Attracting Students with the Cutting-Edge Technology

Research interests of Dr. Youmin Zhang, Associate Professor at the Concordia University's Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering spin around avionics, guidance, navigation and flight control of unmanned aerial vehicles. And acquiring Quanser's Qball-X4, an unmanned aerial vehicle system with the OptiTrack camera system and a ground station PC, allowed Dr. Zhang to effectively continue his research in these areas. But Dr. Zhang is also passionate about teaching and sharing the latest research results with his students. With the support of his department, he introduced his undergraduate and graduate students to this cutting-edge technology.

In the fall of 2010, students enrolled in the Flight Control Systems Course were able to use the Qball-X4 for the first time. The Qball system was also used in a newly offered graduate course Fault Diagnosis and Fault Tolerant Control Systems. Concordia University thus became the first academic institution in the world to use such a cutting-edge physical UAV system to teach a flight control course. Dr. Zhang brought his latest research results to the classroom and gave students a chance to get hands-on experience with the unmanned aerial technology. Students could implement a control algorithm they designed on a real unmanned aerial vehicle and test it - something they did not have the chance to do before.

UVS Lab at Concordia University. Image courtesy of Dr. Youmin Zhang.

Using cutting-edge and industry-relevant technologies in the labs help professors to attract the brightest students and motivate them to continue in their engineering career. Quanser systems allow professors to perform their research, as well as to teach various control concepts and theories. Contact our academic solutions advisors at info@quanser.com to learn more.

Quanser Partners with the Regional Creative Hub

Markham region, where Quanser head office is located, is home to the largest cluster of technology and life sciences companies in Canada. Little wonder that this leading hub of technological innovation, creativity and education was where the Ontario provincial government came to announce the creation of a new innovation center called VentureLab. The establishment of the new innovation centre along with more than $1 million in funding for it, was announced by Glen Murray, Ontario's Minister of Research and Innovation.

Linking together the town of Markham, provincial and federal governments, and industry and academic professionals, VentureLab will focus on creating innovative companies and new technologies. As a part of ONE, the Ontario Network of Excellence, it will help local entrepreneurs bring their ideas to marketplace and give them access to a broad network of experts and resources. VentureLab will operate from the Markham Convergence Centre, a unique business ecosystem that also houses several entrepreneurial companies from the health sciences sector. This close proximity will offer even more opportunities for collaboration and fostering innovation in Markham Region.

Ontario's Minister of Research and Innovation Glen Murrey announcing creation of the VentureLab.

As one of the region's leading engineering companies, Quanser was invited to the announcement event to showcase the innovation that already exists in the region. The guests had an opportunity to see live demonstration of a cutting-edge Quanser technology: the tele-operation system developed by Quanser in collaboration with the University of Western Ontario. The system is used as a surgical simulator in training of health care professionals.

Quanser's engineers demonstrate the cutting-edge High definition Haptic Device HD^2 to the Counsellor Howard Sharp and Minister Glen Murrey

Quanser is prepared to support VentureLab clients in the future, providing engineering mentoring and using its expertise to help bring new technologies to market.

Grade 8 Girls Enjoy Quanser's Ball and Beam Experiment

Every year, Blair McKay, the electronics teacher at Listowel District Secondary School, invites Grade 8 students to his custom-designed electronics lab - eLab. During the electronics workshops - eDays - the students can find out more about electronics and robotics and engage in hands-on activities.

The eDays are held separately for boys and girls. For the girls' eDay, the guest speakers are all women who have exciting careers in electrical engineering, computer engineering and mechatronics. I have been a guest speaker at eDays since 2004. This year, I talked to the girls about how much fun I have working at Quanser, and I showed them Quanser's Ball and Beam experiment. I demonstrated how the computer can control the position of the ball on the beam, and then I let the girls try to control the experiment manually by moving the mouse. All the girls were eager to participate, and although no one was able to control the position of the ball as quickly as the computer, everyone had fun trying!

The eDay workshops are clearly successful at attracting young women to take electronics in high school. At Listowel District Secondary School, Grade 9 electronics is taught as part of an Introduction to Technology class, and there are typically two full all-girl classes!

Quanser Linear Current Amplifier on the Way to Space

There was nothing unusual about the request for information on Quanser's control hardware that we received few months ago, except for the note: "FYI. We use a pair of your LCAMs to drive the beam director of our 8 kw laser power beaming system for NASA Space Elevator Games. We finished second last year." Well, that sparked some interest, because how higher can Quanser system ever get?!

Surprisingly, the competing team is not affiliated to any university or college. A group of hobbiests took on the challenge. "The competition has caught my attention," explained Brian Turner, the captain of the Kansas City Space Pirates team, " because it's something new that hasn't been done before. It's truly a multi-discipline challenge."

Brian gathered a team of other enthusiasts with knowledge and skills in different areas - electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, specialists on solar energy and optics. But the team is not limited to professionals: Dan Leafblad joined as a student at the age of 14.

As the NASA Space Elevator Games rules evolved, requiring the climber to go higher and higher, KC Space Pirates had to turn to more sophisticated system design. Mirrors focusing the sun beam were not sufficient to power the climber up to 1km. Instead, the team turned to laser. More complex system meant more design challenges. "In order to keep the laser aimed as the climber goes up, you need to track it," explained Brian. "We augmented the laser system so that it was able to tell whether the climber was moving upwards, downwards, left or right and used a fast steering mirror to steer the beam. The steering mirror was driven by voice coils." Powering the voice coils turned out to be an issue. After trying several other options, the team came across Quanser's LCAM - linear current amplifier. LCAMs proved to provide ideal operation range in terms of current, voltage and resistance. "We just did the calibration and your solution worked for us beautifully - there was no longer a problem," Brain commented.

Although the team did not win the prize in the 2010, they came pretty close. But what KC Space Pirates can claim are kids inspired to pursue science and engineering not only as a hobby, but also as a career. KC Space Pirates team members often visit middle and high schools to talk about science and engineering. "Competitions like this," says Brian, " turn science into sport. The kids see that participation in science can be fun and cool, just as the participation in sports."

Take Dan Leafblad, one of the KC Space Pirates. He himself joined the team at 14, after hearing Brian talking at the local science club. "Before getting involved with the team, I had no deep interest in science or robotics," says Dan. "After few months with the Space Pirates, it was clear to me I want to do engineering in the future. " As Dan explained, it was great for him to see that he can use the math he learned at home in a real application and design a part of the system. Last fall Dan started his first year at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla. And no wonder right in his freshmen year, Dan became a member of the Missouri S&T Solar Car Team.

And as for the LCAM, we have to see whether it will "reach" the space. It's great to know it has the power to do so.

Quanser Curriculum Helps Assess Students' Knowledge and Skills

Educational institutions and programs around the globe undergo accreditation process to demonstrate they can meet standards set for higher education by their governments or professional organizations.

ABET Accreditation
In the United States, accreditation is a peer-review process, independent of government and coordinated by accreditation commissions and member institutions. One of the most respected organizations specializing in accreditation of educational programs in applied science, computing, science and technology is the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology - ABET.

Focused on Learnig Outcomes
In the past, ABET’s criteria for accreditation outlined the major elements that engineering programs must have, such as program curricula, faculty type and facilities. However, in the last decade the focus shifted away from the inputs - what material is taught, to the outputs - what students learned. This approach encourages innovation in engineering programs and program improvements rather than forcing all programs to follow the same standard.

If your course is part of the ABET or a similar engineering program assessment, you most likely need to evaluate students' ability to:
- apply knowledge of math, science and engineering
- design and conduct experiments, and analyze and interpret data
- communicate effectively
- use techniques, skills and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice

Student Outcome Assessment Embedded in the Course Curriculum
To help educators with assessment of their course, Quanser teamed with Dr. Hakan Gurocak from the Washington State University in Vancouver, USA to rewrite the instructor manual for the Rotary Position and Rate Control Servo (SRV02), one of Quanser's most popular teaching systems used in engineering labs worldwide. The goal was to embed student outcome assessment in the curriculum and provide professors with a simple framework and set of templates that allow them to measure and document students' achievments of various performance criteria.

Assessing Students' Knowledge
For example, every chapter of the laboratory workbook includes Pre-Lab Questions section, that examines understanding of theoretical background and preliminary calculations relevant to the in-lab experiments. These pre-lab questions require students to apply math, engineering and science knowledge through calculations and problem solving strategies (i.e. Student Outcomes criteria A as defined by ABET). If pre-lab questions are assigned as homework, the results can be easily assessed using scoring sheets and scoring criteria that are provided in the workbook.

Assessing Students' Skills
The Lab Experiments section of the laboratory workbook provides step-by-step instructions to conduct lab experiments and record collected data. The experiments require students to design and conduct experiments, analyze and interpret data and use various techniques, skills and modern engineering tools, corresponding to the applied part of engineering and mapping Students Outcomes criteria B and K as defined by ABET. As a part of lab work, students are asked to prepare a report and describe used procedures and achieved results, analyse these results and draw conclusions. Lab reports demonstrate level of achieved effective communication skills, i.e. correspond to the Student Outcomes criteria G as defined by ABET. Again, laboratory workbook provides scoring sheets and scoring criteria so that the outcomes can be easily assessed and documented.

Outcome of the Course
Once all pre-lab and lab work is assessed, it is easy to get the overall outcome of the course. Assessment Workbook, developed by Quanser using Microsoft Excel takes all scores and assembles them into a single score for each Student Outcomes criteria assessed during the course. This Assessment Workbook has no automatic features and allows user to customize it in any way.

For a sample of ABET-aligned rotary servo curriculum, please contact Quanser at info@quanser.com

Virtual Experiments Introduced at 49th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control

Last month I had the opportunity to attend the 49^th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control in Atlanta, Georgia USA. Once again, the Conference on Decision and Control brought together an international community of researchers and practitioners in the field of automatic control to discuss the latest advancements of the discipline, shape its future directions, and promote its diffusion among the scientific community at large.

The highlight of our exhibit at the conference was our announcement of our partnership with John Wiley and Sons to feature 10 virtual experiments from Quanser in the newly released 6^th edition of Norman S. Nise’s Control Systems Engineering. As many of you know, Nise’s book is the most wildly adopted text for core control courses in mechanical, electrical and other engineering programs.

The ten virtual control experiments are powered by LabVIEW and allow students to manipulate Quanser's simulated lab plants and view realistic response behavior. The virtual experiments will help deepen students' homework learning experience and help them prepare for their actual lab work using Quanser’s real plants.

For more information about the virtual experiments supplied with the textbook please visit our blog: http://quanser.blogspot.com/2010/12/teach-control-virtually-anywhere-with.html. And, for a limited time, you can request a complimentary copy of Nise’s text by completing an online survey at http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e35fyitnggtjdjjy/start.

Engineering Lab Attracts and Motivates Students

One of the items that I love about my work at Quanser is the opportunity to visit very exciting research and teaching labs at universities and colleges throughout the US and Canada. Each one has something interesting to show – an interesting engineering teaching lab, an advanced research project, or both. One recent trip took me to Colorado and I can’t help but share my amazement with the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Integrated Teaching & Learning Lab (ITL Lab). It’s a perfect example of hands-on, engaging learning - the kind Quanser has been preaching schools to adopt.

Derek Reamon, co-director of the ITL Lab, discussed with me the 34,000 square-foot facility dedicated to engineering. It felt like visiting a science center. Equipped with cutting-edge technology – Quanser’s SRV02-based rotary experiments among them - the lab serves students from the first year to sophomore level, and courses from design and build, invention and innovation to senior design projects. Using a highly effective system, each engineering department can order experiments for their courses from an online catalogue and book a time to work with the selected experiments. The ordered system can be easily wheeled to workstations – at the ITL Lab or anywhere on campus – and ITL Lab’s staff is available to set it up.

The ITL Lab is one of the most attractive features of the engineering school at the UC Boulder. Plus, the university saves space and financial resources, as the same equipment is not duplicated in the labs of each engineering department. The novel approach to learning gained the ITL Lab awards and recognition from the National Academy of Engineering as well as from industry leaders such as Boeing and Hewlett Packard.

My notion of the ITL Lab similarity to a science center is not just co-incidental: every year, thousands of K-12 students and teachers visit to participate in hands-on, ears-on and minds-on K-12 engineering camps, events and workshops. The staff of the ITL Lab also visits schools in the area to talk and demonstrate science and engineering and spark the interest of the future generation in these subjects.

Many other universities adopted the concept of the integrated multi-disciplinary labs serving several engineering departments. If you are looking for the inspiration, let us know – we can put you in touch with one close to you.

- Leor Grebler