Signal Processing - January 2017 - 46

The course project was conducted
according
to a project model, which
Project Group of Students
Faculty Members
rather precisely defines rules and support for the students' work process. This
Project Manager
Course Director
helps the students organize their work
in an efficient manner and make a careCustomer
Project Members
fully considered system design before
implementing it. The project thus gives
Customer Contact Responsible
the students the opportunity to work in
a fashion that is similar to how projects
Reference Group
Documentation Leader
are conducted in industry.
(Junior Faculty Members
and Ph.D. Students)
In this course, we let the students
Test Manager
work independently, without offering
Supervisor
any initial pointers on how to solve
Quality Assurance Manager
the problem at hand. Instead, we give
encouragement to invent and research
Main Designer
Topic Experts
potential solutions based on knowledge
from previous courses, and provide
Formal Contact (Official Meetings, Documentation)
access to expert supervisors who can
Informal Contacts (Meetings, Advice)
answer questions and discuss ideas.
Our general experience is that students
Figure 3. The roles of the students and faculty members in our implementation of the CDIO project
are very successful in forming a workcourse concept.
ing project group, and they enjoy the
opportunity to design a system mostly
on
their
own,
learning
by acquiring hands-on experience.
the project group members work together continuously, the
everyday informal contacts between the group members are
not shown in the figure.
Lessons learned and future directions
Our general experience is that all students involved in these
The experimental acoustic massive MIMO setup that we have
projects have been enthusiastic and have contributed accorddeveloped is inexpensive and scalable, and the learning curve
ingly to their tasks. The group dynamic has varied during the
for the equipment has been appropriate for the course. The
years and has been somewhat dependent
project has been well-received by students in
on the interests and ambition levels of the
The purpose of our course, that they can apply their knowledge of comparticipants. Many original ideas from stumunications theory to build a complete workin general, is to provide a
dents have been implemented. Usually, the
ing system from scratch. They appreciate the
genuine teamwork learning structure of the project in that they get to try
desired results have been achieved. Since
experience in the field of
the time scope for the course is strictly
out their own ideas in solving a complex probtelecommunications.
limited to one semester, there is no room
lem defined on a relatively high level. They
for delays. This sometimes has resulted in
also appreciate the access to expertise when
products that do not reach full functionality. However, in those
help is needed. The students have expressed that they enjoy that
cases the well-documented work has helped subsequent projthe course gives them a basic understanding of the concept of
ect groups to continue the development and further extend the
massive MIMO, as an early insight into the main cutting-edge
capabilities of the product.
technology component of next-generation wireless networks.
The purpose of our course, in general, is to provide a
Some of the students' feedback is as follows:
genuine teamwork learning experience in the field of tele■ We could have been more thorough in the research
communications. Building an audio test bed for demonstraof equipment that was chosen for the course, since there
tion of the massive MIMO concept specifically was a vehicle
were some compatibility issues (drivers for the A/D and
for bringing the research frontiers to the students and has
D/A cards).
ignited their interest for the field, as well as prepared them
■ The system should be expanded with more units to allow
for an industrial career. The combination of hardware and
for a larger scale test system. Sixteen units is borderline
software development is a unique aspect of our course. The
"massive," and with 16 units it is difficult to get good
challenges of handling hardware imperfections has stimuresults with four units as terminals and the remaining 12
lated the creative skills of the involved students. Combining
constituting the massive MIMO array. This certainly makes
all of the components and implementing the desired algofor good future projects in the coming years.
rithms required solid teamwork and devotion to the task. The
■ Many students would like to see how the different parts of a
product created so far has shown useful capabilities and is
communication system go together in real-world systems,
also scalable.
given more in detail in earlier courses, to be better prepared
46

IEEE Signal Processing Magazine

January 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Signal Processing - January 2017