EG-151 Microcontrollers—Module Staff

Author
Affiliation

Dr Chris Jobling

Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Published

October 1, 2024


Dr Chris Jobling

A photograph of Dr Chris Jobling

Dr Chris Jobling

Module Coordinator

Email: c.p.jobling@swansea.ac.uk

Office Hour: Tuesdays 13:00 on Zoom. (From Monday 8th October)

Office Location: Room B206, Engineering East


Dr Hayder Jahanger

A photograph of Dr Hayder Jahanger

Dr Hayder Jahanger

Module Lecturer

Email: hayder.jahanger@swansea.ac.uk

Office Hour: TBC

Office Location: Room 202, Engineering North


Dr Ben Clifford

A photograph of Dr Ben Clifford

Dr Ben Clifford

Guest Lecturer Ben wrote the original lecture notes.


Dr Timothy Davies

A photograph of Dr Timothy Davies

Dr Timothy Davies

Honoury Lecturer Timothy developed the laboratory exercises and the mini project.

t.davies@swansea.ac.uk

Course Site

The home page for this course is “2425_EG-151_Microcontrollers” on your Canvas dashboard.

The course entry page on Canvas dashboard.

Figure 1: The course entry page on Canvas dashboard

Course Delivery

  • Lecture Class

    • Tuesday 11:00 – 11:50

    • Great Hall, Room 029

  • Laboratory class

    • 10:00 – 12:00 Thursday and Friday

    • Engineering East, Room B107 Electronics Lab

  • Self Directed Learning (50 Hours over 10 Weeks)

    • Review lecture material and supporting content

    • Online activities including quizzes and discussion forums

Course Overview

This course is made up of lectures which introduce the basics of microcontroller architecture and operation, and how they are programmed


Course syllabus

Applications of microcontrollers, and programming in both assembly and ‘C’ languages. The lectures will be supported by a series of practical sessions where you will learn how to implement the lecture content to commission simple programs on an Arduino microcontroller.


Key Topics

  • Microcontroller fundamentals and architecture.

  • Microcontroller programming: instruction execution; basic instructions.

  • Software design and development tools.

  • Assembly and C programming languages.


Course Assessment

There are five formal assessment components to this course:

1. Laboratory Training Requirements (Pass/Fail)

It is an accreditation requirement that you have demonstrated competence in C12 Workshop and practical skills. To pass the module you must pass the laboratory training requirements. In order to pass the laboratory training requirements, you are required to keep a full record of lab attendance and record the completion date of each lab exercise in your lab diary. This record will be regularly evaluated and signed off by the laboratory support staff during the lab sessions.

There will be two COMPULSORY two-hour lab sessions per week on Thursdays and Friday 10:00-12:00. The department requires that each student has achieved at least 80% attendance (18 of 22 available sessions) in the lab. Catch-up sessions are provided for labs missed for valid reasons.

2. Lab introduction exercise – 15%

During the first four weeks of term, the laboratory will be used for a laboratory introduction exercise covering health and safety, a breadboard construction exercise, a simulation exercise and a soldering exercise.The laboratory introduction is COMPULSORY and must be passed if a student is to work in the laboratory.

3. Five short ‘C’ language programming exercises – 20% (4% each)

An example program will be provided which students are expected to modify so as it performs the required functions. The 5 exercises involve creating a binary counter, reading a digital input, reading an analogue input and working with arrays, and writing information to an LCD display device.

Assessment will be through submission of a lab diary containing the modified and commented code, a flow chart and a description of the changes made. Submission will be through the Canvas platform.

4. A mini project – 30%

The mini project will require each student to create a program to achieve a certain task making use of the knowledge gained during the lectures and four lab exercises. Assessment will be through submission of a lab diary containing the modified and commented code, a flow chart and a description of the changes made. Submission will be through the Canvas platform.

5. Formal Class Test – 35%

The class test will be online and based on content covered in the lectures and laboratory sessions.These questions will be similar to those presented in each weekly quiz. For the practical assessment marks to count, you must achieve at least 40% in the Formal Test.You will have one attempt to redeem a failure before the end of semester 1. If you achieve less than 40% after this, then the course mark will be just the Class Test mark and you will be required to sit a supplementary exam in August.


Lab attendance

Additionally, to be allowed a supplementary examination for this course you must have an 80% attendance rate in laboratory classes.

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