Engineering at Dordt College

About this time of the year I get a few requests from parents of high-school students for recommendations on computers and/or calculators. Generally these will be graduation gifts to high-school seniors who are planning on enrolling in a collegiate engineering program in the fall.

I often do respond to these requests with some actual suggestions. However, over the years I have been teaching I’ve seen some interesting trends. The differences between computers are less important now. The differences in how they are used are more important.

Back in the 1980’s if students used computers it usually meant that they had to learn how to do some programming in a language like BASIC, or at least how to use a command-line operating system like DOS. That taught lessons in algorithms and logic. In this sense using a computer correlated with improved grades in some courses, like computer programming courses. With the introduction of WIMP computing in the 1990’s these advantages disappeared. Spending time with computers then served mainly to develop computer literacy. With the introduction of internet social networking applications like Facebook, MySpace, MSN and You Tube, the tables have turned further. Now spending time with computers is correlated with lower academic grades. Don’t believe me? Check out this and this and this.

What really matters is how the computer is used. If it is used with discernment to search out and find quality information or to run simulations or calculations that relate to actual work at hand, then a computer is an asset. When the computer is used too much for social networking, social e-mail, games, watching movies, and general internet surfing, then the computer represents something more like an addiction and the result is lower grades. (One hour a day for this type of recreation is the guideline we have settled on in our family.)

OK, lets get to the bottom line. . . Should you get a new computer with XP Media Edition or XP Professional, or Vista, or OS X, or Linux or what? Should it be a laptop or a desktop model? How many giga-gallons or what-have-you of memory should it have? How many bazillion-flops should it be capable of? Although some choices are better than others, the former distinctions now pale compared to the importance of using the computer wisely and avoiding temptation. Don’t get your head too busy with the wrong stuff!

In my Electronics II Lab (EGR 323) we are building an AM/FM radio. Not only are we building the radios, the students are also doing all the alignments and any necessary troubleshooting (to correct mistakes which are infrequent but inevitable) . I took this picture on Tuesday, February 20, just as Roy (pictured) was finishing testing the audio amplifier portion of his radio. This week he finished the AM intermediate amplifier, AM oscillator and mixer, and the AM antenna and tuner circuits and finished aligning them all. The AM part of his radio is now fully working. For one thing, it sure is fun for me to watch the smiles on my student’s faces when they hear, for the first time, a radio station coming through on a radio they built! But more importantly, since they have built it piece-by-piece, tested and analyzed the bias of every transistor as they build, and done all the alignments themselves, they see how the theory taught in class gets applied in real-life electronics, and they find that very satisfying.

In the photo: Roy is adjusting the volume control on his radio project. The computer (the larger monitor) is used to display various documents relating to testing and aligning the radio. The item on the top shelf that has a small computer screen is a digital storage oscilloscope. Roy is using that to check the audio signal for distortion and for adequate power at the loudspeaker. Roy is a senior student in Dordt’s Engineering Major. Upon his graduation this May, he plans to work for Fagen Engineering, a company that does consulting engineering work on ethanol plants.