Antiquated and obsolete equipment was removed from the classroom to make way for modern equipment. The upgrade was part of a modernization strategy for courses taught in room 4270 of Moser Hall.
- Oscilloscopes and logic design workstations were purchased for use in the Digital Systems and Logic System Design courses.
- Additional network capability was added to the lab and new PCs have been installed to allow for the programming of specialized equipment including: Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA), modern microcontrollers and Porgrammable Logic Controllers (PLC).
In the Logic System Design course, students learn to program the Altera DE2-115 FPGA in VHDL. The Microprocessors course was modernized so that the student will learn to program in Assembly Language on a modern ATMEL AVR MEGA micrcontroller. A new Microprocessors 2 course centering on advanced topics is being developed; the plan is to pgoram in C or Python on additional modern microcontrollers such as Raspeberry Pi or Arduino.
Additionally, the lab is used to teach a PLC course where the students use the RSLOGIX software to program a CompactLogix PLC in ladder logic. Going forward, it is the intention to develop an Automation/Advanced Manufacturing course that will utilize the modern Siemens S7-1200 PLC. The goal of the classroom is for the students to work with equipment that will better prepare them for the workplace.
