Educational project: Predictive maintenance of a computer cooling fan using vibration analysis

Although signal processing courses play an important role in the engineering education, a substantial portion of students have difficulty to follow, understand, and assimilate its content, which is complex, demands high abstraction capacity, and usually does not establish a direct link between theoretical concepts and practical applications. A solution for this problem is to engage students in experimental projects with real-world applications involving system identification, signal measurement and conditioning, data acquisition, and information processing. This paper presents a low-cost experimental educational project based on the vibration analysis for predictive maintenance of a computer cooling fan to overcome learning difficulties of students in signal processing courses. This proposed pedagogical approach presents positive outcomes regarding the learning objectives and the appreciation of a signal processing course.