Units

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Sample subject outline - Summer. 2013

Note: Subject outlines often change before the semester begins. Below is a sample outline.

Rationale

All engineers need to have a basic understanding of the relationship between electrical energy, electronic instrumentation and measurements. Understanding physical quantities such as charge, potential and current, techniques for circuit analysis, instruments for measurement and practical applications in an engineering context are the objectives of this unit. It is placed in the first year of a four year engineering course and lays the foundation for advanced units in electronics, signals and systems, and power systems in later years.

Aims

The aim of this unit is to introduce you to electrical energy and electrical circuit analysis.

Objectives

On completion of this unit you should be able to:
1. Write and apply basic relationships between electrical energy, electrical circuit components and signals in electrical networks.
2. Design, build and test an electronic circuit to measure a physical real-world property.
3. Solve problems involving electrical energy, measurements and circuits at an introductory level and validate your solutions using measurements with hardware and software simulations.
4. Retrieve, evaluate, present and use relevant information to model and describe the behaviour of simple engineering systems that use electrical circuits.

Content

DC CIRCUITS: charge, current, voltage, energy, power, measurement, circuit analysis using node voltages and mesh currents, Thevenin and Norton equivalents,
capacitance and inductance, electric and magnetic fields, time domain solutions for simple transient behaviour.
AC CIRCUITS: sinusoidal signal representation, impedance, power, circuit analysis using phasors.
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS: The operational amplifier, gain, offsets, inverting amplifier, non-inverting amplifier, difference amplifier, sensors and practical applications to measurement of physical variables.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Teaching Mode: 4.6 hours per week (equivalent)
Lectures: 2 hrs per wk x 13
Tutorials: 2 hr per wk x 12
Labs: 2.5 hr labs x 4

The delivery of this unit is through lectures, tutorials, laboratory sessions, and online supplementary learning activities. The online activities are in the form of guided problem solving, formative feedback and summative assessment.

Lectures will introduce concepts and techniques illustrated with examples. Tutorial sessions will help you apply these to problems and relate them to practical applications. Online tutorial questions take you through gradual progression of problem solving skills. Practical work in preparation for the formal laboratory sessions will help you gain hands-on experience in designing, constructing and testing circuits for making real-world measurements. The formal laboratory sessions will introduce you to the use of measuring instruments and circuit analysis tools.

Assessment

Assessment of problem solving tasks on-line is done by the software package with immediate feedback. Problem solving skills will be developed in the tutorials with feedback from tutors. A short mid-semester examination will serve as practice for the final examination and help assess the development of these skills. Laboratory work must be documented in the format prescribed and will serve to assess skills in application of knowledge and written communication. A final written examination will test theoretical knowledge and problem solving skills.You will receive formative feedback on your progress in this unit during tutorials and discussions from tutors, and during online problem solving sessions from the learning package. You will also receive feedback through marks obtained on online problem sets, mid-semester examination and laboratory reports.

Assessment name: Problem Solving Tasks
Description: Students will be required to solve a number of individualised problems related to electrical circuits.
Relates to objectives: 1, 3
Weight: 25%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Wks 3, 6, 10, 12.

Assessment name: Examinations
Description: Students will be required to solve electrical circuit problems. A short practice examination mid-semester will be conducted during a lecture and will serve to provide formative feedback with a weight of only 5% of the total grade. The final examination itself will be scheduled during the examination period and will be worth 50%. You will need to work out problems and enter answers on computer mark-sense sheets.
Relates to objectives: 1, 3
Weight: 55%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Individual
Due date: Mid & End Semester

Assessment name: Laboratory Reports
Description: Students will be required to do some circuit construction, analysis, measurement and design tasks and submit their work in prescribed format in reports. The tasks may be individualized.
Relates to objectives: 3, 4
Weight: 20%
Internal or external: Internal
Group or individual: Group
Due date: Wks 5, 7, 9, 11.

Academic Honesty

QUT is committed to maintaining high academic standards to protect the value of its qualifications. To assist you in assuring the academic integrity of your assessment you are encouraged to make use of the support materials and services available to help you consider and check your assessment items. Important information about the university's approach to academic integrity of assessment is on your unit Blackboard site.

A breach of academic integrity is regarded as Student Misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties.

Resource materials

Type: Required Textbook
Author: James Nillson and Susan Riedel
Title: Electric Circuits
Publisher: Pearson
Year: 2011

Other resources and reference books will be mentioned in a week by week study document for the unit, made available via Blackboard.

Risk assessment statement

You will undertake lectures and tutorials in the traditional classrooms and lecture theatres. As such, there are no extraordinary workplace health and safety issues associated with these components of the unit.

You will be required to undertake practical sessions in the laboratory under the supervision of tutors and technical staff of the School. In any laboratory practicals you will be advised of requirements of safe and responsible behaviour and will be required to wear appropriate protective items (e.g. closed shoes).

You must undergo a general laboratory health and safety induction for all laboratories. This can be done online. You will also need a health and safety induction specific to the electronics laboratory (S 919) in which you will be working. This will be arranged in week 1. You must have these completed to obtain access to the laboratory.

Disclaimer - Offer of some units is subject to viability, and information in these Unit Outlines is subject to change prior to commencement of semester.

Last modified: 08-Jun-2012