Session 1

Session 2

Building Electrical Circuits and Computers

Fundamentals of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Computing, communication and control systems are the heart of today’s high-tech industries and the designs of these sophisticated systems are all based on a few fundamental concepts in electrical and computer engineering. This action-packed two-week course introduces students to building circuits and computers with some light theory, a lot of experimentation and a touch of coding and simulations. 

The course covers a number of fundamental topics including: (1) introduction to electricity; (2) circuits with resistors, capacitors and inductors; (3) filters and resonant circuits; (4) magnetism and motors; (5) amplifiers; (6) digital circuits including AND, NAND and NOR gates; (7) software tools such as MATLAB and PSPICE; and (8) power generation using solar panels. The last topic covers another “3C,” the climate change crisis. The course is highly hands-on and ends with a team project using all of the above elements.

Curriculum

The course begins with a light introduction to electricity, both direct current (DC, batteries) and alternating current (AC, wall outlets and sinewaves). Students play with simple circuits with resistors, then discover capacitors and inductors and use them to build filters (circuits that clean up signals) and resonant circuits (antennas and oscillators). The programs continues with electricity’s twin sister, magnetism. Students build a magnet using a wire, a nail and a battery, and use it to make motors. Interested in amplifying music? You can also do that using operational amplifiers.

To start working on computing circuits, students will discover Boolean algebra and build AND gates and NAND gates, from which an entire central processing unit (CPU) of a computer or—as in this course—an actual circuit to add two binary numbers can be build. Students also learn new software tools MATLAB and PSPICE, for doing maths and simulating their circuits.

Finally, all these circuits and systems need power to run and power production from solar circuits will be covered with hands-on exercises and discussion of how these tools can mitigate the climate change crisis.

Engineering student soldering an electrical circuit
Planned Topics

In the morning, students attend interactive, mathematics- and physics-flavored discussion sessions on the science behind the design of simple electrical and computer engineering systems. The morning sessions will end with demonstration of how various test and measurement equipment is used.

In the afternoons, students work in the lab building circuits and systems, taking various measurements, recording, plotting and analyzing their results. The instructors and the teaching assistants who work hands-on with the students will be happy to discuss not only the projects in the lab but also their experience in pursuing an engineering or computer science degree.

On completion of the program, each student will have an advanced understanding of two of the most dynamic fields of engineering, namely electrical and computer engineering, which is useful in various other areas of engineering and science.

Specific Topics: (1) introduction to electricity; (2) circuits with resistors, capacitors and inductors; (3) filters and resonant circuits; (4) magnetism and motors; (5) amplifiers; (6) digital circuits including AND, NAND and NOR gates;  (7) software tools such as MATLAB and PSPICE; and (8) power generation using solar panels.

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Rahim Khoie
Faculty Lead
Rahim Khoie

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 1986
M.S. in Electrical Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, 1980
B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Abadan Institute of Technology, 1977

Rahim Khoie's areas of interest include renewable energy, photovoltaics and semiconductor quantum and nano devices. He has published more than 100 articles in journals and proceedings and has given numerous invited presentations at conferences and scientific meetings. Presently, Dr. Khoie and several of his collaborators are creating a research center at Pacific, Carbon Capture Center for Mitigating Climate Change Crisis – C3FMC3, which is a gathering of ideas from multiple disciplines including sociology, economics, science, engineering and other disciplines for tackling the climate change crisis and finding solutions for best mitigating them.

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