineering. This makes developing effective robotics curriculum a challenge as students can quickly become jacks of all trades and masters of none. Additionally, developing and maintaining effective laboratory settings for students to implement theory in a safe and effective way can be extremely difficult. This session will focus on how the strengths of the electrical and computer engineering discipline can be leveraged to effectively develop future roboticists who are career ready upon graduation. It will feature presentations from academics involved in developing and deploying robotic curriculum as well as industry partners hiring those graduates. After the presentations, a roundtable discussion will encourage participants with a variety of experience to exchange and promote strategies, ask questions, and in general, have a conversation that enhances robotics curriculum within electrical and computer engineering departments. 

Organizers:

Magnus Egerstedt
Steve W. Chaddick School Chair and Professor
Georgia Tech

Magnus Egerstedt is the Steve W. Chaddick School Chair of the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, one of the largest programs of its kind in the United States with over 2,500 students and over 110 faculty members. From 2016-2018, Dr. Egerstedt served as the executive director for the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines and held the Julian T. Hightower Chair in Systems and Controls in the School of ECE. He holds secondary appointments in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, the School of Interactive Computing, and the Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering. Dr. Egerstedt received the M.S. degree in Engineering Physics and the Ph.D. degree in Applied Mathematics from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, the B.A. degree in Philosophy from Stockholm University, and was a Postdoctoral Scholar at Harvard University. He conducts research in the areas of control theory and robotics, with particular focus on control and coordination of complex networks, such as multi-robot systems, mobile sensor networks, and cyber-physical systems.


Sean Wilson
Director, Robotarium Lab
Georgia Tech

The engineering profession students need to be prepared for is rapidly changing due to the great acceleration of technology. Are they ready to hit the ground running? This session will focus on the key role that industrial partnerships can play in driving improved student outcomes and helping prepare the student for the transition from the lab environment to the workplace. 

Organizer:

Andy Bell
Director of Innovation
National Instruments

Andy Bell leads NI’s world class program for research collaborations driving technology advancement aligned with long term innovation. He was previously Director of Academic Programs where he led a team empowering discovery in undergraduate classrooms, graduate-level studies, and advanced research. He also served as the Director of Innovation at LEGO Education where he focused on the development and improved use of robotics technology in STEM education. Mr. Bell earned his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech and a Certificate in Integrative STEM Education from Virginia Tech. Mr. Bell has served on numerous advisory boards including currently as chair for the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) and board member for the Center for Engineering Education & Outreach at Tufts University. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Thinkery, a nonprofit STEM organization. 

Speakers:

Harry Powell
Professor, ECE
Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs
University of Virginia

Dr. Powell is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Programs. After receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1978 he was an active research and design engineer, focusing on automation, embedded systems, remote control, and electronic/mechanical co-design techniques, holding 16 patents in these areas. Returning to academia, he earned a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2011 at the University of Virginia. His current research interests include machine learning, embedded systems, electrical power systems, and engineering education. Dr. Powell is a member of ASEE, IEEE, and ACM.

Jackie Sullivan
University of Central Florida

Jackie Sullivan is Adjunct Instructor for the UCF College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) since 2012 and has taught thousands of students annually in the EGS 1006C and EGN 1007C first year engineering course series. Her appointment is in the Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering (CECE) Department and the CECS Academic Affairs Office. She holds a BS in Microbiology and MS in Environmental Engineering from UCF. While teaching at UCF, she has coordinated events in STEM such as ‘Expanding Your Horizons’ for female middle school students (2009-2012). She has industry experience as a Project Engineer for Boyle Engineering Corporation in Orlando. Jackie is a mother of four, and married 28 years to Steven Sullivan (Chief Engineer for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program).

Mark C. Johnson
Director of Instructional Laboratories 
Purdue University

Dr. Mark C. Johnson is the Director of Instructional Laboratories for the School of ECE at Purdue University. He earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue in 1998 doing research that focused on low power VLSI design and leakage control. He previously taught at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and has served on the technical staff for Thomson Consumer Electronics and the Boeing Company. His current work focuses on laboratory curricula and on using long term projects to expose students to industry practice, especially in the area of System-on-Chip design.

Eric Wolf
Director of Engineering
L3 Harris

Tim Davidson
Department Chair
McMaster University

Tim Davidson has served as the Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at McMaster University (Hamilton, ON, Canada) since 2012. He had previously served as Acting Director and Associate Director of McMaster's School of Computational Engineering and Science over a period of five years. He received the B.Eng. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Western Australia in 1991, and the D.Phil. degree in engineering science from the University of Oxford in 1995 (as a Rhodes Scholar). His research interests lie in the general areas of communications and signal processing, and his teaching interests expand to include control. In 2011 he received a Best Paper Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society. He has served the signal processing research community in a variety of ways, and is a Fellow of the IEEE. He is currently serving as Vice-Chair of Canadian Heads of ECE.

In order to support and advance the significant revolution in many ECE curricula, the ECE laboratory role, purpose, and mission must undertake a similar evolution. New pedagogies, test and measurement platforms, and entrepreneurial mindsets are driving innovation within and outside of the classroom. The ECE laboratory is uniquely positioned to capitalize on these changes and foster undergraduate passion and creativity, but thought must be given as to how best to address this evolution while being constrained by shrinking budgets and external competition. This session aims to look at ways that traditional ECE labs can be re-imagined to become more flexible and adaptive in order to support varied laboratory styles, as well as broadening use for lectures, flipped classrooms, design studios, and makerspaces.

For more information on the ECE Technology Program please the ECE Technology Program page.

Organizers:

Matt Lamparter
Lab Director
Bucknell University

Matt Lamparter is the Lab Director for the Electrical & Computer Engineering Department at Bucknell University. In addition to teaching students practical fabrication and design skills, and managing equipment, components, and laboratory spaces for the ECE department, Matt manages one of three makerspaces on Bucknell’s campus. He holds a BS EE from Bucknell and an MS EE from Columbia University. 

Mark C. Johnson
Director of Instructional Laboratories
Purdue University 

Dr. Mark C. Johnson is the Director of Instructional Laboratories for the School of ECE at Purdue University. He earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Purdue in 1998 doing research that focused on low power VLSI design and leakage control. He previously taught at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and has served on the technical staff for Thomson Consumer Electronics and the Boeing Company. His current work focuses on laboratory curricula and on using long term projects to expose students to industry practice, especially in the area of System-on-Chip design.

Ramsin Khoshabeh
Director ECE Makerspace
University of California, San Diego

Ramsin Khoshabeh received his PhD from the ECE department at UC San Diego in 2012, specializing in computer vision and machine learning for medical applications. He currently serves as the Director of the ECE Makerspace at UC San Diego. In addition to overseeing the operations of the lab, Ramsin also teaches numerous experientially-focused courses covering topics such as basic electronics and prototyping, wearable sensors, Python programming, full-stack web development, real-time signal processing, machine learning and vision, human-centered product engineering, and even agile business planning. Prior to entering the workforce at UC San Diego, Ramsin was part of several tech/biotech startups and consulted with a number of local companies on computer vision and machine learning solutions.




Mark Liu
Assistant Director ECE Makerspace
University of California, San Diego

Mark Liu current manages UC San Diego’s ECE Makerspace, where students are taught how to use the latest in digital prototyping equipment in a large variety of hands on engineering classes. He comes from a background of working at hardware startups where he spent most of his time designing and building functional prototypes as fast as possible. Taking that experience, he now helps students do the same, as well as providing support to researchers and other projects on campus.

Truong Nguyen
Professor
University of California, San Diego 

Truong Nguyen came to the Jacobs School in 2001. He manages the Video Processing Group, and teaches courses associated with the Signal Image Processing Program (SIP). He is a 1995 recipient of an NSF career award and is co-author of a popular book: Wavelets and Filter Banks, and author of several matlab-based toolboxes on image compression, electrocardiagram compression, and filter bank design. He also holds a patent on an efficient design method for wavelets and filter banks and several patents on wavelet applications including compression and signal analysis. He received his Ph.D. from Caltech in 1989.

This session will begin with short presentations of current ECE curriculum reforms that have been implemented. The panel participants from academia, industry participants and the audience will then break into smaller groups and discuss the challenges, outcomes and results from the curriculum changes that may have been implemented and its short and long term impact on student experience. The panel will regroup and discuss the outcomes from the group discussion and exchange ideas on various strategies and action plans for making an agile and engaging ECE curriculum. The groups will also propose an updated curriculum based in the inspiration from the conference.

For more information on the ECE Technology Program please the ECE Technology Program page.

Organizers:

George Pappas
Professor and Chair
University of Pennsylvania

George J. Pappas is the UPS Foundation Professor and Chair of the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a secondary appointment in the Departments of Computer and Information Sciences, and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. He is member of the GRASP Lab and the PRECISE Center. He has previously served as the Deputy Dean for Research in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. His research focuses on control theory and in particular, hybrid systems, embedded systems, hierarchical and distributed control systems, with applications to unmanned aerial vehicles, distributed robotics, green buildings, and biomolecular networks. He is a Fellow of IEEE, and has received various awards such as the Antonio Ruberti Young Researcher Prize, the George S. Axelby Award, the O. Hugo Schuck Best Paper Award, the National Science Foundation PECASE, and the George H. Heilmeier Faculty Excellence Award.





Truong Nguyen
Professor
University of California, San Diego