All Ireland Society for Higher Education
| Name: | Aidan O'Dwyer |
|---|---|
| Email: | aidan.odwyer@dit.ie |
| Institution: | Dublin Institute of Technology |
Traditionally, the modelling of real systems in engineering, using transfer functions, has been done in a mathematically intense manner. However, non-traditional learners such as mature students, part-time students and students without a conventional second-level educational background may not have strong mathematical foundations; in addition, all students increasingly expect technical work which is practical and which motivates independent learning. The proposed contribution will report on, reflect on and evaluate an innovative experiment developed by the author to estimate a transfer function model of a persons' eye-brain-hand motor response. In the experiment, carried out an a PC with data acquisition capability, the person is successively asked to track, with a mouse, ten sine wave signals at different frequencies on a computer screen. Based on an average of the data recorded, a plot is drawn from the data, and a transfer function for the motor response is developed from the plot .
This experiment has been carried out over the past three years by students taking a control engineering option in the programmes in electrical/electronic engineering at DIT. Briefly, the author has found that the experiment motivates effective learning for most students; student enthusiasm frequently means that they spend some self-learning time on aspects of the experiment. A motivational aspect for some students is the application of the idea in biomedical engineering, possibly in the diagnosis of some motor response disorders; as the experiment provides direct feedback to the user on the PC screen, it lends itself to providing motivation to a person attempting to regain motor function after a neurological setback, such as a stroke.