The Educational Aspects of Electronic Components and Their Related Circuits

In the modern age, it’s almost impossible to imagine a world without electronic items and devices. We take it for granted at the forefront of practical technology, improving daily-based used devices and systems from individual electronic components to the smallest circuit boards for new smartphone systems, with innovation to meet society's communication, technology and energy needs. Therefore, thousands of students, each year, are required to gain in-depth knowledge and experience of basic and high skills of electronic equipment and devices. But the fear and apprehension of the use of electronic pieces, particularly during the online teaching with the difficulties of accessing the laboratories due to the COVID-19 situation, maybe one of the problems of students as they feel that the use of these pieces is difficult and needs external expertise to do them. Nevertheless, nowadays teaching electronics and providing informative sources to a wide spectrum of students from high school, college, and university levels at different departments became an important need for capacity building and training programs. In this article, an informative review of the electronics components and devices supported with simulation results using the Proteus design suite is provided that is useful for both high-level secondary school and the wide level of undergraduate and postgraduate university students. The research paper has referred, as much as possible, to the hierarchy and the cognitive sequence of using these electronic components such as resistors, capacitors, diode, transistors etc. It is also referred to some electronic circuits and devices such as electronic generator, switching, amplifier that are designed and implemented using the Proteus software which taking into account the learning outcomes and most important physical parameters that can be obtained from each electronic circuit. Then a microprocessors circuits and Arduino have been provided as a compact electronic board for wide range of electronic applications.

Development of a compact test board for silicon sensors IV/CV characterization

To build silicon trackers of modern and future high-luminosity collider experiments, thousands of silicon strip modules have to be produced and tested. The modules in new trackers must reliably work usually during 5–10 years or more under harsh irradiation conditions, as it will be impossible to replace a failing module once installed inside the detector. It means that reliable and rigorous testing of strip modules and its components is mandatory. To sustain the production throughput we should be able to test several modules in parallel. For this reason a fast, reliable, scalable and cost effective production QC test bench has to be designed and implemented. For the CV and IV measurements of sensors and modules we are developing a low-cost (less than 500 €) integrated electronic board which will be scaled up to ten channels to measure DUTs in parallel. In the current work the design of the IV/CV board and the calibration procedure to increase the accuracy of the current and capacitance measurements, for which a special calibration dipole board based on tight tolerance capacitors and resistors has been designed, as well as future development plans are described.

Smart Control and Energy Efficiency in Irrigation Systems Using LoRaWAN

Irrigation installations in cities or agricultural operations use large amounts of water and electrical energy in their activity. Therefore, optimising these resources is essential nowadays. Wireless networks offer ideal support for such applications. The long-range wide-area network (LoRaWAN) used in this research offers a large coverage of up to 5 km, has low power consumption and does not need additional hardware such as repeaters or signal amplifiers. This research develops a control and monitoring system for irrigation systems. For this purpose, an irrigation algorithm is designed that uses rainfall probability data to regulate the irrigation of the installation. The algorithm is complemented by checking the sending and receiving of information in the LoRa network to reduce the loss of information packets. In addition, two temperature and humidity measurement devices for LoRaWAN (THMDLs) and an electrovalve control device for LoRaWAN (ECDLs) were developed. The hardware and software were also designed, and prototypes were built with the development of the electronic board. The wide coverage of the LoRaWAN allows the covering of small to large irrigation areas.

The use of information and communication technologies when teaching students with hearing impairment at a technical university

Introduction. The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education provides promising opportunities for individual learning. However, one can question the efficiency of using electronic resources for certain students, e.g. hearing-impaired students, if their special cognitive characteristics were not considered while designing these resources. The aim of the research presented in the publication is to develop a scientific basis and the methodology for the effective teaching of basic disciplines using various sources of information. Methodology and research methods. The presented research results were obtained using standard and adapted methods (‘10 words’ adapted technique, Schulte tables, standardized methods for studying reading skills), questionnaires, analysis of written works based on the developed criteria. A series of experiments involved students majoring in Engineering at Kalashnikov Izhevsk State Technical University: 98 students participated in experiments with the adapted "10 words" method and Schulte tables (19 of them were hearing impaired); for the analysis of writing skills, the works of 116 students were collected (27 of them-with hearing impairment); 12 students with hearing impairment took part in experiments on reading skills. Results. For short-term memory, the results turned out to be better when demonstrating words from the electronic board than from printed sources (students with health standard: electronic board – 7.24 words; printed source – 6.39; for deaf and hard of hearing students: 6.2 and 5.8 words respectively). Based on the results of the attentiveness test (adapted Schulte tables), this indicator is better when working with tables in paper form (Student's t-test: tcr=1.97 (p≤0.05), tcr=2.61(p≤0.01), temp = 2.3). For reading skills, research has shown that students did a better job with keyword and abstracting when working with printed text (tcr=2.07 (p≤0.05), tcr=2.82(p≤0.01), temp= 2.4). As for the monitoring of writing skills, for hearing impaired students, the main monitoring criterion is emotionality (expressiveness); some features of visual perception of the sentences arrangement are also noted. Scientific novelty. The analysis of the results of these experiments will allow us to clarify the features of comparing the cognitive skills dealing with the information perception from different media when teaching people with hearing impairment. Practical significance. The results obtained allowed us to conclude that in the learning process it is recommended to combine sources of information on different media.

Three-dimensional inhomogeneous thermal fields of the “Photon-Amur 2.0” payload electronic board developed for nanosatellites

The thermal fields of the Photon-Amur 2.0 payload electronic board developed for nanosatellites were studied. The Photon-Amur 2.0 payload consists of an electronic control board with a casing mounted in a nanosatellite and a remote panel with experimental photovoltaic converters. A modified heat balance method was used for numerical simulation of the thermal fields of the control board and the casing. The constructed model and the obtained results of the numerical simulation were verified by comparison with the thermal diagrams obtained for the Photon-Amur 2.0 electronic board under normal operating conditions. For modeling the outer space operating conditions, it was assumed that there is a vacuum outside and inside the Photon-Amur 2.0 casing, and the thermal effect is transmitted from the nanosatellite racks to the payload electronic board through the fastenings. The thermal effect is of a periodic nature with amplitude of 45 to +80○C and a period of 96 min, which approximately corresponds to the motion of a nanosatellite in a 575 km-high orbit. It was demonstrated that with such composition of the payload module, its casing can work as a passive thermoregulator of thermal fields on the electronic board of Photon-Amur 2.0. The simulation showed that the casing helps to keep the temperature on the control board in the interval of 15C to +85C, which is acceptable for the electronic components used on the payload control board.

EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY DURING COVID-19 TIMES

It is difficult to separate technology from education because technology is embedded in teaching. The best technology for teaching is the one that does not interfere with the communication between the teacher and the students. In other words, it should be barely “noticeable” in how it is used, and easy enough to use that it does not require special training, such as window in a room to see the flowers outside, without interfering in any way. The technology used during an in-person classes is so basic, transparent, and simple, since it consists of a classroom, chairs, blackboard and pieces of chalk. However, a piece of chalk could break. In this case, the flow of information is interrupted; which is why the plastic whiteboards and markers are preferable and cleaner. An electronic board may seem to be better with its many improvements with computers; however, its higher technology could get in the way if it is not used properly. During the pandemic, different technologies, like computers and cell phones, connected to internet were massively used. Yet, computers and cell phones with the appropriate software and apps had an additional cost; with no guarantee of antivirus applications against viruses or worms, leaving aside protection for documents, software and hardware. On top of that, a Zoom, Google or any similar online platform was necessary. Using these platforms, other technologies had to be relied on, including Ethernet or a USB adapter. On the other hand, in developing countries before the pandemic, low-tech was used by most students to store and pass information to their peers and teachers. They would use mainly pens and notebooks to write notes, or CD-Rs or USB to pass information. However, during the pandemic, with the advances in internet speed, many students have now moved on to using e-mail and cloud drives where they can transport their files. All the electronics listed to make online education or tech-based education needed electricity to work. In other words: no electricity, no class; no electric supply or stored electricity in batteries, no class. In this paper we analyze the role of technology in education, and how this technology could enhance or obstruct the communication between the teacher and the students.

Solving e-learning adoption intention puzzles among private universities in Nigeria: an empirical approach

PurposeE-learning system has been widely acknowledged to have positive impacts on the learning process. Nevertheless, the intention to use it is globally low, thereby constituting puzzles to be solved. This study aims to proffer some insights to solve the puzzles.Design/methodology/approachThe data of the study were collected through an online survey among 425 students of four private universities using interactive electronic board systems. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.FindingsThe significant results of the study reveal that system quality, information quality and teaching materials significantly influenced perceived usefulness. Technology innovativeness and information quality also significantly influenced perceived ease of use. Perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use equally influenced e-learning intention.Originality/valueThis research is one of the few studies that conceptualize a framework to study intention to use e-learning generally, and interactive electronic board in particular among four private universities using technology innovativeness, system quality, information quality, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and teaching materials.