Guest Lecture on Electric Drives Control Course: A Novel Educational Approach Based on Active Learning
- Time
- Monday 20. August 2012 at 13:00 - 14:00
Guest Lecture by Mehmet Dal from Department of Electricity and Energy, Kocaeli University, Turkey
Title
Electric Drives Control Course: A Novel Educational Approach Based on Active Learning and Student Learning Assessment
Abstract
The subject of the adjustable speed drive control holds a significant position in the motion control aria and it is a highly multi-disciplinary and very competitive educational and research field. Also, it covers many different theories; the automatic control, electric machines, power electronics, circuit analysis, digital signal processing, system modeling and simulations etc. Consequently, as a result of complexities inherent to the subject, it has become more difficult to properly teach and assist in the students understanding of the complex theoretical subjects; not to mention the difficulty in comprising and offering all the respective concepts under traditional time restraints of academic program. In order to solve these inherent difficulties, innovative teaching strategies and also developing new hardware laboratories are required for the subject of the electric drives control.
In the past decade, rapid development in the fields of power electronics, digital signal processing, rapid control prototyping (RCP), and new media and information technologies have promoted novel educational equipment, and have caused a considerable evolution of the traditional lecture courses in the electrical engineering field. Moreover, these developments have led to various active learning forms, such as problem-based collaborative learning, project-oriented (or organized) learning. Some other forms, such as virtual/remote laboratories have also been growing in popularity due to their ability to meet distance learning requirements, to save the high cost of real laboratories, and to reduce some other obligations, such as highly skilled human resources and providing adequate technical equipment.
However, presently, at most universities around the world, the teaching of electric drives/control lecture courses are still being conducted in an insufficient manner with computer aided slide presentations and simulations of drive schemes. The reasons may be different, such as a lack of access to the equipment, high costs, requirement of skilled human resource, and laboratory space restrictions etc. The disadvantage of this approach is that students may suffer from the inadequacies of a theoretical explanation to fully understand phenomena that can otherwise only be grasped through hands on experimentations.
On the other hand, analysis of the research literature shows that the higher education strategy shifts from a “teaching- oriented” towards a “learning-oriented” manner, and promotes an “active learning” methodology due to its powerful impact upon students' practical skills learning. Consequently, the role of the educator changes to act as a coach or a manager who needs to find out how to organize education process in classroom with the use of the efficient tools such as web based animation, simulation, teaching resources and laboratory equipment etc.
In this course, an overview of enhancing, rapidly and easily, an educational methodology is presented for the “electric drive control lecture course” with the use of a minimal number of hardware setup involving the tools necessary to meet today's increasingly challenging educational and industrial requirements. The incorporation of the sample-guided and student-oriented learning approaches and the learning assessment into classroom is focused. The major context of the educational process includes the modeling, simulations, and hands on experiments devoted to adjustable speed drives control of induction motor. The use of the proposed active learning strategy aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
About the Lecturer
Mehmet Dal was born in Göksun, K.Maraş, Turkey. He received the B.Sc. and MSc degrees in electrical engineering education from Marmara University, Istanbul, in 1985 and 1987, respectively.
He worked for the government as a teacher at the vocational school of Gölcük, Kocaeli (1986-1992), Turkey. He was a British Council Fellowship (for teacher retraining) at the Wigan Collage of Technology, Wigan, Manchester, U.K. (1989-1990). In 1992, he joined the Department of Electricity & Energy, Kocaeli University, Turkey, and received Ph.D. degree in the field of electrical engineering from Kocaeli University in 2001. He has been a guest researcher at the Robotic Institute, Maribor University, Slovenia (2005) and at the EMAD lab, Wuppertal University, Germany (2006) as well as for several times with the ERASMUS Exchange programme he was at the Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark (2007-2012). Since 2004 he has been an Assistant Professor teaching at Kocaeli University. His major field of interest is the adjustable speed drives control including the vector and the direct torque control strategies as well as the sesorless drives of DC motor and AC induction.
His current activities include the engineering education and also collaborating in the national renewable energy system project. Dr. Dal is currently a member of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society.
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- Address
- Pontoppidanstraede 103, room 56b
