High order experimental skills´ gap identification — The need to reshape electronics teaching

Each knowledge area has its own evolutionary way, splitting in new knowledge areas, or simply abandoning some subjects to make room for new ones. As a result we can perceive the tendency for a given subject being treated differently, according to the course where it is taught. Thus, teaching electronics is different in an Electronics Course than in an Electric Power Systems Course. In the first this subject assumes some deepness while in the second it is, at best, only superficially presented. This strategy presents some advantages for the student, like cost and time requirements, and mainly the ability to move quickly into the labor market. Nevertheless we can identify some crucial drawbacks in this approach, mainly the very weak skill level attained in some crucial subjects, usually in the boundary between established knowledge areas. So, instead of getting solid skills about crucial electric and electronic components, students are often presented with simpler interface models, i.e. electronic "black boxes". Later on, when faced with a specific type of problems, graduated student are hardly able to identify solutions, due to their inherent lack of interdisciplinary skills. This work presents some perceptions related with the lack of some electronic concepts in engineering students, necessary to understand the implications on the electric power grid resulting from the use of non-linear loads. A methodology to characterize this situation and alternatives to overcome it are also presented.