P O Z N A N U N I V E R S I T Y O F T E C H N O L O G Y A C A D E M I C J O U R N A L S
No 54 Electrical Engineering 2007
__________________________________________
Lech BOROWIK*
Marek KURKOWSKI*
TEACHING PROGRAMME FOR STUDENTS OF
ELECTRONICS AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS
AT THE FACULTY OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING,
CZESTOCHOWA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
The paper presents a new schema of courses for students of Electronics and Telecommunications, specializing in Digital Signal Processing. The courses include lectures, seminars, laboratory workshops and projects as they are taught at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czestochowa Technical University.
Keywords: teaching standards, university education
1. INTRODUCTION
The Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Czestochowa Technical University offers graduate and postgraduate studies (as the Polish terminology has it: 1st degree and 2nd degree studies, which used be a unified M.Sc. programme) in Electrotechnology [4], with specializations in Electronics and Computer Engineering and Teleinformation Technology. Since the academic year 2001/2002 graduate studies are also conducted in Information Technology, and since 2004/05 in Electronics and Telecommunication.
Full time graduate studies in E&T take 7 semesters, and the extramural (part time) studies take 8 semesters. Both full- and part time studies offer the specialization of Digital Signal Processing, and the specialization is chosen together with the major subject of the studies. The programme of full time studies includes vocational practice. During the last semester students attend courses they have registered for and at the same time work on their diploma project and thesis. After completing all the courses and passing the final exam, graduates obtain the title of Engineer of Electronics and Telecommunications. The teaching programme was developed and approved of in accordance with the standards which were valid at that time [1]. As may be known, new teaching standards were introduced from
2007
Poznańskie Warsztaty Telekomunikacyjne Poznań 6 - 7 grudnia 2007
the academic year 2007/2008 on, and all universities are obliged to conform to these standards by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (hence the Polish acronym will be used: MNiSzW) [2].
2. GENERAL, FUNDAMENTAL, AND MAJOR SUBJECTS
In accordance with the newly introduced teaching standards new schedules were prepared, which are, however, in many points similar to the previous ones [3,5].During the first semesters students obtain theoretical education in the field of general science. The programme of semesters I – IV includes, among other subjects, foreign language classes, Computer Science Technology, Economics, courses on intellectual rights protection and on work safety and ergonomics. At the same time a group of fundamental subjects is taught, such as Mathematics-foundations, Physics, Methodology and Programming Techniques, Processing and Simulation Techniques, and Circuits and Signals.
Further semesters are devoted to studying major subjects. As one may expect, most such subjects are connected either with broadly understood electronics, or with telecommunications. The subjects can be divided into four chunks:
I – „ELECTRONICS”
II – „TELECOMMUNICATIONS” III – „COMPUTER SCIENCE” IV – „OTHER”
Chunk I : - Electronic components; - Optoelectronics; - Analog circuits; - Digital technique; - Integrated circuits and systems.
Chunk II : - Telecomunication – foundations; - Systems and telecomunication networks; - Very high frequency (VHF) technology; - Antennas and wave propagation; - Wireless technology; - Multimedia technology - Signal processing.
Chunk III : - Computer and Operating systems architecture; - Programming in JAVA.
Chunk IV : - Material engineering and construction of devices; - Metrology - foundations; - Low voltage systems.
The above mentioned subjects are taught on the basis of the programme minimum established by the ministry. The content of these subjects is specified more broadly than it was in the previous standards so that it is presented in a fairly general way. Thus the instructor enjoys much freedom in selecting particular content of the lectures, classes and laboratory workshops. The choice of equipment for the laboratory is also left to the instructor’s discretion.
Subjects in chunks I and II are taught consecutively, whereas subjects in chunks III and IV are treated as complementary to them.
3. SPECIALIZED AND OPTIONAL SUBJECTS
The specialization in Digital Signal Processing is conducted in semesters V, VI and VII. The specialized subjects are significant part of the engineer’s education and they largely contribute to the graduate’s profile. They offer sound experience in the exploitation of modern signal processing systems. The specialized subjects include: Signal processing systems; - Computer aided designing of analog circuits; - Use of electronic and telecommunication systems; - Overvoltage protection in telecommunication; - Metrology in telecommunication; - Foundations of automatics and robotics; - Numerical methods and analogue methods of field analysis.
A large number of optional subjects makes it possible for students to control their own education programme so that it conforms both to their interests and to the subject of their diploma projects. Table 1 presents the schedule of optional subjects taught in semester VII.
Optional subjects L C/S Lab
Optimal and adaptive systems 15 15
Digital Signal Processors 15 30
Data transmission 15 30
Teleinformation networks 30 30
Microprocessor based systems and controllers 30 30 Algorithms of digital measurements in protective automation 15 15 15 Telecommunication in power engineering automation 30 30
Physical foundations of piezoelectronics 30 15 Technical applications of devices on surface acoustic waves 30 15
Operational research 30 15
Programming in C++ 30 30
Neural networks 30 30
Artificial intelligence 30 15
Measuring systems 30 30
Telecommunication systems in an intelligent building 30 30
Management of database systems 15 30
Solitonics 30
Modelling in mechatronics 15 30
Table 1. Optional studies for E&T, DSP specialization, L – lectures, C/S-classes or seminars, Lab – laboratory/project workshop
4. CONCLUDING REMARKS
The table below presents the full schedule for the particular groups of subjects included in the teaching standards specified by MNiSzW for the major field of electronics and telecommunications (graduate programme).
Hours Subjects MNiSzW previous standard MNiSzW current standard WE PCZ new schedule general ~270 ~330 330 fundamental 315 420 465 major 570 435 915
specialized ~none~ ~none~ 390
optional ~none~ ~none~ 300
diploma project ~none~ ~none~ 60
Total: the minimum 2500 2500 2520
Table 2. Comparison of the schedule taught at the E&T DSP, Częstochowa Technical University with the ministry’s standards
(including lectures (about 40 %) , classes, laboratories, computer laboratories, seminars, project work and 4 hours of vocational practice).
As can be seen, the number of hours of general subjects taught is the same as the number recommended by the ministry. In the case of fundamental subjects the actual schedule exceeds the recommended number of hours by about 10%. The number of hours spent on the major subjects, however, exceeds the minimum over two times. It is caused, among others, by the fact that in the previous and current standards the number of major subjects is 11 and 16, respectively. The division of subjects into hours is shown in Table 3 below:
Major subjects Number of hours/ subjects MNiSzW previous standard
11 subjects
MNiSzW current standard 16 subjects
51,8 h 27,2 h
Tabela 3. Division of hours into major subjects
Several questions could be asked here, namely, whether it is possible to teach a subject effectively having only 27 hours together for all the types of courses: lectures, classes, laboratories, seminars and projects; whether reducing the educational costs as much as possible should mean reducing the number of hours to
the minimum, or who should pay for the extra cost of the necessary extra classes, or whether it is possible at all to educate a good engineer keeping the number of hours at the ministerial minimum level, etc. It must be taken into consideration that students attended mostly comprehensive secondary schools and their only contact with technology involved using home electrical appliances and a mobile phone.
At the same time it must be remembered that the content of courses has been significantly broadened [2]. The standards, of course, include the minimal number of hours, which can be enhanced. It seems highly advisable to teach the programme with the number of major subject hours increased by 100 %. Developing the schedule we would like to further increase the number of hours spent on the 16 subjects, which are, after all, so diverse and complicated.
The part of the teaching programme covering the general, fundamental, and major subjects takes 1710 hours, that is almost 70 % of the minimum, which is about 2500 h. The remaining 30% - about 800 hours is devoted to the specialized, optional, and diploma project courses. Although the standard mentions 2500 hours as the minimum, many universities, including ours, is unable to offer a greater number of hours due to the financial limitations. When the total time of the studies is 7 semesters, the average number of hours per week is about 24, 50 % of which are to be lectures.
The authors of the present paper, when they were students, one of them in the 70’s and the other in the 80-90’s had about 35 hours weekly. Note also what the standard says: „Graduates in Electronics and Telecommunications obtaining the degree of the engineer are to be properly prepared to undertake various kinds of activities in the field of electronics and telecommunications, both in production and in servicing. They should also have necessary knowledge and skills in designing, producing, and exploitation of analog and digital systems, electronic and telecommunications devices and systems employing modern technologies ...” [2]. As was mentioned in the beginning of the paper, this major field was introduced in our faculty fairly recently. The change in course terminology and contents required much work on our part, at the same time prompting questions whether these changes are purposeful and justified.
Another problem which was observed during the preparation of the new schedule was that the content of many courses was shifted in comparison to the old schedule which used to be taught before.
Since the division into graduate and postgraduate studies was introduced, the major field Electronics and Telecommunications is conducted as the graduate studies (1st degree). Therefore, subjects included in the postgraduate programme are not taught. We believe, however, that at least some of these subjects, such as Fiberoptic Technology are indispensable for future engineers [3], and this point of view is also endorsed by instructors teaching these subjects.
Fiberoptic technology and phototonics Programmable digital systems
Reliability and diagnostics Electromagnetic compatibility Software systems safety Information and coding theory
Management of network and telecommunication services Designing telecommunication networks
Table 4. Major subjects in postgraduate courses
On the other hand, treating the postgraduate programme as a whole is justified, since a graduate of the first degree studies is to continue education at the postgraduate level, possibly at another university. The first degree graduates, however, may also choose different, although related fields of study in their postgraduate programmes. Here the question arises how to adapt the postgraduate teaching programmes and their practical implementation to the needs of students coming from various backgrounds, which often means incomplete qualifications obtained at the graduate studies (often due to reasons external to students themselves). This problem is bound to appear at our faculty as soon as the onset of the summer term of the present academic year (2007/08), when graduates in Information Technology and Electronics and Telecommunications start postgraduate studies in the field of Elecrotechnology. The postgraduate programme enjoys much popularity on the part of the candidates so specializations in Electronics and Computer Engineering as well as Teleinformation Technology will be open, and also five more being to a greater or lesser degree continuation of the graduate programme. We can only wait to see how successful it will become.
REFERENCES
[1] Rozporządzenie Ministra Edukacji Narodowej i Sportu w sprawie określenia standardów nauczania dla poszczególnych kierunków studiów i poziomów kształcenia z 18 kwietnia 2002 Dz.U. Nr116, poz. 1004.
[2] Rozporządzenie Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa WyŜszego w prawie standardów kształcenia dla poszczególnych kierunków oraz poziomów kształcenia, a takŜe trybu tworzenia i warunków, jakie musi spełniać uczelnia, by prowadzić studia międzykierunkowe oraz makrokierunki z 12 lipca 2007 Dz.U. Nr164, poz. 1166. [3] Materiały komisji programowej Wydziału Elektrycznego P.Cz. (1996-2007)
[4] Borowik L., Kurkowski M.: Sylwetka absolwenta specjalności „Przemysłowe systemy pomiarowo-informacyjne”. Materiały XXXV MKM, Kraków 2003 r., s. 271-274.
[5] Hausman S., Strzelecki. M.: Kształcenie w zakresie telekomunikacji w Politechnice Łódzkiej, PWT 2005 8-9.12.2005, Poznań, s. 23-27.
