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Contribution: This research presents a case study of an online peer assessment (PA) implementation in a random processes course. Students were required to submit simulation assignments, and then to evaluate their peers' submissions. The research explored the students' perception of the activity throughout the course using surveys, and their behavior and academic performance using data obtained in the course. Background: With decreased resources and larger class sizes, the obligatory theoretical random processes course in the electrical engineering program presents a challenge with regard to students' motivation and assimilation of the academic material. Intended Outcomes: In preceding research, PA was found to provide benefits for students' learning, without significantly burdening teaching staff resources. The implementation was directed at achieving these benefits. Application Design: Simulation exercises were designed to provide illustrations of relatively abstract material, and PA was instituted to facilitate better learning of the material without imposing greater resource requirements on the teaching staff. Findings: Results indicated that PA, although executed in accordance with the best practices presented in the literature, failed to achieve the benefits expected, and might even have contributed to lower grades in the course.

Free-space optical interconnection (FSOI) technology enables high interconnection speed in next-generation servers. FSOIs use laser links between server components and provide a lower bound on propagation delay due to the shortest line-of-sight path and the low index of refraction of air, when compared with the indices common in waveguide technologies. One of the main problems of FSOI systems is the inevitable turbulence effect that results from the air cooling of server components. Cooling fans produce a flow of hot air, due to excessive thermal emission from electronic components inside the chassis; this produces turbulence-induced fading and may influence the communication performance. The objective of this paper is to experimentally examine the influence of the turbulence effect on FSOI channels inside a server chassis. This includes studying scintillation statistics and characterizing temporal and spatial in-chassis turbulence. The results of the analysis reveal that the in-chassis optical channel preserves the well-known log-normal scintillation distribution. However, some temporal and spatial characteristics do not fit the commonly accepted turbulence theory predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To further reduce the size of computers and increase their speed, optical technology has to replace electrical technology for motherboard-level interconnects. This letter presents a new design for motherboard-level interconnects based on the unguided optical interconnection board concept. The design includes chips with optical transceivers that communicate using diffused light through the same shared optical medium. In this letter, we derive a model of bit-error probability (BER) and find the order of the Lambertian reflection that maximizes the BER. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]