Microelectronics Education

This is the third edition of the European Workshop on Microelectronics Education (EWME). A steady-state regime has now been reached. An international community of university teachers is constituted; they exchange their experience and their pedagogical tools. They discuss the best ways to transfer the rapidly changing techniques to their students, and to introduce them to the new physical and mathematical concepts and models for the innovative techniques, devices, circuits and design methods. The number of abstracts submitted to EWME 2000 (about one hundred) enabled the scientific committee to proceed to a clear selection. EWME is a European meeting. Indeed, authors from 20 different European countries contribute to this volume. Nevertheless, the participation of authors from Brazil, Canada, China, New Zealand, and USA, shows that the workshop gradually attains an international dimension. th The 20 century can be characterized as the "century of electron". The electron, as an elementary particle, was discovered by J.J. Thomson in 1897, and was rapidly used to transfer energy and information. Thanks to electron, universe and micro-cosmos could be explored. Electron became the omnipotent and omnipresent, almost immaterial, angel of our W orId. This was made possible thanks to electronics and, for the last 30 years, to microelectronics. Microelectronics not only modified and even radically transformed the industrial and the every-day landscapes, but it also led to the so-called "information revolution" with which begins the 21 st century.

Dear participant in the second European Workshop on Microelectronics Education, It is a pleasure to present you the Proceedings of the Second European Workshop on Microelectronics Education and to welcome you at the Workshop. The Organising Committee is very pleased that it has found several key persons, with highly appreciated levels of knowledge and expertise, willing to present Invited Contributions to this Workshop. We have striven for an interesting spread over important areas like the expected demands for educated engineers in the wide field of Microelectronics, and Microsystems, in European industry (and beyond!) and innovations in method and focus of our educational programmes. This is the second European Workshop in this area; the first one was held in Grenoble in France in the spring of 1996. It was the initiative of Georges Kamarinos, Nadine Guillemot and Bernard Courtois to organise this Workshop because they felt that Microelectronics was 'at a turning point' to become the core of the largest industry in the world and that this warranted a serious (re-)consideration of our educational imperatives. It is now two years since and their feeling has become reality: nobody doubts that by the year 2000 the microelecnonics industry will be the largest industrial sector. It is also obvious that because of that and because of the predicted shortfall of educated engineers we must continuously reconsider the quality of our educational approach.

In this book key contributions on developments and challenges in research and education on microelectronics, microsystems and related areas are published. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: emerging fields in design and technology, new concepts in teaching, multimedia in microelectronics, industrial roadmaps and microelectronic education, curricula, nanoelectronics teaching, long distance education. The book is intended for academic education level and targets professors, researchers and PhDs involved in microelectronics and/or more generally, in electrical engineering, microsystems and material sciences. The 2004 edition of European Workshop on Microelectronics Education (EWME) is particularly focused on the interface between microelectronics and bio-medical sciences.

The 1st EWME is an International Tribune where: The Education in Microelectronics in 15 universities from 10 different countries are presented. The International Cooperation using the available multimedia is discussed. Pedagogical problems concerning the teaching of 'classical' microelectronics (technology, devices and CAD) as well as those concerning the sensors, microsystems and advanced materials are examined. Besides more general pedagogical views relative to the extended use of models, CAD and simulations are exposed.

This book presents some of the results from the second stage of lEA's study of Computers in Education (CompEd). lEA, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, conducts international comparative studies focussing on educational achievement, practices, and policies in various countries and education systems around the world. It has a Secretariat located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. lEA studies have reported on a wide range of topics, each contributing to a deeper understanding of educational processes. The CompEd study is a project that sheds light on the way computers have been introduced in education and on how they are being used across the world today. The study proceeded in two stages with data collected for stage 1 in 1989 and for stage 2 in 1992. Results from both stages have been published in a variety of publications. This book reports about a special part of the study. Student achievement and school processes come into being in the context of the structure and the policies of national (or regional) education systems. The variety found in the CompEd results led us to ask how much might be explained by differences in these national or regional contexts. That is the reason the CompEd study took the initiative to invite the countries participating in the study, as well as some other countries that have had interesting developments in the domain of educational computers, to write a chapter describing their policies and practices regarding computers in education.

A reference for teachers interested in the uses of ICT as a tool to promote the inclusion of learners with special educational needs. It considers the role of technology in overcoming barriers of access to the curriculum and offers examinations of ICT asa teaching tool to raise standards for all.

This book is a collection of refereed invited papers on the history of computing in education from the 1970s to the mid-1990s presenting a social history of the introduction and early use of computers in schools. The 30 papers deal with the introduction of computer in schools in many countries around the world: Norway, South Africa, UK, Canada, Australia, USA, Finland, Chile, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Ireland, Israel and Poland. The authors are not professional historians but rather people who as teachers, students or researchers were involved in this history and they narrate their experiences from a personal perspective offering fascinating stories.