SMPC: A Problem Based Approach to Enhance Student's Learning on Instrumentation and Measurements

Towards the enhancement of students' learning of the topic of switched mode power converter (SMPC) as a subset of bigger picture on Instrumentation and Measurements, a part of the paper is kept as project work and fabrication. The students were formed into groups and each group was asked to design, fabricate a SMPC with given specification and conduct experiment on it. This was done to develop their familiarity with design and implementation of a electronic problem and to enhance their knowledge of problem thinking and solving. The projects were closely linked with practical real-life applications to make them more interesting to the students. The students were instructed to use PROTEL and MATLAB to formulate and solve the problem. At the end of the project they were asked to produce their own written report. The students' opinion has been surveyed and it shows the project based approach has enhanced their learning of the subject.