centralized platform project for multiple ECE core courses

This paper presents the authors’ teaching practice of utilizing a centralized platform project to link three core major courses (Automatic Control, Power Electronics, and Electric Drives) in ECE curriculum. The centralized platform project emulates the drive system of a golf-cart. It consists of several subsystems such as controller, power processing unit (power electronics converters), interface circuitry, sensors, and electric machines etc. Students enrolled in these three courses will be introduced to the system level block diagram of the integrated golf-cart drive system at the beginning. In each course, students have opportunity to redesign/modify the subsystem relevant to the particular course they are in. After completing these three courses in a sequence, students will have design and testing experience with component, subsystems, and finally an integrated system. Details of the platform project as well as individual course projects will be described in this paper. The assessment method for course evaluation will be presented at the end of the paper along with students’ feedbacks and course-exit survey results.