Student design projects in King Abdulaziz University for power engineers

International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education, Jul 2004 by Ibrahim, Emad S

It has also been found that the design projects provide a good way to review basic power systems theory and provide an excellent opportunity to train engineers in real world situations. The power industry has hired new graduates only to find that they know basic theory but not practical applications. Our program is organised to provide application experience as well as theory.

Companies that hire BSc degree electrical engineers with no practical experience spend a substantial amount of time and money in training these engineers before they are able to participate productively in the company. Frequently, senior engineers within a particular department do not have the time or training to give all the necessary information and background for a specific problem. The young inexperienced engineer hesitates to ask necessary but seemingly trivial questions. The consequences of this are poor production, loss of time and money, and inadequate results. The design projects have helped in closing the gap between the academic and working environments.

Undergraduate computer facilities

At King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Engineering, all entering engineering freshmen are required to take a one-year, two-semester class in engineering analysis and problem solving. During the one-year course span, working knowledge of a computer language, the use of Microsoft Office, and the use of computer functions to perform mathematical analysis are introduced. The students are required to use the computer to compose many of their written reports. Computer laboratories equipped with IBM compatible PCs are open to all entering engineering freshmen. Additional computer laboratories equipped with IBM and IBM compatible personal computers are situated in the electrical engineering and computer engineering departmental computer lab, the university library, and the university computer center. The spreadsheet programs, Lotus 123, Quatro Pro, and Excel, and the word-processing software are the basic software installed on the desk top personal computers. In addition, mathematical packages such as Mathematica, MATLAB, and Mathcad are also provided on many of the computers for solving mathematical problems.

Power system design projects

Many ABET-recognised programs have three or four courses directly addressing engineering design and various levels with a capstone design course at the senior level. The EE499 senior project course will provide students with a major capstone design experience, to include:

1 In-depth design work on a practical engineering problem at a technical level similar to that encountered in industry;

2 Technical content drawn from multiple areas of the electrical engineering curriculum;

3 Experience in planning and managing projects; and

4 Further experience in documenting and communicating engineering work.

This section presents some of the senior design projects scheduled by the author in the power and machines program.

Electrification of an industrial area4

In this project, it is required to supply electricity to a new industrial area. This area contains residential buildings, schools, hospital, mosque, gardens and six factories as shown in Figure 1. Project steps are: