The Electrical Engineering Technology Program is housed in Nethken Hall, along with Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, the COES Research and Graduate Studies Office, and part of the college and university technical services personnel. The first floor houses the joint Electrical Engineering/Electrical Engineering Technology/Computer Science Office.
All Electrical Engineering Technology instructional classrooms and laboratories are located in Nethken Hall. The location of these facilities, near the faculty offices, fosters student-faculty interactions, providing many opportunities both during and after official contact hours. The first floor houses the Machines Laboratory, the Circuit Board Laboratory, the Unix Work Station Laboratory and the Electrical Energy Conversion Laboratory. The Communications Laboratory, the Electronics and Measurements Laboratory, the Senior Projects Laboratory, the Circuits Laboratory, the Networking Laboratory, the Controls Laboratory, and the Computer Laboratory are all located on the second floor. All teaching laboratories have adequate floor size. Laboratory rooms accommodate from 10 (machine lab) to 16 (circuits, communications, electronics labs) persons. The Communications Laboratory was upgraded during the 2000-2001 academic year with gift funds. The Computer Laboratory received new PC's that are networked to give students access to software, such as pSpice, Electronic Work Bench, MathCad, MatLab, WinBoard, as well as standard word processing and spread sheet programs. The oscilloscopes in the Circuits Laboratory were replaced during the 2000-2001 year, as well.
While most classrooms are equipped with standard student desks and blackboards, three bear some additional comment. The Small Group Learning Classroom (Nethken Hall 122) has group tables to facilitate group activities and a multimedia display system for improved learning environment. The Networking Laboratory (Nethken Hall 220) also serves as a lecture room and has a multimedia display system as well. Finally the auditorium (Nethken Hall 140) has an excellent multimedia display system and is used every year to teach Visual Basic Programming (ELET 274/275).
The Electrical Energy Conversion Laboratory (Nethken Hall 100/104) is used as a teaching laboratory for the required course ELEN 489, Electrical Energy Conversion Laboratory. The lab houses a 15-hp dynamometer, various electric machines (synchronous, induction and dc) rated up to 15-hp, and transformers. The lab also has a variety of digital and analog instrumentation, including a 3-phase BMI power meter, Tektronix current probes, an HP low-frequency spectrum analyzer, and a Valhalla Scientific micro-ohmmeter.
The Unix Work Station Laboratory (Nethken Hall 142) is used by a combination of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering courses when the facility is needed. It is equipped with new Dell PCs (1.8G processors) running Free-BSD and is regularly available for all students when not in use by a class.
The Circuit Board Laboratory (Nethken Hall 146) is used primarily to construct circuit boards for students in the senior project course. It is equipped with a 14 x 17 format camera, a dark room for negative development, a light table, and a circuit board etching facility. The lab can be used to make single- or double-sided circuit boards.
The Communications Laboratory (Nethken Hall 200) is used as a teaching laboratory for both Electronics and for Communications laboratories (ELET 261, 271, 272, 284 and 371). The laboratory is equipped as an 8-station laboratory for instrumentation and electronics and as a 4-station laboratory for communications. It is equipped with Tektronix 2445 oscilloscopes, HP 33120A Function Generators, HP 8920A spectrum analyzers, DVMs, triple power supplies, protoboards, and Degem communications equipment for 4 stations.
The Electronics and Measurements Laboratory (Nethken Hall 201) is used as a teaching laboratory for Electronics (ELET 261, 271, 272, 284 and 371). It has 8 student stations. The laboratory is equipped with HP 54600A oscilloscopes, WaveTek function generators, Fluke DVMs, B&K triple power supplies and protoboards for constructing electronics circuits. The laboratory is also equipped with some older 386 and 486 computers that are used to teach automatic measurements and data acquisition. These are being replaced with newer Pentium-based machines as they are replaced in other offices and laboratories which require the increased speed.
The Senior Projects Laboratory (Nethken Hall 202) is designed as a laboratory for senior projects in conjunction with the Electrical Engineering Technology capstone courses ELET 465. It is also used for individual design courses such as ELET 490A and 490B. It is assigned no equipment but has equipment brought in from the storeroom as needed to satisfy the requirements for the individual instrumentation required for each student project.
The Circuits Laboratory (Nethken Hall 218) is used for ELET 171 and for ELET 181. The laboratory is equipped with 8 student stations. Each station is equipped with a Heath 3304 oscilloscope, a WaveTek function generator, a Fluke DVM, a Simpson VOM, and a B&K triple power supply.
The Networking Laboratory (Nethken Hall 220) is used for ELET 461. It is equipped with a networked server, three client computers and various pieces of miscellaneous networking hardware (hubs, routers, etc).
The Controls Laboratory (Nethken Hall 230) is used for ELET 469 and ELET 471. It is equipped with 5 Allen Bradly PLCs and associated computer and driving equipment.
The Computer Laboratory (Nethken Hall 232) is the main Electrical Engineering Technology computer laboratory. It is equipped with 12 new high speed Pentium computers purchased in the 2000-2001 academic year which are networked to the COES servers. Students have access at simulation and modeling software required for their courses.
