Advanced Laboratory Exercises for MIT’s Electronics First Curriculum

Abstract

Electronics First is a new, introductory course in electrical engineering and electronics which has been in development at MIT over the past several years. Its goal is to provide students with practical, hands-on experience working with electronics. The course is structured around a series of laboratory exercises designed to familiarize students with important, fundamental concepts within the field. Each exercise is accompanied by a physical circuit which reinforces the topics presented in the lab. At the end of each lab, student build the circuit and have the opportunity to observe the theory in action.

The purpose of this project is to expand upon the existing course material by providing additional coverage on a number of more advanced topics. These topics include the application and design of buck, boost, and resonant converters. This project also introduces a new laboratory exercise for MIT’s Power Electronics Laboratory course ( 6.131) based on the boost converter circuit developed for Electronics First.