n recent weeks, at AGU there was contest excitement. First year EE students at AGU demonstrated and tested performance of catapult system that they designed to hit a target with a low-weight ball at a certain distance. This was a project assigned to and developed by the students under the Capsule System. Capsule is the name of novel social/technical education system firstly developed and applied in AGU in which students are requested to apply fundamental knowledge in real world systems. In Capsule system it is aimed to combine different components of the curriculum through term-long projects.
While designing their catapult systems, first year EE students applied fundamental calculus, physics, and linear algebra knowledge to analytically solve the problem and automatized their calculations with a computer software. Also, the students engineered and built their own system and gained hands on experience. Most groups achieved successful attempts in the demo session, which clearly displayed the students’ competences. In the next terms, further capsule projects include basic radio design, signal acquisition, and analysis from human body, etc. will be assigned to students.
