Basic Lab Workshop
If you’re a student from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, one of the challenges you ought to face is basic circuit lab, which comes with lab sessions and a project assignment that was described as ‘tough and unforgiving’ by students who had gone through it in their first year. In basic circuit lab, students learn to utilize the equipment and electronic components, and also reading schematics and building complex circuits. Many students find it tough because several had zero knowledge regarding circuit building prior to the subject, and most had barely practised the knowledge and skills learnt in textbooks.
To prepare the first-year students for this subject in the coming semester, IEEE USM Student Branch WIE Affinity Group had organised an EE Lab Workshop on the 24th November 2017, which was also the first event held in this semester. The workshop served as a platform for first year EE students to learn how to build circuits based on complicated schematics, and also familiarize themselves with equipment commonly used in the electronic lab. This workshop was not only limited to students from Electrical and Electronic Engineering, as students from other schools of engineering were welcomed to join as well.
Hands on experience given to participants on the equipment and electronic components.
The workshop was conducted by the project’s chairman, Nur Qamarina bt Muhammad Adnan and also the vice-chairman, Shum Kar Yen who is also the chairman of Women In Engineering. Held in the Electronics Lab in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, the workshop began at 3.00pm sharp with the registration of participants and payment of fees. The workshop began 15 minutes later after all participants had settled down.
Each participant was given a set of components so they could practise the practical knowledge themselves, and not just learning the concepts and theories taught by the conductors. Throughout the workshop, facilitators were available to assist those who faced trouble or did not understand the instructions given. A few examples of circuit diagrams were shown and the participants were tasked to construct the circuit on the breadboard given. Through this, they were able to learn the correct usage of each and every component, and also how lab equipment are operated.
To ensure that the participants were aware of what they were doing, they were asked to record the results and observations of their experiments in a sheet of paper to be handed over to the committee at the end of the workshop. The workshop ended at 5.15pm, and was deemed a success as the committee and the participants faced no major problems throughout the workshop.
This workshop had undoubtedly piqued the interest of many first-year student. Seeing how well received and beneficial the workshop had been, the committee asked the participants if they would join any other academical workshops and events conducted by WIE in the future, which the participants had given a positive response.
The committee of WIE is looking forward to conduct more events and workshops that will benefit the students of USM not just academically, but also in terms of their soft skills and practical skills.
Group photo of participants and tutors at the end of the basic lab workshop.