Computer engineering
CRITERION 7. FACILITIES Space
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CRITERION 7. FACILITIES
The COE faculty and students have adequate facilities available for conducting a successful program. The facilities include several classrooms, course/research labs, Unix/Linux labs, College of Computer Sciences & Engineering (CCSE) general-purpose labs, faculty offices, university library, and network access facilities. The classrooms are mainly located in buildings 22, 23, and 24. Both labs and faculty offices are located in buildings 22 and 23. As for the university library it is located in building 8. The network access facilities are provided by the CCSE general-purpose labs in buildings 22 and 23, and by the Information Technology Center (ITC) in the form of a Wireless LAN network available in all university buildings. Supporting such facilities is a wealth of computer applications that are available to both faculty and students. In the following sections we provide detailed information regarding the faculty offices, classrooms, the course/research labs, the Unix/Linux labs, the CCSE general-purpose labs, the university library, and the network access facilities.
Most of the faculty offices are located in building 22. Every faculty has his own office that has adequate furniture and is equipped with a desktop and/or notebook, a printer, and a network connection. In addition, most of the faculty offices are also equipped with a scanner. It should be noted, though, that some faculty offices are small in size such that they are inadequate to hold a discussion between the faculty and 2 students. The average faculty office space is about 107 square feet.
Presently, all classrooms are equipped with network connected computers and high-resolution projectors. They are primarily used to deliver electronic class notes and perform in-class demos and presentations. For these computers, commonly used Microsoft applications (such as Microsoft Office) are installed. Other more specific software/tools can be installed on request. It should be noted that none of the COE courses was prevented from being offered due to lack of available classrooms. Table 7.1 -39 provides the minimum, the maximum, and the average classroom size in terms of the number of students the classroom can accommodate. Also, the table provides similar information regarding the auditoriums available for teaching and group meetings.
Several labs are used by both faculty and students to fulfill course outcomes as well as to conduct research. Such labs are located in buildings 22 and 23. Table 7.1-40 summarizes the list of available labs and their sizes.
All COE labs have the following equipment installed for safety purposes:
A brief description of each of the COE labs is outlined in the following subsections. Digital Logic Design Lab The Digital Logic Design Lab is primarily used for prototyping of logic circuits through the use of discrete components (74xx family), EEPROMs (AT 2764) and FPGAs (Xilinx Spartan-3). Hence, the students initially implement combinational circuits on prototyping boards using chips and wires. Next, sequential circuits are implemented using EEPROMs and Flip-Flops. Finally, the students are introduced to FPGA-boards which they program using Xilinx ISE 7.1i WebPack software. Microprocessor Lab The Microprocessor Lab is used by the students to perform Intel microprocessor interfacing and building microcomputer systems. Network & Communication Lab The Network & Communication lab is used for conducting experiments related to all layers of the TCP/IP protocol stack, network management, network architecture, network security, and wireless networking. Thus, the lab supports several courses concerned with such topics. Digital System Design Lab The Digital System Design Lab is used to integrate the students’ knowledge in hardware and software gained from lecture and laboratory courses to design, implement, debug and document a major microcontroller based system. Printed Circuit Board Lab The Printed Circuit Board Lab is used to implement electronic circuits on printed circuit boards. The lab houses all equipment and chemicals necessary to make a professional printed circuit board starting from scratch. The main users of such lab are students of the digital system design course and the senior project course. Robotics Lab The Robotics Lab is used to conduct experiments on Internet Tele-Robotics using real-time Client-Server network programming. The objective is to provide a tool to carry out manual work through the Internet. The work is being done at a server station to which a robot arm is connected. Senior Design Project Lab The Senior Design Project Lab is used by the students to conduct their senior design project. FPGA & Design Automation Lab The FPGA & Design Automation Lab is used mainly to conduct research on digital systems and design automation. Sensor Networks Lab The Sensor Networks Lab is mainly used by faculty and graduate students to conduct research in the area of sensor networks. In addition, the lab is used by both senior design projects’ students and students of the senior elective course on Wireless Sensor Networks to conduct experimentations and to implement projects in the subject matter. Performance Engineering Lab The Performance Engineering Lab is used to conduct research on parallelization of algorithms. Graduate Research Lab The Graduate Research Lab is mainly used by graduate students as a general purpose lab. Unix/Linux Labs The Unix/Linux Labs is not administrated by the COE department. The COE faculty and students have access to this lab to fulfill some course outcomes as well as to conduct research. The lab is located at room 22/413, whereas the Unix/Linux computer servers are located in room 22/338. CCSE General-purpose Labs Several CCSE general-purpose labs are available 24 hours, seven days a week to the students. These labs provide network access as well as a wealth of major computer applications needed by the students in support of their courses, projects, and research.
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