Overview

Bulletin description for ECE 211: “Introduction to design for electrical and computer engineers. Preparation for a team project in ECE 212. Discussion of design process, needs, requirements, functional decomposition, testing, and project management. This is the first course in a sequence of two: ECE 211 and ECE 212 and must be taken in sequence. Co-requisite: ECE 221.”

Bulletin description for ECE 212: “Continuation of ECE 211. Teams of students work on design projects that integrate electrical and computer engineering skills, knowledge and concepts gained up to this point. Application of structured design methodology to an authentic engineering problem. This is the second course in a sequence of two: ECE 211 and ECE 212 and must be taken in sequence.”

This sequence of courses is meant to be “mini-capstone” pair of courses where students work in teams to come up with a design problem and then solving it using a systematic design approach. By this time, students have finished freshman courses in problem solving, programming, DC circuits, digital circuits, and are just getting into more sophisticated circuit analysis in ECE 221. These two courses will integrate their knowledge of all these areas through one design project in ECE 212. Before that, they will learn more about design process, teamwork, and project management in ECE 211. Courses are light on credits (1 + 2) but will require frequent team meetings and planning sessions.

Course structure:

• Lectures

• Team meetings

• Presentations

• Homework

• Projects

A formal course description can be found here:

https://www.pdx.edu/electrical-computer-engineering/ece-211-introduction-design-processes-and-ece-212-introduction-project-development

Required TA Skills

1. Solid background in engineering problem solving.

2. Understanding of, and experience with, structured design process and project management.

3. Ability to debug basic circuit problems and implement them on breadboards.

4. Familiarity with DAQ devices (e.g. LabJack) or Arduino desirable.

5. Good background in MATLAB fundamentals and programming.

6. Proficiency with software tools for project management (Trello).

7. Ability to observe or lead team meetings as scrum master or product owner (this come from Scrum project management).

8. Provide feedback to teams on their project plans and implementation.

9. Participate in grading of student projects.

10. Familiarity with instrumentation in circuits labs: oscilloscopes, signal generators, power supplies, so that you can provide guidance to student teams.

TA Responsibilities

ECE 211 teaching assistants are required to:

1. Attend weekly “lectures” which are held twice a week for two hours

2. Hold separate “stand up” meetings with teams assigned to them twice a week

3. Grade in-class pop-up quizzes, as needed.

4. Hold weekly office hour.

ECE 212 teaching assistants are required to:

1. Set up and attend stand up meetings for assigned teams;

2. Hold weekly retrospectives

3. Provide feedback to teams on their progress

4. Participate in grading teams in terms of their final demo, adherence to structured design process, adherence to good project management practices, and final product quality.

5. Be available via email to answer student questions.

6. Hold weekly office hour

7. Give bi-weekly updates on team progress to instructor

Because there is no “script” to follow, no prescribed labs, etc. TA for these courses must be flexible and proactive and keep constantly in touch with the instructor.