Watch or listen here as Chris Middlebrook talks about his printed circuit board fabrication class at Michigan Tech.
On May 15, 2019, eight students from the African Students Organization (ASO) chapter of Michigan Tech went to Dollar Bay High School to share a perspective of African history and culture that is often misrepresented or ignored by Western media.
Meeting a class of middle and high school students, Kunle Olutomilayo (PhD student, ECE), president of ASO, opened the floor with introductory remarks. Highlighting the historical significance of Africa to human existence. ASO’s interaction with the Dollar Bay School involved an exposition of West African naming practices, a telling of Asante folklore, a video showing different places in all 54 African countries, and a lesson on some facts about the African continent that are rarely pointed out.
Tolu Odebunmi (PhD student, Humanities) explained how the pronunciation of names worked in Yoruba, one of several languages in Nigeria. By referring to the tonal nature of Yoruba pronunciation, Tolu explained how names were significant in most African cultures. Of particular interest was the meanings attached to names and how the circumstances surrounding the birth of a child could dictate the name that was given to a child. For example, some ethnic groups in Ghana name their children based on the day of the week that a child is born.
While the video served as a means to retell the African story, the lesson led by Alfred Owusu-Ansah (PhD student, Humanities) highlighted rarely mentioned issues; Alfred pointed out how the world’s oldest university was established in 859 C.E. in Morocco by a woman. He also pointed out other firsts, like the first successful heart transplant was achieved in South Africa. In encouraging the students to explore the rich diversity of Africa, he suggested that they could read Nobel Laureates like Wole Soyinka of Nigeria or Nadine Gordimer of South Africa; or follow great scientists like Sameera Moussa (a renowned nuclear scientist) of Egypt, and Philip Emeagwali of Nigeria, who built the fastest computer of the time in 1989.
After the lesson students were invited to ask questions. This led to what was perhaps the climax of the day when a very bright student asked: “We hear that Africans are corrupt, how true is that?” Alfred pointed out that corruption does exist at different levels in the different countries in Africa; the same way that corruption exists at different levels in all countries in the world. Alfred highlighted the importance of checks and balances in any system of governance that seeks to minimize corrupt practices, which is as true for Africa as it is for North America. This led to a conversation on the cultural differences between African countries and the United States of America. It was clear that both Africans and Americans had a lot of respect for each other and were eager to learn new things. Ending the interaction with a song, the president of ASO sees this interaction as one of many that can help both Africans and the people of the great Upper Peninsula understand each other better.
by Bello Adesoji | African Student Organization.
Timothy Havens (ECE/ICC) and Anthony Pinar (ECE) coauthored the article, “Enabling Explainable Fusion in Deep Learning with Fuzzy Integral Neural Networks,” which was accepted this month for publication in the journal IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems.
DOI: 10.1109/TFUZZ.2019.2917124
Extract
Information fusion is an essential part of numerous engineering systems and biological functions, e.g., human cognition.
Fusion occurs at many levels, ranging from the low-level combination of signals to the high-level aggregation of heterogeneous decision-making processes.
While the last decade has witnessed an explosion of research in deep learning, fusion in neural networks has not observed the same revolution.
Herein, we prove that the fuzzy Choquet integral (ChI), a powerful nonlinear aggregation function, can be represented as a multi-layer network, referred to hereafter as ChIMP. An additional benefit of ChIMP/iChIMP is that it enables eXplainable AI (XAI).
Michigan Tech’s new course in printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturing is the topic of a series of columns in I-Connect 007. The second column “Better to Light a Candle” Chapter Two—Introduction to PCB Fabrication,” by Marc Carter, features an interview between Marc Carter, Christopher Middlebrook (ECE), and the students in the PCB manufacturing class.
Better to Light a Candle: Chapter Two—Introduction to PCB Fabrication
Editor’s Note: This column is part of a series on a new university course in PCB manufacturing at Michigan Technological University. Marc will chronicle the progress of this class, interview the guest lecturers, introduce the students, etc. The interview with students was also edited for clarity.
In my first column, I reported on a grassroots effort being started to prepare the next generation of printed circuit board (PCB) “experts.” A fortunate alignment of academia, the industry, resources, and concerned, well-seasoned board geeks came together to pass on PCB experience to the next generation through a very practical design, build, assemble, and test opportunity at Michigan Technological University (MTU). I also shared the thoughts of a few of the many people that were key players in getting this effort started.
As a reminder, “EE4800: Printed Circuit Board Fabrication” is a hands-on class intended to give engineering undergraduate students an introduction to the basics of printed circuit design, fabrication, and assembly, which started on January 14 of this year. A high-level overview of the course, it’s approach, and goals can be seen in the poster shared at several events at IPC APEX EXPO 2019 in San Diego, California (Figure 1).
Read more at I-Connect 007, by Marc Carter.
Related:
Better to Light a Candle: Chapter One—Prepping the Next Generation
Five student teams from Michigan Technological University traveled to Central Michigan University (CMU) in Mount Pleasant, MI to compete in the ninth annual New Venture Competition held Friday, April 12, 2019.
Cameron Philo won Best Technology Venture for Life Pro Jackets and was awarded $10,000. Philo participated in Michigan Tech’s I-Corps Site Program last Fall. I-Corps is a team-based program structure that was developed through a partnership between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
Read more at the Pavlis Honors College Blog.
Related:
Cameron Philo receives Best Green Innovation – Bob Mark Elevator Pitch Competition
Chris Middlebrook (ECE) was recently hosted by the ECE SPIE Chapter at Georgia Tech. On March 12, Middlebrook provided a presentation entitled “Embedded and Integrated Passive Waveguides and Active Integrated Optical Devices.”
SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics. Details of Middlebrook’s presentation are available online.
The first Electrical and Computer Engineering department texting campaign was held on March 26, 2019. The texting campaign is similar to the calling campaign the department put on earlier in the semester; however, students were able to send in questions via text.
Five current Tech students held conversations with approximately thirty students who had been accepted to Michigan Tech, answering questions all across the board.
The event was a success, and our students had a great time answering questions and discussing their experiences as a Husky—which can clearly be seen by the smiles.
By Kelsey Robinson, EE senior.
Timothy Havens (ECE) is the principal investigator on a research and development project that has received $96,643 from the Naval Surface Warfare Center.
Andrew Barnard (ME-EM) is the Co-PI on the project “Localization, Tracking, and Classification of On-Ice and Underwater Noise Sources Using Machine Learning.”
This is the first year of a potential three-year project totaling $299,533.
By Sponsored Programs.
Engineers’ Week this year took place February 17 – 23, 2019. Michigan Technological University’s nationally recognized engineering honor society, Tau Beta Pi (TBP), partnered with Blue Marble Security Enterprise to participate in a Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) Event. The event was held on Friday, February 22, where approximately 15 TBP members learned the basics of soldering.
The TBP members had various levels of soldering knowledge, some being beginners and others having plenty of experience. They represented various majors while participating. The Blue Marble Security outreach team supervised for those with little experience and answered questions.
The HRM is a basic circuit used to teach students how to read color bands on resistors. The colors correspond to the resistor ohm value and polarity regarding the device LEDs. Besides basic component knowledge, the students learned the correct and safe process of through hole soldering. Upon the completion of populating and soldering the components in place, students were given an integrated circuit and nine volt battery to check the operation of the board. The TBP members took their completed heart rate monitor boards home as souvenirs of their soldering experiences and of Engineers’ Week 2019.
Related:
Boy Scouts Learn to Solder Heart Rate Monitors
Society of Women Engineers Learn to Solder Heart Rate Monitors
Joshua Pearce (MSE/ECE/IMP) is the principal investigator on a project that has received a $20,000 research and development contract from Sandia National Laboratories.
The project is titled, “Snow Characteristics as a Factor in PV Performance and Reliability.”
This is a 10 month project totaling $40,000.