Participating Organizations: Auburn University, Northern New Mexico College and Tuskegee University
Project Description: Although considerable advances have been made, software defined radio (SDR) has been regarded as a highly advanced topic that is typically offered at the graduate level. This project is introducing SDR into the undergraduate wireless engineering curriculum. The team is utilizing existing programmable wireless platforms to expose undergraduate students to advanced SDR technology through hands-on experiments and projects. The hands-on approach is motivating student learning and greatly enhancing existing wireless engineering courses. The specific objectives of this project are to: 1) develop a new SDR laboratory course for junior and senior wireless engineering students; 2) develop and integrate wireless communications experiments and projects; and 3) configure the new SDR course and projects for easy adoption at other universities. To explore the issues and elements associated with other institutions adopting and offering such a course, the project involves collaboration with Northern New Mexico College (a minority-serving institution) and Tuskegee University (one of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities).
Broader Significance: The project is exposing undergraduate students to the latest advances in wireless communication and offers highly valuable training for future wireless engineers. The team is particularly focusing on the education of women and underrepresented minorities. The project is reaching out to K-12 students through participating in the annual Teams and Individuals Guided by Engineering Resources (TIGERs) camp that is hosted by the College of Engineering at Auburn University. The SDR laboratory experiments are being used as demonstrations for future TIGERs camps and the products are being contributed to the SDR open-source repositories. The developed course modules are offered and provided to other universities, with a specific focus on HBCUs and minority-serving institutions. Tutorials involving the implementation of the labs are being offered at the annual Wireless Symposium & Wireless Summer School which is being hosted by Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, VA. The PI also plans to publish a special issue on classroom use of programmable wireless platforms in ICST Transactions on Emerging Internet Infrastructures.
