Development, Implementation, Assessment of a Web-based Circuit Solver for Teaching Basic Electrical Circuits Theory

Authors

  • Shadi MS Harb University of Florida
  • Issa Batarseh Professor, School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816
  • Ahmad Harb Professor, School of Natural Resources Engineering and Management German Jordanian University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v11i4.4727

Keywords:

E-learning, Web-based Circuit Simulator, Circuit Simulation, Circuit Schematic, Netlist

Abstract


In this paper, an interactive web-based circuit simulator tool (CirSim) is presented to enhance students learning skills and assist them to grasp the basic concepts of the preliminary electrical engineering courses by providing innovative methods for interactive teaching and testing. The project aims to achieve the following goals: 1) Develop enhanced problem solving skills using the internet as a portable platform for the education environment. 2) Develop design skills and sharpen critical thinking. 3) Develop global and comprehensive teaching circuit tools which can be adopted nationally for educational purposes. Students can use the online circuit simulator to carry out circuit simulation on the web and access it virtually from any place. The proposed simulator provides a user friendly graphical user interface (GUI) which has the capability to allow students to conduct DC and AC circuit simulation analysis and provide the option to plot the circuit responses graphically. Finally, a preliminary study has been done on a group of students to show the effectiveness of the e-learning using the proposed web-based circuit solver on the achievement of students. The results show a great feedback from students and improved performance in learning the basic electrical engineering concepts.

Author Biographies

Shadi MS Harb, University of Florida

Shadi MS Harb received his Bachelor of Engineering degree in electrical engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan 2000. He got his M.S. degree in computer engineering from University of Central Florida, 2004 and his M.S. degree in electrical engineering from University of Florida, 2007. He received his PhD degree in electrical engineering from University of Florida, 2010. He had received several outstanding academic awards such as the Academic Research Award from Sigma Xi (2009), the Graduate Achievement Award by the University of Florida (2005), and the International Academic Outstanding Award from University Florida (2007). He is a member of the following academic honor societies; Sigma Xi, Delta Epsilon Iota, Epsilon Pi Tau, Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, and the National Scholar Honor Society. He has the following professional affiliations; IEEE, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CAS), IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society (SSC), IEEE Computer Society, UF Florida Engineering Society. He was a reviewer for IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) in 2008-2011. His research interests are in Digital & Analog/Mixed Signal VLSI Design, FPGAs, and Embedded Systems, Computer Architecture.

Issa Batarseh, Professor, School of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816

Issa Batarseh (SM’91–F’05) received a B.S. degree in computer architecture engineering and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Chicago, in 1983, 1985, and 1990, respectively. He is a Professor and Director of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Central Florida (UCF), Orlando. He was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Purdue University, Calumet City, IN, from 1989 to 1990 before joining the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering., UCF, in 1991. He has more than 14 U.S. patents, and more than 50 refereed journal and 200 conference publications. His research work has been sponsored by Federal agencies and private sector. He published Power Electronics Circuits (New York: Wiley, 2003). His major research interests are power electronics, focusing on high frequency dc-dc conversion, soft-switching and dynamic modeling of dc-to-dc converters, harmonic analysis and power factor correction. Dr. Batarseh received many national and international teaching, research, and service awards. He served as Session Chair and Committee Member for APEC and PESC conferences. He will be the general chair for PESC’07 conference in Orlando. He has served as a Chairman of the IEEE Orlando Power Engineering Chapter, Chairman of the IEEE Orlando Section, and Faculty Advisor for the IEEE student Branch, and Ea Kappa Nu. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in Florida.

Ahmad Harb, Professor, School of Natural Resources Engineering and Management German Jordanian University

Ahmad M. Harb (M’98-SM’06) was born in Irbid, Jordan, in 1963. He received his Ph.D. degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA , in 1996, a M.S. degree from the Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan, in 1990, and the B.S. degree from Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan in 1987, all in electrical engineering. Currently, he is an Associative Professor at Jordan in the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Science and Technology. He was a visiting Professor at Virginia Tech., Blacksburg, VA, in 1997 and at Oakland University, Rochester, MI, in 2001. He received National Science Foundation (NSF) funded projects jointly with the University of Central Florida, Orlando. He was a visiting Professor at University of Central Florida, Orlando. His research interests include power system analysis and control, modern of nonlinear theory (bifurcation and Chaos), linear systems, power system planning, electric machines, optimal control and power electronics. He is an Associative Editor of two International Journals, the International Journal of Modeling and Simulation and the International Journal of Power and Energy Systems. Dr. Harb is the chair conference of Modern Nonlinear Theory, Montreal – Canada, May 30 – June 1, 2007.

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Published

2015-08-05

How to Cite

Harb, S. M., Batarseh, I., & Harb, A. (2015). Development, Implementation, Assessment of a Web-based Circuit Solver for Teaching Basic Electrical Circuits Theory. International Journal of Online and Biomedical Engineering (iJOE), 11(4), pp. 55–61. https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v11i4.4727

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 4 (2015)

Section

Papers