Wireless sensor systems: an approach for a multiuniversity design course

As a means of increasing the awareness of the sensing sciences among undergraduates, a novel design course has been developed by the Tennessee Technological University and the University of South Florida. Students study, design, fabricate, and test a wireless-based sensor system that relays data over a radio-frequency link for centralized processing. Weekly seminars on applicable topics in telecommunication, signal processing, and microwave systems originate from either university, using interactive Internet conferencing. Students from both schools form design teams to develop subsystems that are integrated to complete the project, thereby necessitating collaboration across teams and universities. Student evaluations of the first two offerings (Spring 2000/2001) were excellent.