Show them nand gates and they will come

Abstract

Many universities and colleges are faced with declining numbers of potential engineering students. In Wyoming, this is due to a declining number of high school graduates as well as potential students not being aware of the engineering career field. We have met this challenge with a variety of awareness and recruiting programs. A common thread in these efforts is a hands-on laboratory program in digital design fundamentals. This program exposes students to the exciting world of engineering, Boolean logic, and fundamental design principles. This low cost program consists of a series of theory modules coupled with a hands-on laboratory component. We have purposely developed laboratory modules using low cost, readily available components and test equipment. This approach has been used for the past five years with a middle school girls program, science and engineering summer programs for high school juniors and seniors, K-12 teacher enrichment programs, and also freshmen orientation to electrical and computer engineering programs. In this paper we will describe the modular approach, the low cost laboratory exercises, and also the success of using this approach to attract students to careers in the engineering and science.