Low-cost commercial circuit boards for internships with engineering students

Abstract

This paper describes the experience carried out in a Teaching Innovation Project during the last two academic years. The group of students with whom the experience has been carried out is studying the Master's Degree in Industrial Engineering. This is a generalist Master's degree, but it has professional attributions recognised by law. In this experience, the use of very low-cost commercial circuit boards on different types of electronic power converters is analysed. These commercial solutions are complemented by the use of free software supplied by integrated circuit manufacturers. The proposal shows the results of the experience with students whose academic profiles of access to the master's degree are very different. In some cases, students have little prior knowledge of this subject, so it is necessary to incorporate tools that help them to deal with advanced concepts in power electronics.