Yugu Yang-Keathley, Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Douglas D. Schumann Professorship

Without the professorship, adapting courses for online teaching in response to the Covid-19 pandemic would not have been as smooth as it has.

Dr. Yang-Keathley is an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the School of Engineering.

Since the start of the Douglas D. Schumann Professorship in October 2019, the funds have been devoted primarily to the development of student projects to be deployed in existing and future ECE courses, undergraduate research activities, and course development for distance learning.

Project-based learning has been an inseparable part of the courses I teach. The professorship has enabled the purchase of equipment and components that expands the inventory of the electronic labs and will be primarily utilized for the projects in ELEC3350 Analog Circuit Design and ELEC4475 Feedback and Control. The additions aim to provide students a more accessible and flexible experience in troubleshooting—an essential part of engineering education—while working on the projects. Additionally, I was able to work with a junior co-op student, Congni Shi, to design and prototype a multi-stage circuit that provides the front-end processing on an ECG signal. The findings from this project provided the framework to develop more student projects that can be either added to the project pool for Analog Circuit Design or used in a future advanced circuit course.

The Douglas D. Schumann Professorship also provided a senior BSEE student, Benjamin Slayton, the invaluable opportunity of conducting high-level research for his senior design project and independent studies. As part of the continuous collaboration with Professor Berggren at MIT in providing Wentworth students research opportunities, the professorship provided the funds for Benjamin to gain the access to the facilities at the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT, where he participated in designing an electron spectrometer to be integrated in a commercial SEM and the fast control of the electron optics for a gated mirror.

Without the professorship, adapting courses for online teaching in response to the Covid-19 pandemic would not have been as smooth as it has. I was able to use the funds to purchase a tablet to prepare course materials, host virtual learning sessions, and grade assignments and exams. In addition, the professorship has allowed me to explore affordable hardware and components for hosting remote lab sessions.

Establishing a strong industrial partnership has been the strength of Wentworth in providing high-value learning experiences to our students. The professorship has allowed me to develop a collaboration with BOSE Corporation. I was able to use the funds to invite the research director and project manager at BOSE for an on-campus presentation and to organize meetings to discuss the directions and platforms for future collaborations. The initial conversations have led to BOSE’s sponsorship of a hardware platform, BOSE Frames, to several senior design projects.

I will continue to use the Douglas D. Schumann Professorship to develop and deploy projects that will integrate with new and existing undergraduate- and/or graduate-level courses. I will also devote part of the funds to developing platforms and/or setups for remotely-accessible or in-home laboratory exercises and projects that will offer more flexibility to the curriculum to meet diverse learning needs.