EI‐SCAM as a teaching tool in an undergraduate course in analog and high‐frequency circuits

Abstract EI‐SCAM is a very useful tool capable of carrying out symbolic, semi‐symbolic, and numerical solutions for the electrical variables of a circuit under analysis. The goal of the research reported herein is to assess the effectiveness of the program as a teaching tool for circuit analysis of Automotive System Engineering students. To this aim, EI‐SCAM has been used for at least 5 years, from 2017 to 2021, in the undergraduate course Interfaces, Communications, and Signal Processing, intended to Automotive System Engineering majors at the Electronics Faculty of the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla, México, and whose main topics are related to interface circuits for signal conditioning from sensors and towards actuators in the car. EI‐SCAM was used as a complement to theoretical classes and it has also been used alone as a self‐study tool. A student survey indicated that EI‐SCAM was an excellent complement to the teaching process, providing a useful and convenient tool for circuit analysis tasks even when the user is unfamiliar with both the use of MATLAB and circuit analysis. Additionally, a test applied before and after the introduction of EI‐SCAM in the course showed an increase beyond the 60% in the assertiveness of the students to respond properly to the questions.