Electronic Instrumentation Background of Freshmen Computer Engineering Students

The level of hands-on engineering experience tends to vary widely among beginning engineering students.Whereas certain basic elements of academic preparation are guaranteed by program admission criteria, they typically are not concerned with specific elements of a particular engineering discipline; rather, these criteria establish general aptitude and/or proficiency in math and science.This paper analyzes a survey of the electronic instrumentation background of 2006 computer engineering freshmen at RIT, of which 19% indicated no prior electronics instrumentation knowledge, and 65% lacked hands-on experience with oscilloscopes.