TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Realizing a complex student project over several semesters T2 - Proceedings of the 2012 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 17-20 April 2012, Marrakech, Morocco N2 - Project Based Learning (PBL) has become a popular method for lab courses to teach practical topics. Most of the student projects are tailored in their complexity and need a defined time for a student team within one semester. With this defined and often reduced complexity of the projects the practical relevance is doubtful. In this here shown approach for a PBL lab an industry project with the original complexity is used and structured into several parts. These are sequentially dependent and have to be solved in a defined order by student groups. Each group has to develop one component and has the responsibility for a working result at the end of their subproject. Each group interacts with other groups during the same semester to develop a working system. Student groups in the following semesters take the results from previous semesters and develop the entire project further on. With this type of PBL an own dynamic of the student work is evolving which is not possible with small complexity tailored projects. Y1 - 2012 SN - 978-1-4673-1456-5 SN - 978-1-4673-1457-2 SN - 978-1-4673-1455-8 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON.2012.6201067 SN - 2165-9567 SN - 2165-9559 PB - IEEE ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Spherical lens aberration minimization method for short-range free-space light transmission JF - Optical Engineering N2 - Spherical aberrations of lenses lead to increased spot radii on the focal plane. Several methods, such as optimizing thickness and radii or building lens groups, are known to minimize these spherical aberrations. Here, an innovative method for spherical aberration minimization is introduced; it can be used for short-range free-space optical communication systems, such as unit power afocal relay trains, lens waveguides, and periodic lens systems. This spherical aberration compensation principle is based on the combination of two identical spherical convex lenses at an optimal distance. Due to the higher refractive power for rays with an larger axis distance, rays from the outer area of the first lens intersect the inner area of the second lens, and vice versa. With this setup, the radial refractive power deviation of the two lenses compensate each other. Analytic calculations and numerical simulations are done to confirm this behavior, and measurements using two symmetric spherical lenses with polymer optical fibers as light feed confirm the calculations. Simulations and measurements show a very good matching behavior except for an unknown systematic error. At a lens distance of 300 mm, the optical attenuation decreased by ∼2 dB compared with a very small lens distance. This leads to the conclusion that this proposed spherical aberration minimization method works as theoretically predicted. KW - Monochromatic aberrations KW - Signal attenuation KW - Spherical lenses KW - Polymer optical fibers KW - Monte Carlo methods KW - Free space optics KW - Optical testing KW - Distance measurement KW - Optical engineering KW - Optical simulations Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.61.8.085101 SN - 1560-2303 SN - 0036-1860 SN - 0091-3286 VL - 61 IS - 8 PB - SPIE CY - Bellingham, Wash. ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Niemetz, Michael A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Farmbauer, Michael T1 - Comprehensive Amateur Radio Education including Public Outreach T2 - IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference (ISEC), 16-16 March 2019, Princeton, NJ, USA N2 - An amateur radio lecture was developed and is conducted within the general education program of the Ostbayerische Technische Hochschule Regensburg. This course enables the students to participate in a variety of activities within the university. Different learning formats for communication engineering are carried out in combination with an amateur radio station of the university. Additionally, some of the projects serve as anchor points for increased visibility of the university in local society, e.g. by carrying out public events in connection with the local amateur radio community. It is seen that this course together with the amateur radio station have several positive effects for technical education and university visibility. KW - Amateur Radio KW - Antennas KW - Communication engineering education KW - Conferences KW - Education KW - Education Outreach KW - Licenses KW - PROPAGATION KW - radio communication KW - STEM Education Program Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECon.2019.8882078 SP - 98 EP - 103 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Experiences from Transforming a Lecture “Communication Systems” from Presence to Virtual Format during the COVID-19 Pandemic T2 - 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21): 22.06.2021 - 23.06.2021, Valencia N2 - This article describes the transitions of an existing lecture “Communication Systems” from a conventional presence format to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The process of transformation, the evolution of the lecture during the virtual semester and the lessons learned are characterized. The changed exam format from presence to virtual format with the experiences are described. Results of a student evaluation at the end of the semester are shown. KW - communication engineering KW - Computer aided instruction KW - Electrical engineering KW - Electronic learning KW - Engineering Education KW - STEM Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4995/head21.2021.12430 SP - 297 EP - 305 PB - Universitat Politècnica de València CY - Valencia ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Planned Chaos in Electrical Engineering Education T2 - 6th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'20): 02.06.2020 - 05.06.2020, Valencia N2 - This paper presents the idea to intentionally introduce planned chaos into electrical engineering lectures and lab courses to improve students’ learning success. The reason to present this idea are several personal experiences in daily teaching. If students experience some uncertainty in their study program, it is seen that they have higher challenges and therefore higher learning success in managing uncertain situations. In these ways, students acquire methodical and social competences to deal with uncertainty and achieve productive results in an unstable working environment. If, however, the chaos is too large, students are over-strained with the situation, distracted from the actual learning targets and consequently learning results will be worse, drop-out rates will increase and they will be frustrated. The beneficial level of uncertainty depends on the student culture, academic progress and personality characteristics. The competence to deal with complex situations is essential for later professional life where unexpected circumstances occur regularly. Introducing planned chaos into lectures and lab courses has not to be confused with a missing didactic concept and is no justification for a bad preparation. Planned chaos is a demanding concept for professors to find the right implementation for an optimized learning outcome. These described findings are experienced from practical work and student evaluations. KW - Active Learning KW - Electrical engineering education KW - Planned Chaos Y1 - 2020 SN - 9788490488119 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4995/head20.2020.10989 PB - Universitat Politècnica de València ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Mottok, Jürgen T1 - Ethical, intercultural and professional impulses integrated into a transmission systems lecture JF - 2017 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 25-28 April 2017, Athens, Greece N2 - In the sixth semester of the bachelor study course “Electrical Engineering and Information Technology”, a lecture “Transmission Systems” is given. It explains basic principles, circuits and systems of electrical and optical transmission systems. Short intellectual impulses, which address professional, intercultural and ethical issues of engineers' working life are integrated into this regular lecture. In each lecture unit, an impulse with one specific topic is given approximately in the middle of the lecture hour. An evaluation was done at the end of the semester, which shows that most of the students remember the discussed topics and state high interest due to high importance for their professional life. Due to these encouraging results, this concept will be developed further. KW - Engineering Education KW - Ethics Education KW - Electrical Engineering Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON.2017.7942829 SP - 92 EP - 95 PB - IEEE ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Steinkirchner, Alfons A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Channel Coded Processor for Enhanced Safety JF - International Journal of Future Computer and Communication (IJFCC) N2 - Several concepts are known for improving processor safety, all of them having their pros and cons. Some are very resource intensive, others have limited capabilities regarding the provided error safety. In this paper we use research on channel coding of noisy communication channels known from communication theory as an analogy to random bit errors in processors. We incorporate this knowledge into processor design to suggest a new error correction concept by using channel coding in processors. The new concept of a Channel Coded Processor could provide effective implementation of redundancy by the channel coding that enables error correction. The concept could also create a complete chain of redundancy in all areas and components of the processor ranging from the code compiler through the processing hardware to the output of the information. KW - Channel coded processor concept KW - communication theory KW - safety KW - soft error Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.18178/ijfcc.2017.6.2.489 SN - 2010-3751 VL - 6 IS - 2 SP - 58 EP - 62 PB - International Association of Computer Science and Information CY - Singapore ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Transdisciplinary Bachelor Course Connecting Business and Electrical Engineering T2 - 4th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'18), 2018, Universitat Politècnica de València, València N2 - The OTH Regensburg has a broad variety of study programs in technical, business, social and health sciences. Up to now there is no integral connection in the bachelor curricula between business and technical faculties except for some small subjects. The scope of this project is to develop a new course specialization which connects engineering and business thinking. Electrical engineering students should learn basics of business science and how managers think. Business students should vice versa learn fundamentals of engineering and how engineers solve problems. Students from both faculties work together in projects where they act like start-up companies developing a new product and bringing it into the market. It is seen a transdisciplinary effect: These projects gain innovative results between the disciplines compared to student projects of one isolated discipline. Evaluation results from the first two cohorts indicate high student satisfaction, high learning success as well as directions for further improvement. KW - Business Education KW - Engineering Education KW - Project Based Learning KW - Transdisciplinary Education Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd18.2018.8056 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Zheng, Jihong A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Xu, Boqing A1 - Schreiner, Rupert A1 - Jia, Hongzhi A1 - Zhang, Wei A1 - Wang, Ning A1 - Seebauer, Gudrun A1 - Zhu, Jiyan T1 - Curriculum design and German student exchange for Sino-German Bachelor program majored in optoelectronics engineering T2 - 14th Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics (ETOP 2017), 29-31.05.2017, Hangzhou, China, 29-31.05.2017 N2 - Different higher education backgrounds in China and Germany led to challenges in the curriculum design at the beginning of our cooperative bachelor program in Optoelectronics Engineering. We see challenges in different subject requirements from both sides and in the German language requirements for Chinese students. The curriculum was optimized according to the AS IIN criteria, which makes it acceptable and und erstandable by both countries. German students are integrated into the Chinese class and get the sa me lectures like their Chinese colleagues. Intercultural and curriculum challenges are successfully solved. The results are summarized to provide an example for other similar international programs. KW - cooperative bachelor program KW - optoelectronics KW - microsystems KW - student exchange Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2269574 PB - SPIE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Niemetz, Michael A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Wie können wir Professorinnen und Professoren ein überfachliches Studium vermitteln? T2 - Tagungsband zum 3. Symposium zur Hochschullehre in den MINT-Fächern (MINT-Symposium), Nürnberg 25. und 26.09.2017 N2 - Die Transdisziplinarität ist als wichtiger Innovationsmotor in aller Munde, entstehen doch an den Schnittstellen und in den Zwischenräumen der etablierten Wissenschaften neue Ideen und damit die zukünftige Wertschöpfung unserer Industrie. Wir alle wurden in der Welt von gestern sozialisiert, für die meisten Tätigkeiten in der Industrie war tiefes und spezialisiertes Fachwissen essentiell und auch ausreichend. Wir wurden zu Spezialisten ausgebildet und aufgrund dieser Kompetenz in der Arbeitswelt geschätzt und auch auf unsere Professuren berufen. Doch ist dies eine ausreichende Basis, um unsere Absolventinnen und Absolventen auf die neue komplexe Welt ubiquitär verfügbaren und durchsuchbaren Wissens adäquat vorzubereiten? Können wir mit unserem Mindset aus der Vergangenheit die benötigten überfachlichen Kompetenzen für die Zukunft vermitteln? Diese selbstkritische Auseinandersetzung ist schmerzhaft, doch nur durch diese Analyse können wir unsere alten Denkmuster in engen Fachdisziplinen ablegen und zu einem neuen vernetzten Denken für eine zukunftsgerichtete Lehre kommen. Y1 - 2017 UR - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323119092_Wie_konnen_wir_Professorinnen_und_Professoren_ein_uberfachliches_Studium_vermitteln UR - https://didaktikzentrum.de/images/cwattachments/381_c76aeb3b834947e657aef252c88f6e62.pdf ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Westner, Markus A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Internationale Gastdozierende virtuell und vor Ort JF - Die Neue Hochschule Y1 - 2017 UR - https://www.hlb.de/fileadmin/hlb-global/downloads/dnh/full/2017/DNH_2017-6.pdf SP - 6 PB - hlb Hochschullehrerbund e.V. ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Blank, M. A1 - Brunner, Stefan A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Meier, Hans A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Embedded Linux in engineering education T2 - 2015 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 18-20 March 2015, Tallinn, Estonia N2 - With the availability of cost effective embedded Linux solutions and the increasing complexity of embedded devices because of growing calculation power and communication demand, Linux is getting increasingly interesting as an operating system for the design of embedded control solutions. This is the case for almost all technical applications in electrical engineering like energy distribution systems, high level communication, signal processing or industrial automation. In the engineering master courses at the OTH Regensburg, a lecture is offered introducing students to Linux with a strong focus on embedded applications. This paper describes the concept of the lecture including the laboratory set up and gives some examples of embedded Linux projects performed by students. KW - Engineering Education KW - Linux KW - Operating systems KW - Ports (Computers) KW - Universal Serial Bus KW - Vehicles KW - Wireless communication Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON.2015.7095964 SP - 145 EP - 150 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Wick, Michael A1 - Lindner, Gerhard A1 - Zimmer, Katja A1 - Schreiner, Rupert A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Seebauer, Gudrun A1 - Xu, Boqing A1 - Zheng, Jihong A1 - Wang, Ning ED - Liu, Xu ED - Zhang, Xi-Cheng T1 - German-Chinese cooperative Bachelor in engineering physics/optoelectronics T2 - 14th Conference on Education and Training in Optics and Photonics: ETOP 2017; Hangzhou, China 29.05.2017 - 31.05.2017 N2 - The University of Shanghai for Science and Technology (USST), the Coburg University of Applied Sciences and Arts (CUASA) and the OTH Regensburg, University of Applied Sciences (OTHR) established an English taught international cooperative bachelor program in the area of Engineering Physics/Optoelectronics. Students from China study their first four semesters at USST. They continue their studies in Germany for the last three semesters, including an internship and a bachelor thesis, graduating with a Chinese and a German bachelor degree. Students from Germany study their third and fourth semester at USST to gain international experience. While the first cohort of Chinese students is currently in Germany, the second cohort of German students is in Shanghai. Up to now the feedback regarding this study program is completely positive, thus it is planned to develop it further. Y1 - 2017 SN - 9781510613812 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2269943 PB - SPIE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Motivation Centered Learning T2 - 2018 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 3-6 Oct. 2018, San Jose, CA, USA N2 - This Research Work in Progress Paper evaluates students’ motivation sources and shows the high impact that work of professors has on students’ motivation. Common goal of most professors is to help students acquiring knowledge and competencies that are relevant for their further life. From the beginning of Universities’ history, lectures are usually chosen to reach this goal but it is seen in recent years that they are in many cases not the optimal choice. In the last years, many efforts were made to increase students knowledge gain. From learning and motivation psychology research, many details are known how humans remember and transfer knowledge. These research results are used to create new lecture formats to activate students. Research based learning, project based lab courses, problem based learning, feedback systems, flipped classroom, blended learning and gamification in lectures are only some examples for new formats. Common goal of all these new types of learning formats is to increasing students’ motivation and to enhance learning success. In this paper, evaluations using a questionnaire with open questions were done among first year students, bachelor students before graduation and alumni, about their sources of motivation and demotivation. Interesting curricula and lectures with application related topics and possibilities for own work are the main sources of motivation. Enthusiastic professors with high competences and good lecture didactics also contribute to students’ motivation. On the other side, demotivated professors with boring lectures play a much higher role for demotivating students. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate aspects of student motivation into curriculum and lecture design and professors should become aware that they are important role-models for motivating or demotivating students. KW - Computational modeling KW - Electrical engineering KW - Information technology KW - Psychology KW - Social networking (online) KW - Task analysis KW - Urban areas Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE.2018.8658436 SP - 1 EP - 5 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Course Preparation Time Optimization System for Improved Didactic Outcome T2 - 2022 20th International Conference on Information Technology Based Higher Education and Training (ITHET), 07-09 November 2022, Antalya, Turkey N2 - Due to the various demands for lecturers, there is only a limited time to prepare lectures and lab courses. Therefore, it is necessary to invest the time target-oriented for optimal student learning success. A theoretic model is developed to structure course preparation work regarding scientific content, didactic preparation, and course presentation. Model parameters have to be chosen for each course depending on topic complexity, the lecturer’s prior knowledge, and the already available preparation from the prior semesters. With these parameters, a course preparation model for a complete semester is developed. Analytic models for different optimization strategies are introduced according to the overall goal of the lecturer. Numerical optimization is done to find the appropriate course preparation times to reach an optimal course preparation for high student learning success. It is seen that due to the different optimization strategies, the preparation time results vary and no single truth is given. But this optimization system gives hints on how to invest preparation time target-oriented for high student learning success. KW - Higher education KW - Engineering education KW - Course preparation KW - Curriculum development KW - Optimization Y1 - 2022 SN - 978-1-6654-8908-9 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/ITHET56107.2022.10031642 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Ideas on Digitally Supported Individualization of Teaching and Learning for Evolving Competency Requirements T2 - Ninth International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd 23), València, June 19, 2023 – June 22, 2023 N2 - The world is changing rapidly, mainly due to the digitalization of all areas of living. A huge amount of information is accessible via the Internet, and since it is no longer possible for individual humans to keep track of it, artificial intelligence (AI) is analyzing this data. In this rapidly changing world, students have to be educated for a successful career during their whole working life. These boundary conditions lead to completely new challenges for the education of students that are unprecedented in this form. Digitalization in education can help to cope with these challenges but can only be a means, not a goal. Personal interaction with students remains the most important task in education to address individual weaknesses and further develop strengths and talents. With the increasing amount of openly available information and the consequently increasing diversity of experiences within the group of students, differentiation is advancing to become the key to successful education. Digitization can help with this challenging task and support communication between students and their experienced instructors. But computers cannot replace human interaction and attempts to improve teaching efficiency by replacing this communication with electronic means endangers the learning success for complex concepts. This article analyzes education demands and possibilities for digitally supported teaching and learning. KW - Digitalization KW - higher education KW - student competencies KW - differentiation Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd23.2023.16232 SN - 2603-5871 SP - 1399 EP - 1406 PB - Universitat Polit`ecnica de Val`encia ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Semi-Structured Lab Projects in Communication Engineering Education T2 - 2023 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 01-04 May 2023, Kuwait N2 - It is generally known that project-based learning is a very important part of engineering education to connect theoretical knowledge with practical work. Students learn to apply their knowledge to real-world challenges as it is the case in their later professional life. If students are not used to project work or the scientific topic is new and relatively complex, they may be overwhelmed. The consequence is that students achieve poor results, are frustrated, and therefore learning success is low. Semi-structured projects are introduced that combine the advantages of structured experiments with projects. The project work is structured into several parts with detailed descriptions of the tasks. In the end, students get similar results to doing a free project, but the success rate is higher due to higher guidance. Therefore, these semi-structured projects are seen to be an appropriate method to guide students to learn how to do project work. The feedback from most students is very positive. Some students with no previous lab experience complained about the project work and wished for more guidance to become familiar with lab work. In sum, the student feedback is encouraging to develop semi-structured projects further. KW - Knowledge engineering KW - Task analysis KW - Communication engineering education Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/EDUCON54358.2023.10125244 SP - 1 EP - 5 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Analysis and Improvement of Engineering Exams Toward Competence Orientation by Using an AI Chatbot T2 - Towards a Hybrid, Flexible and Socially Engaged Higher Education: Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL2023), Volume 1 N2 - ChatGPT is currently one of the most advanced general chatbots. This development leads to diverse challenges in higher education, like new forms of teaching and learning, additional exam methods, new possibilities for plagiarism, and many more topics. On the other side with the development of advanced AI tools, pure knowledge will be less and less important, and demands from industry will change toward graduates with higher competencies. Education has therefore to be changed from knowledge-centered toward competence centered. The goal of this article is to use ChatGPT for analyzing and improving the competence orientation of exams in engineering education. The authors use ChatGPT to analyze exams from different engineering subjects to evaluate the performance of this chatbot and draw conclusions about the competence orientation of the tested exams. The obtained information is used to develop ideas for increasing the competence orientation of exams. From this analysis, it is visible that ChatGPT gives good performance mainly where knowledge is tested. It has, however, much more problems with transfer questions or tasks where students need creativity or complex insights for finding new solutions. Based on this result, exams and also lectures can be optimized toward competence orientation. KW - Engineering education KW - Competence orientation KW - Exam analysis KW - AI chatbot KW - ChatGPT Y1 - 2024 SN - 9783031519789 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51979-6_42 SN - 2367-3370 SP - 403 EP - 411 PB - Springer Nature CY - Cham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Johnson, Ebin M. A1 - Anwer, Shakil A1 - Xu, Yongchao A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Mandl, Roland T1 - Contactless Low-Cost Position Sensor using a D-Shaped Polymer Optical Fiber JF - IEEE Sensors Journal N2 - This article describes a contactless fiber-optic position sensor. It comprises a Polymer Optical Fiber that is grinded to form a D-shaped cross-section with an exposed fiber core. This sensor has two photodiodes at both fiber ends to measure the emitted light intensity. Light is coupled using a red LED at the side face into the exposed core of the fiber at a defined position. The position of the LED at the length of the fiber is measured by calculating the optical power quotient measured by both photodiodes. To test this sensor, Polymer Optical Fibers with different side surface roughness are produced and qualified. Measurements show that the optical power quotient is reproducible and nearly linear over the length of the fiber. It is also seen that the fiber attenuation increases when grinding the fiber side-face with rougher sandpaper. Position measurements show an absolute position error of this sensor in the range of a few millimeters. Microscope images show surface defects along the polished side face of the fiber that are expected to lead to a nonuniform attenuation along the fiber and cause the position errors. Overall, it is proven that this sensor principle works as a contactless low-cost position sensor for short distances with an absolute position standard deviation error lower than 1 mm. KW - Optical fibers KW - Optical fiber sensors KW - Sensors KW - Photodiodes KW - Optical surface waves KW - Surface roughness KW - Rough surfaces KW - Fiber-optic sensor KW - Position measurement KW - Polymer Optical Fiber Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/JSEN.2023.3348127 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas T1 - Teaching Digital Electronics Principles by Connecting Diverse Technologies T2 - 2024 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment and Learning for Engineering (TALE), 09-12 December 2024, Bengaluru, India N2 - A lab course for digital electronics is developed and implemented in the second semester of a bachelor of engineering study program. This lab course runs parallel to a lecture about the basics of digital electronics. The goal of this lab course is that students should acquire the competence to develop digital circuits, no matter which design technique or circuit technology they use. Therefore, students have to learn abstract thinking without sticking to a certain digital design technique or circuit technology. For this reason, digital circuits with identical functions are developed by students, using different digital design techniques. A SPICE simulation software, the Analog Discovery board, VHDL simulation and implementation using an FPGA board are used for the five experiments with increasing complexity that are carried out during this lab course. The last task is a small project where students can carry out own ideas. The lecturer sees that students are very engaged during this lab course and also their feedback is very positive. They answered that the time frame and complexity of the course was appropriate, the usage of the Analog Discovery board was very instructive, and they learned much. In sum, the students are very satisfied with the course. This success is encouraging to retain the overall structure of this lab course and develop the details further. Y1 - 2024 SN - 979-8-3503-7623-4 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/TALE62452.2024.10834379 SP - 1 EP - 5 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Fuhrmann, Thomas A1 - Niemetz, Michael T1 - Fostering democratic attitude within engineering education T2 - 11th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd’25) N2 - According to the education ideal advocated by Wilhelm von Humboldt, education should be a holistic process to develop the whole human being and should not be narrowed toward job training. For example, in democratic societies, education should be directed to fostering a democratic mindset of students to strengthen pluralistic democracy. It is always possible to introduce a general course into a study program that deals with democratic education from a theoretical point of view. But by introducing such a course, the time spent on technical subjects will be reduced. The other major disadvantage of such solutions is that democratic education is seen to be separated from technical education. But in the contrary, democracy should be included in the whole life as a general way of thinking and cooperation between individuals. Therefore, ideas and lecture experiences are presented in this article on how democratic education can be integrated into all engineering subjects as an elementary educational design concept. Students should be led toward a general democratic attitude by practical application. To achieve this, democratic learning environments can be established in all types of courses like lectures, seminars, and labs. This includes, for example, the design of exercises, the presentation of the theoretical content, and the interaction between professors and students as well as the interaction between the students themselves as induced by the teaching activities. Also in exams, elements to promote democratic thinking are possible: Exams should be not directed to learning only content but toward understanding, creativity, and problem-solving competence. They should include, where possible, the fact that correct technical solutions are not unique but that a multiverse of solutions exists, with each solution featuring various strengths and weaknesses. This not only sensitizes the students for the need for (e.g. socially or environmentally) responsible technical design choices but also allows them to find optimized solutions for the engineering challenges at hand. In sum, lecturers should be aware that a democratic learning environment is a demanding process, as students must be taken as serious partners in a joint learning process and surprises are to be expected. KW - Engineering Education KW - Democratic Education Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd25.2025.20093 SP - 879 EP - 886 PB - Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València (edUPV) CY - Valencia ER -