PHILIPPINE ASSOCIATION FOR TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION
Enhancing Engineering Education through
Undergraduate Research Projects
Joel Reyes Noche
Abstract— The Department of Electrical and Electronics Engi-
neering in the University of the Philippines, Diliman requires its
undergraduate students to take a course where they will do an un-
dergraduate research project. This paper presents the history of
the course, the way the course is handled, and how the course can
enhance engineering education.
Index Terms—Undergraduate research projects.
I. I NTRODUCTION
HE Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
T in the University of the Philippines, Diliman requires its
B. S. Electrical Engineering, B. S. Electronics and Communi-
cations Engineering, and B. S. Computer Engineering students
to take a course where they will do an undergraduate research
project.
The objective of the course is for the student to specialize in
a chosen field or area of study through a project that applies the
student’s knowledge, skills, and research capability.
A project may be part of, or result from, a collaboration of
different research laboratories or departments. It could be in
the form of: an engineering innovation; a technical feasibility
study; a theoretical problem; a proof of concept versus imple-
mentation or performance specifications; a proposed solution to
an outstanding engineering problem; or other projects approved
by the undergraduate research monitoring committee.
This paper presents a brief history of the course, the way the
course is handled, and how the course can enhance engineering
education.
II. H ISTORY
The course EE 81 (Electrical Projects) was instituted in May
1975 [1] with a course description: “Design, fabrication and
testing of electrical hardware and equipment in the field of
power, communication, instrumentation, controls, computers,
etc.” Its prerequisite was senior standing and it had three units
of credit: one lecture unit (one hour a week) and two laboratory
units (six hours a week).
In February 1985, the course was renamed EE 198 (Special
Problems). In August 1988, a change was made, allowing the
student to take the course twice (for a credit of six units). The
course was made an elective, but when it was found that those
who took the course acquired more skills and positive traits than
Presented during the Philippine Association for Technological Education
General Membership Meeting on April 26-28, 2001.
J. Noche is with the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineer-
ing, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines (e-mail:
joel.noche@up.edu.ph).
1
those who did not take it, it was later made a required course
again.
In March 1994, three courses were instituted in lieu of EE
198: EE 198.1 (Special Problems in Electrical Engineering),
EE 198.2 (Special Problems in Electronics and Communica-
tions Engineering), and EE 198.3 (Special Problems in Com-
puter Engineering). The course credit was also increased to five
units (two lecture units and three laboratory units) to “allow
more time for the discussion of research problems, procedures,
tools and reports, and for the solution of engineering design
problems.”
In December 1998, the course numbers were changed from
EE 198.1 to EE 198, EE 198.2 to ECE 198, and EE 198.3 to
CoE 198. It was discovered that some students still had not
finalized the topic of their project by the time they took the
course. To ensure that the students had sufficient preparation,
the course prerequisite was changed to a course called EEE 190
(Inspection Trips and Seminar), where the students were in-
structed to spend the semester researching their topic, among
other things.
III. H ANDLING
Students do their undergraduate student project either indi-
vidually or in groups. The student (or group of students) has
one or more faculty advisers and one or more host laboratories.
Three faculty members, selected before classes start, are as-
signed as course handlers [2]. The handlers are selected so that
one specializes in Electrical Engineering, another specializes in
Electronics and Communications Engineering, and the last spe-
cializes in Computer Engineering.
Students show their progress by (1) submitting a written pro-
posal, (2) presenting an oral proposal, (3) giving a halfway
point presentation, (4) giving a final presentation, and (5) sub-
mitting a final documentation. The handlers meet the students
four times during the semester: first, to discuss the require-
ments of the course; second, to hold the proposal presentations
(for those who don’t already have approved proposals); third,
to hold the halfway point presentations; and fourth, to hold the
final presentations.
A student’s request to drop the course may be denied. Drop-
ping is discouraged because it results in inefficient use of labo-
ratory facilities and disrupts the plans of the research laboratory.
A. Proposal Presentation
The written proposal [3] contains: the project’s title, objec-
tive, duration, and schedule; the names of the researcher, the
project adviser, and the host laboratory; a brief introduction to
2 PHILIPPINE ASSOCIATION FOR TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION
the project (including the division of labor if the project is to be
done by a group), as well as information on how the project is
to be designed, implemented, and tested. The halfway point, a
project milestone for the middle of the semester, is given special
emphasis.
Previously, the procedure was for students to submit their
written proposals and present their oral proposals around a
week after the first meeting. Now, the proposal presentations
are made at the end of the prerequisite course EEE 190.
The oral proposals are presented to a panel of at least four
faculty members. The panel reviews the proposals to see if
they are feasible and acceptable (e.g., the needed materials and
equipment are available; the level of difficulty, the division of
labor, and the halfway point are acceptable). The suggestions of
the panel are taken into account. The handlers inform the stu-
dents of the necessary modifications and approve the proposal
only if these modifications are made before a set date. Students
who do not have approved proposals by then are dropped from
the course.
B. Halfway Point Presentation
The halfway point presentations are held in the middle of
the semester with a panel of at least four faculty members. It
was found that without a halfway point presentation, students
tended to work at a slow pace at the start, and cram near the
end, often resulting in incompleted projects. The policy of giv-
ing students a failing grade for not meeting their halfway point
encourages students to work at a steady pace and to finish on
time.
C. Final Presentation and Grading
Students are taught the importance of proper documentation
and professional presentation of results.
Each group recommends a faculty member or a lecturer to
be a reader to review drafts as well as the final version of their
final documentation [4]. The reader checks for technical, gram-
matical, typographical, and style errors, and makes sure that the
information is presented clearly.
During the last week of classes, the final presentations are
held (ideally with the same panel in the halfway point presen-
tation) and the final documentation are submitted. Students
are graded individually by the panel during the final presenta-
tion. The grade is based on: the student’s time management and
work attitude (which may be judged from the student’s regular
progress reports); the student’s research methodology and thor-
oughness (exploration of alternative methods and approaches;
thorough testing, verification, and documentation of results);
the student’s final documentation (content; thoroughness; com-
pleteness of test data; comparisons, observations, and recom-
mendations made; acknowledgment of sources), and the stu-
dent’s oral presentation and defense (completeness; prepared-
ness; clarity and organization of presentation; exhibiting thor-
ough understanding of the project).
Additional information on documentation, presentation, and
grading can be found in [5].
IV. E NHANCING E NGINEERING E DUCATION
The course is usually taken by students during their last
semester. Students are encouraged to “apply” to one of the de-
partment’s fourteen research laboratories one or two semesters
(or more) before taking the course. The faculty members af-
filiated with each research laboratory understandably prefer the
more qualified students to do research in their laboratories. This
helps students see the need to perform well in their studies: their
chances of getting into a research laboratory are dependent on
their performance in their previous courses. Having been ac-
cepted into a research laboratory, some students become stu-
dent assistants, gaining extra benefits as well as responsibili-
ties. This process prepares the students for their applications
to companies (if they choose a career in industry) or to research
institutions and universities (if they choose to do research work,
teaching, or advanced studies).
For students who choose to do their project in groups, the
course teaches the importance of each member’s contribution to
the project. There have been cases where a student in a group
stops working, causing the rest of the group who depend on that
student’s work to not attain their objectives. Students are thus
advised to select their groupmates wisely, and to structure their
projects such their objectives can be attained even if the other
members do not complete their work.
Some students have presented the results of their undergradu-
ate research projects in a national conference (e.g., [6]-[11]). In
addition, some of the undergraduate research projects have won
in the College of Engineering Undergraduate Research Compe-
tition. For example, in the latest competition, [12] and [13] won
first and second place, respectively.
The fact that undergraduates may have ownership rights to
their research should not be ignored. A number of strategies for
dealing with this is presented in [14].
Undergraduate research projects can also be used as a tool
to identify and recruit potentially successful graduate students.
This was done for electrical engineering students in [15].
Additional information on the research being done at the De-
partment of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in the Uni-
versity of the Philippines, Diliman, can be found in [16] and
[17]. More information on engineering design courses can be
found in [18], [19], and (for electrical engineering in particular)
[20]. How the requirement of engineering design in a computer
engineering program is integrated with undergraduate honors
research is shown in [21].
V. C ONCLUSION
The required Special Problems course of the Department of
Electrical and Electronics Engineering of the University of the
Philippines at Diliman teaches students how to specialize in a
chosen field or area of study through a project that applies the
student’s knowledge, skills, and research capability. Aside from
learning how to design, implement, and test their project within
a fixed schedule, the students also learn how to present and doc-
ument the results professionally.
Undergraduate research projects enrich the engineering ed-
ucational experience and provide valuable experience, whether
the student chooses a career in academe, in research, or in in-
dustry.
NOCHE: ENHANCING ENGINEERING EDUCATION THROUGH UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROJECTS 3

ACKNOWLEDGMENT Joel Reyes Noche received the B. S. degree in elec-

I thank Louis Alarcon, Dr. Rowena Guevara, Richard Hizon,
Prof. Rafael Mantaring, Dr. Joel Marciano, Gilba Padilla, and
Prof. Romeo Solis for their comments.
trical engineering (cum laude) from the University of
the Philippines (UP), Diliman, in 1996 and is cur-
rently taking the M. S. degree in electrical engineer-
PLACE ing from UP, Diliman. His thesis is on asynchronous
PHOTO circuits and computer arithmetic.
HERE He is an instructor at the Department of Electrical
and Electronics Engineering, UP, Diliman.

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