Innovative strategies for teaching wireless applications on the software-

defined radio platform to multilevel cohorts

Dr Gayathri Kongara
Department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering
Monash University
gayathri.Kongara@monash.edu

27th Australian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE)

Coffs Harbour, 4-7th December, AAEE2016
Overview

• Context
• Purpose
• Approach
• Results
• Conclusions

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Context

• Rapid developments in modern telecommunications field present exciting

opportunities as well as new career challenges to graduating students of
engineering discipline
Previous R&D Model
Open loop Model

Industry
Academia Practical
Applied Implementation
Research results

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Context

• Present graduates need system implementation experience to enhance

industry career prospects.
Current R&D Model

Academia Industry Product

Theoretical Development
Collaboration
and Applied with Practical
Research Acadamia Implementation

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Industry relavent Master of Engineering Coursework

• Course design guidelines

1. Benefit a multi-level cohort consisting of novice and
experienced professionals in Telecom aspiring to enter/re-
enter research and development.
2. Bridge the theory-practice knowledge gap
3. Increase student engagement in class
4. Consider needs of a broad range of students with different
levels of engineering skills, career aspirations and time
commitments.
• Avoid overloading the lecturer

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 Purpose

1.Teach system implementation aspects that are relevant to the

emerging needs of research and development organizations [1].
2.Provide access to state-of-the-art prototyping hardware
platforms for hands on implementation experience.
3.Turn the Lecture delivery time into a more active learning
environment.
4.Use Lab sessions to expand on the theory covered (discussed) in
Lectures.
The advanced software defined telecommunication Lab was established with a number of universal
software radio peripheral reconfigurable input/output (USRP-RIO) hardware units [2] for the purpose of
teaching the new Master’s coursework.

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 Approach

• Integration of active learning strategies into our mode of instruction.

• The lecture material contained purposeful questioning on critical areas
• Teaching material (Lectures, preparatory material and Lab exercises) was made
available to students in advance through the online learning system.
• Preparatory material was carefully designed to intellectually stimulate student’s self-
learning capability outside of the class time.
• Upon completing the pre-work, class times were utilized to extend their practical
understanding while prototyping on USRP RIO
• Flexibility in learning and completion of assessment tasks.
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 Results (Measures for success)

• Student evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU) scores. Based on the results
from the Faculty unit evaluation via SETU a median score of 5 is achieved for
this unit for intellectual stimulation.
• Student numbers increased from 8 students to 22.
• Opportunities to meet Engineers from industry and technical symposiums
organised by the industry.
• Students from last year gave a personal feedback on the unit
“This unit is actually very useful as it is preparing us for real-world challenges”

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SDR lab at ECSE department

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Conclusions

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Presentation at 2016 NI technical symposium

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