MATLAB Meets LEGO Mindstorms—A Freshman Introduction Course Into Practical Engineering
- 18 August 2009
- journal article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Transactions on Education
- Vol. 53 (2), 306-317
- https://doi.org/10.1109/te.2009.2017272
Abstract
In today's teaching and learning approaches for first-semester students, practical courses more and more often complement traditional theoretical lectures. This practical element allows an early insight into the real world of engineering, augments student motivation, and enables students to acquire soft skills early. This paper describes a new freshman introduction course into practical engineering, which has been established within the Bachelor of Science curriculum of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of RWTH Aachen University, Germany. The course is organized as an eight-day, full-time block laboratory for over 300 freshman students, who were supervised by more than 60 tutors from 23 institutes of the Electrical Engineering Department. Based on a threefold learning concept comprising mathematical methods, MATLAB programming, and practical engineering, the students were required to transfer mathematical basics to algorithms in MATLAB in order to control LEGO Mindstorms robots. Toward this end, a new toolbox, called the ¿RWTH-Mindstorms NXT Toolbox,¿ was developed, which enables the robots to be controlled remotely via MATLAB from a host computer. This paper describes how the laboratory course is organized and how it induces students to think as actual engineers would in solving real-world tasks with limited resources. Evaluation results show that the project improves the students' MATLAB programming skills, enhances motivation, and enables a peer learning process.This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- Introducing Embedded Design Concepts to Freshmen and Sophomore Engineering Students with LEGO MINDSTORMS NXTPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2007
- Engineering Education and the Design of Intelligent Mobile Robots for Real UseIntelligent Automation and Soft Computing, 2007
- Building the First Steps Into SP ResearchPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2006
- Practicing Engineering in a Freshman Introductory CourseIEEE Transactions on Education, 2006
- LEGO mindstorms: Not just for K-12 anymoreIEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine, 2003
- Learn how to develop software using the toy LEGO MindstormsPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2003
- The qualitative impact of using LEGO MINDSTORMS robots to teach computer engineeringIEEE Transactions on Education, 2003
- Retention 101: Where Robots Go … Students FollowJournal of Engineering Education, 2003
- DSP first-a first course in ECEPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2002
- Reengineering the curriculum: design and analysis of a new undergraduate Electrical and Computer Engineering degree at Carnegie Mellon UniversityProceedings of the IEEE, 1995