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Unit Synopsis
This unit will introduce you to microcontroller basics and their real world applications. You will learn about different microcontroller families and their similarities and differences from an application point of view. You will also learn about microcontroller architecture, memory maps, addressing modes, interrupts, timers, counters, and hardware interfacing of a chosen microcontroller. You will learn how to program a microcontroller in a high level language using an integrated development environment. Advanced topics of reading analog inputs, implementation of USART (Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) connections with external world, PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), will also be covered in this unit. After learning the fundamentals of hardware interfacing you will practice them in a laboratory using a microcontroller development system based on this specific microcontroller and finally design and prototype an authentic application of embedded system in your project using the same development system. Online education students are required to attend the residential school.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 8 |
| Credit Points | 12 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.25 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
ENEE14006 Embedded Microcontrollers is an Anti-Requisite for this unit.Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School |
Compulsory Residential School View Unit Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 2 - 2024
Term 2 - 2024 Profile
Term 1 - 2025 Profile
Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Term 3 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 12-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 25 hours of study per week, making a total of 300 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Online Quiz(zes) | 0% |
| 2. Written Assessment | 20% |
| 3. Practical Assessment | 20% |
| 4. Practical Assessment | 20% |
| 5. Portfolio | 40% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site.
Term 2 - 2024 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 45.45% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: In-class student feedback
The use of Microsoft Teams is a more efficient way to resolve hardware and software problems encountered by students in their assessments.
Microsoft Teams should be employed alongside emails and forums when addressing student queries related to software and hardware issues.
The use of Microsoft Teams to support students continued consistently throughout the year.
Source: Student unit evaluation responses
More sample codes and reading materials are needed to improve learning resources.
Additional sample codes and reading materials should be provided to enhance learning resources.
Extra sample codes were introduced, and additional reading materials were provided.
Source: Unit Coordinator's refelction
The use of authentic assessment practices with individualised assessment items has resulted in a decrease in academic misconduct cases.
Authentic assessment practices with individualised assessment items should be employed to mitigate academic misconduct cases.
This practice was continued.
Source: Unit Coordinator's Reflection
Many disengaged students failed to complete the formative assessment, leading to lower grades.
The disengaged students should be identified through the completion of formative assessments, and additional support should be provided to those students.
In Progress
Source: SUTE Survey
Some students failed to identify the relevance of the unit content to their degree.
During the workshops, students should be informed about how the skills and knowledge they gain from this unit can be applied to their future careers.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Apply fundamental structured programming knowledge to perform software tasks
- Program a microcontroller to interface with external devices such as analog and digital sensors, actuators and computers
- Analyse and design microcontroller based real-time applications using a given industry-standard development system and software tools
- Prototype an embedded microcontroller system for a real-world application
- Communicate professionally using relevant technical terminology, symbols, and diagrams and effectively document design and prototyped solutions
- Work autonomously and as a team member to analyse problems and present solutions.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | |||||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | |||||
| 3 - Practical Assessment | • | |||||
| 4 - Practical Assessment | • | • | • | • | ||
| 5 - Portfolio | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | • | ||
| 4 - Research | • | • | • | • | • | |
| 5 - Self-management | • | • | ||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 7 - Leadership | • | |||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | ||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | ||||
| 3 - Practical Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||
| 4 - Practical Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||
| 5 - Portfolio | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||