ECE 446
Principles of Experimental Research was offered for the first time in Fall 2008 and then again in Fall 2009, 2011, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2021. This interdisciplinary course is designed for first year graduate students and advanced undergraduates in engineering and science. It has been approved as an ECE departmental laboratory elective.
The course draws on laboratory problems in engineering and covers topics in: (1) design of experiment, (2) prevalent experimental techniques and instrumentation, (3) data collection, organization, and statistical analysis techniques, (4) oral and written presentation of scientific material, and (5) scientific computing languages and software. Students develop technical and critical thinking skills by carrying out four open-ended labs and an experimental project of their own design. They also present their project results and papers from the literature in three common formats: at a poster session, at a conference talk, and in a journal paper. The conference proceedings from the individual experiments from 2009 are posted here.
The main course objective is for students to develop the basic skills needed for pursuing a career or an advanced degree involving experimental research. The course prerequisites are: ECE 313 or equivalent and Senior or Graduate standing in an engineering or science curriculum, or by permission of the instructor.