Kenneth Connor

Space potential profiles in ELMO Bumpy Torus (EBT) experiment

Spatially resolved measurements of the electric space potential in the ELMO Bumpy Torus (EBT) have been made by a heavy ion beam probe. The EBT‐I device is characterized by positive potentials in the surface plasma the order of 100 V and by a nearly symmetric potential well in the core plasma of up to 300 V with respect to the surface potential. The EBT‐S device has a similar potential structure with well depth and peak potential similar to or greater than that of EBT‐I. Peak potential and well depth increase as the edge gas pressure is lowered and as the microwave power is increased. The potential structure is strongly linked to the specific heating geometry. The ambipolar electric field is large enough generally to dominate the core electron neoclassical diffusion. The potential profile is approximately parabolic in the core, which is shown to be a natural consequence of the spatially uniform plasma source function.

Antenna integration with laser diodes and photodetectors for a miniaturized dual-mode wireless transceiver

In this paper, a dual split director quasi-yagi antenna is introduced for RF/FSO integration. Bare die laser diodes and photodetectors are assembled on the antenna directors on the duroid substrate. Coupling between RF and optical dual mode wireless communication system is analyzed.

Improving and Expanding Engineering Education in the Middle East and Africa Using Mobile Learning Technology and Innovative Pedagogy

Recent innovations in inexpensive and portable laboratory instruments have enabled new pedagogical approaches in the teaching of theoretical concepts and design practices in electrical engineering (EE). Faculty members at six universities in the USA have pioneered the use of these new tools to incorporate hands-on experimental activities into existing lecture courses. This has led to restructured EE courses with a focus on student-centered learning and not instructor-centered lectures. The goal of this effort has been to evaluate whether a more student-centered learning environment can stimulate a deeper understanding of EE principles and increase student engagement. The use of hands-on experiments started with an introductory electric circuits course and has expanded into physics, biology, and higher level EE courses. Several modes of instruction using this technology and pedagogy have been implemented at different institutions. In the blended approach, the classroom experience is a combination of lectures and hands-on activities using the mobile laboratory instruments to reinforce theoretical concepts. For the second instructional model, the inverted or flipped classroom, students are expected to read material at home, prior to their investigation of the concepts via hands-on activities in the classroom. A third model uses the portable laboratory instruments to complete hands-on activities outside of the classroom as homework problems, design projects, and/or a nontraditional laboratory component.

Models of adoption and best practices for mobile hands-on learning in electrical engineering

Pedagogical practices in electrical engineering education have been shifting away from teacher-centered learning during the past decade. An innovation that has enabled the adoption of inquiry-based and problem-based learning into the curriculum using experimentation coupled with simulation and analysis has been the development of portable oscilloscopes and other instruments that rely on tablet or laptop computers to perform some of the data processing and to act as the display. Faculty members at six institutions of higher learning have incorporated hands-on experimental activities into existing courses and/or developed new courses that take advantage of these new tools. Assessment data collected by these faculty members have demonstrated that the change towards student-centered learning facilitated by portable electronics increased student interest in electrical engineering, built student confidence in their ability to design circuits and systems, and supported the development of a deeper understanding of the theories that the students investigate or apply in the hands-on activities. A summary of the challenges that are faced in the different implementation models and a discussion of best practices are presented.

Modules to Enhance Smart Lighting Education

Over the past several years there has been a rapid advancement in solid state lighting applications brought on by the development of high efficiency light emitting diodes. Development of lighting devices, systems and products that meet the demands of the future lighting marketplace requires workers from many disciplines including engineers, scientists, designers and architects. The National Science Foundation has recognized this fact and established the Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center that promotes research leading to smart lighting systems, partners with industry to enhance innovation and educates a diverse, world-class workforce. The lead institution is Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with core partners Boston University and The University of New Mexico. Outreach partners include Howard University, Morgan State University, and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of advanced smart lighting systems workers often have little or no formal education in basic optics, lighting and illumination. This paper describes the initial stages of the development of self-contained and universally applicable educational modules that target essential optics topics needed for lighting applications. The modules are intended to be easily incorporated into new and existing courses by a variety of educators and/or to be used in a series of stand-alone, asynchronous training exercises by new graduate students. The ultimate goal of this effort is to produce resources such as video lectures, video presentations of students-teaching-students, classroom activities, assessment tools, student research projects and laboratories integrated into learning modules. Sample modules and resources will be highlighted. Other outreach activities such as plans for coursework, undergraduate research, design projects, and high school enrichment programs will be discussed.

USING EXPERIMENTAL CENTRIC LEARNING PEDAGOGY TO IMPROVE ECE EDUCATION IN THE USA AND AFRICA

This paper will present preliminary results from a 4 year collaboration of 13 electrical and computer engineering (ECE) programs in the USA that are working collaboratively on the development, implementation, and expansion of Experimental Centric based instructional Pedagogy (ECP) in essentially all engineering courses in which electronics plays a significant role. ECP consists of instructional methods that allow students to use portable laboratory instrumentation to learn through hands-on practices, experiential learning, and group work from anywhere at anytime. The authors have also implemented a similar technology and pedagogy at several universities in Africa, including Ethiopia (5 universities), South Africa, and Nigeria. ECP is being implemented in such a large number of educational environments both in the USA and in Ethiopia, that most practical barriers are being identified and addressed. This paper will report on how the partners have created unique versions of pre-tested modules, experiments, units etc. that address a small number of fundamental concepts in circuits and electronics. It will discuss the short and long-term outcomes of this project based on assessment data that has been collected over a three year period. The study concludes on the implications of these influences and the need for further research on how students, faculty, and instructional practices change when using experimental centric learning.

A lighting metric for quantitative evaluation of accent lighting systems

Accent lighting is critical for artwork and sculpture lighting in museums, and subject lighting for stage, Film and television. The research problem of designing effective lighting in such settings has been revived recently with the rise of light-emitting-diode-based solid state lighting. In this work, we propose an easy-to-apply quantitative measure of the scenes visual quality as perceived by human viewers. We consider a well-accent-lit scene as one which maximizes the information about the scene (in an information-theoretic sense) available to the user. We propose a metric based on the entropy of the distribution of colors, which are extracted from an image of the scene from the viewers perspective. We demonstrate that optimizing the metric as a function of illumination configuration (i.e., position, orientation, and spectral composition) results in natural, pleasing accent lighting. We use a photorealistic simulation tool to validate the functionality of our proposed approach, showing its successful application to two- and three-dimensional scenes.