Work in progress — How do engineering students misunderstand number representations?

It is often taken for granted that students who pursue engineering in college are “numbers people” who excel at mathematics. We believe that there is reason to doubt this assumption based on our studies of student misconceptions in first and second year engineering students. We interviewed and tested undergraduates in electrical and computer engineering or in computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who had just completed a first course in digital logic. These interviews and tests required students to solve problems relating to binary arithmetic and number base conversions. We present our early findings from these interviews and assessment tools.