Room 20-100

Lab Room Coordinator: Dr. Jim Harris
Courses Offered: CPE 259, CPE 359
Laboratory Size: 1242 square feet
Average # of students per year: 544
Utilization Ratio: 0.44

 

Overview:

Functionally, this is a state-of-the-art laboratory for teaching logic and state-machine design. Using custom software to deliver laboratory instruction, the student has a virtually paperless laboratory experience. The software contains tutorials, simulations, and design tools for the student to study both digital logic and its instrumentation.

Current Problems with the Laboratory:

  • There are two areas of significant concern, both resulting from the fact that the lab was developed over five years ago. The first is the operation and maintenance of the custom software; at this time the only available option is to continue the development of the custom software (as opposed to using commercially available tools). The second concern is that computer and network support are limiting further development of the laboratory.
  • Associated with these two principal concerns is the recognized need to update the instrumentation, which will allow for a more fully integrated approach to the laboratory exercises.
  • The facilities are adequate for the current courses offered, but do not support further development, development that is needed in order to provide the quality of education expected from Cal Poly graduates. It should also be noted that there is a storage area at one end of the laboratory, and this should be removed in order to accommodate more students in the laboratory.

Current equipment includes:

  • 8 Workstations consisting of:
  • Computers - HP Vectra Pentiums
    • 24 MB RAM
    • 2 GB hard disk
    • 3.5" floppy disk
    • CD Roms
    • Color monitor
    • Network Hp Laser printer
  • One instructor computer - same as workstation but 486
  • Software - McMorran custom 259
    • NT 4.0
    • Warp2
    • Max Plus2
    • LogicWorks
    • ABEL 4
  • Network - NT with EtherNet
  • Hardware - Voltmeter HP 3435A
  • Logic analyzer HP 1651A
  • Philips oscilloscope
  • Custom interface to PC, LA, and protoboard
  • Device/logic programmers:
    • 1 DATA I/O 2900
    • 4 AMD Labpro

Proposed plan for Laboratory

This proposal is intended to increase the quality of the educational experience of the students who use this laboratory, and to increase the productivity of the faculty who teach the courses that use this laboratory. The increase in quality comes from the use of the studio concept in the teaching of the courses, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of students that the faculty teach each quarter. The stated increase is productivity results from the fact that the proposal assumes the faculty having the same number of contact hours will generate the same scu's with a overall decrease in wtu's.

The two courses, and their labs, that will be enhanced by the implementation of this proposal are EE/CPE 219/259 and EE/CPE 319/359. In the academic year about 400 students enroll in 219/259. There are currently about 12 sections of the 219 3-unit lecture and 28 sections of the 259 1-unit laboratory taught; this represents 92 wtu's to generate approximately 1600 scu's. If the laboratory room were refurbished to accommodate 32 students at 16 workstations, the curriculum was combined into a 4-unit studio package meeting the same six hours a week, and the faculty were allocated 5 wtu's per section, then there would only be at total of 52 wtu's needed to generate the approximately 1600 scu's for the EE/CPE 219/259 course material. In addition, the faculty would teach 64 students per quarter (two studio sections), not the potential upper limit of 102 (two lectures and two labs), and the faculty would have the same number of contact hours in both situations. The proposed teaching schedule could be two hours a session for three days; typically, 8-10, 10-12, 12-2, 2-4, 4-6, and 6-8 on MWF would work for six sections (about 200 students enrolled). The same studio implementation can be used to instruct the material currently presented in EE/CPE 319/359 to approximately 250 students per academic year. Using the same model as 219/259, the 1000 scu's could be taught for 40 wtu's compared to the 49 wtu's currently used. The fewer 319/359 studio courses could be scheduled in three hour sessions on TR which would not conflict with the MWF times for the 219/259 studios; typically, 8-11, 12-3, and 3-6 on TR would work. A summary of these considerations is presented below:

Courses Current-35 lec/16 lab
(wtu's)		 Proposed-32 studio
(wtu's)
EE/CPE 219/259 92 52
EE/CPE 319/359 49 40
Total 141 92
The net savings in wtu's is 49 wtu's, or about one and a half faculty positions. The net savings in wtu's could be used to generate release time for the faculty to pursue scholarship. The increase in the quality in the learning experience for the students enrolled in the studio mode of instruction has been documented (e.g., the RPI physics studio). In addition, this Cal Poly implementation allows the faculty to know the students better, 64 students instead of up to 102 per quarter, which means less homework and tests to grade resulting in more time for open-ended design problems and enhanced personal attention to student needs.

Needs to Implement the Studio Proposal

To implement the studio concept in the Digital Design Laboratory, the number of workstations have to be increased from 8 to 16. Also, the logic analyzers should be replace with the HP 1660 dual logic analyzer/digital oscilloscopes used in 20-121; the cost is about $12k per unit. Each workstation costs about $20k for a total of $160k for the additional eight workstations. Replacing the logic analyzers and oscilloscopes of the eight existing workstations would cost about $96k. To refurbish the laboratory furniture to implement the studio concept is estimated to cost about $48k, about $16k for the 32 chairs and $32k for the desks. If it is assumed the technical support staff does the installation, then the total cost is about $204k, with $156k for equipment and $48k for furniture. [It should be noted that the "savings" in faculty wtu's would pay for the cost in two years, resulting in a "profit" for the department after that.]

Source for Funds

Obviously, HP would be a one-stop resource for the equipment; one possibility is the HP Cal Poly alumni offer to donate funds for our labs. The furniture probably would require cash donations; the department could allocate the one year's worth of discretionary funds donations to cover this costs, i.e., use alumni and friends donations to discretionary




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