Abstract:

This paper presents the evaluation of Electrical and Electronics Engineering bachelor students response to a power electronics laboratory. Our intention is to examine the effectiveness of direct application of theory on student’s practical simulation and measurement skills.

The course design consists of weekly theoretical courses and lab practicals. The laboratory practicals run in parallel and are based on assembling a boost converter. The set-up is developed in the context of improving interaction between theory and practice.

The lab sessions are divided into three parts: Simulation of the basic behavior and design of a boost converter, PCB assembly and measurements. Our approach is that students are guided through the full process of developing a boost converter. The lab assignment leads students via idealized simulations to assembling and measurements using the theoretical concepts. Finally, students report their approach, findings and recommendations in a lab report. The methodology is that both qualitative and quantitative data about progress and findings was collected during the seven-week course to monitor student’s progress and experience.

This paper outlines how the students approach the lab practicals and how the interaction between the lab practicals and theoretical courses evolves. In the ideal situation students should follow both the courses and lab practicals according to the given time plan, but in practice the students perform the lab practicals at their own pace. From the response of the students, the interest and motivation of the students is monitored in order to optimize the interaction between theoretical course content and practical lab assignments. The main finding was that on average the students progress was as expected lagging a little behind the proposed schedule, but the overall progress was satisfying to finish the course and lab contents within the given time period with satisfactory results.

Compared to traditional oral lectures and separate practical laboratory training, in this course the laboratory assignments follow the contents of the lecture on a weekly basis. In this way the theory is directly put in practice. The difficulty here is to create laboratory assignments, that can be performed by the students, to provide a good coverage of the theoretical aspects discussed during the oral lectures.Since the practical experience of the students is limited, they are just beginners, dedicated laboratory set ups are required, to explain the often complicated theoretical matter. For example, the influence of proximity in multiple layers of windings in coupled inductors, is easily visualized using a figure showing a cross section where the effect is visualized by different colors. But in practice, it is hard to measure the difference between losses due to proximity and losses due to skin effect. Students are encouraged to measure the losses and then to explain the measurement results in a written report. This written report is evaluated and should contain the requested explanations, as explained during the lectures.

The results of the study are of importance for further other course development where a closer interaction between theoretical course and lab practicals is to be introduced.

Keywords:

Electrical Engineering, Power Electronics, Laboratory, Course Design, Boost converter, Simulation.