Can an Electrical Engineering Student Be Expelled for Fabricating PIC Microcontroller Assembly Code Logs?

A university will summarily expel an electrical or computer engineering undergraduate, cancel all embedded systems and microprocessor credits, and report the student to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) for professional debarment for fabricating Peripheral Interface Controller (PIC) microcontroller assembly language execution logs, faking digital oscilloscope logic analyzer waveforms, or forging embedded systems laboratory instructor verification signatures without compiling and testing physical hardware circuits. In engineering curricula accredited by COREN, microprocessor engineering—including writing low-level assembly or embedded C code, programming flash memory registers, setting timer interrupts, and interfacing with analog-to-digital converters (ADCs)—represents a life-critical technical competency; fabricating embedded firmware logs subverts hardware reliability standards, conceals critical runtime firmware crashes, and violates professional engineering ethics.

Departmental laboratory coordinators and computer systems examiners utilize hardware programming audit logs to detect fabricated microcontroller submissions.

1. The embedded systems course lecturer audits submitted practical portfolios and identifies mathematically idealized register timing traces that ignore microcontroller instruction cycle latencies.
2. The chief laboratory technologist checks the embedded systems workstation sign-in register and confirms that the student never signed out PIC programmer hardware (such as PICkit), development boards, or digital storage oscilloscopes.
3. The technologist checks the integrated development environment (such as MPLAB X) audit trail and confirms that no hex file compilation or hardware debugging sessions were logged under the student’s assigned workstation profile.
4. The student is formally summoned before the Departmental Laboratory Ethics Committee to produce their raw assembly source code (.asm) and demonstrate live hardware flashing and in-circuit debugging.
5. Inability to explain register addressing modes or replicate hardware timer interrupts leads to a formal charge of scientific fabrication and academic fraud.
6. The Head of Department transmits an investigative dossier to the Faculty of Engineering Board and the University Central Student Disciplinary Committee (SDC).
7. The student appears before the disciplinary committee to defend their submissions under constitutional principles of fair hearing.
8. The University Senate considers the committee’s findings and ratifies an order of rustication or summary expulsion, notifying COREN to bar future professional licensure.

Acquiring hands-on competency in microcontroller programming is essential for engineers who will design, program, and maintain automated medical devices, automotive control modules, and industrial automation systems.

• Standardized embedded systems laboratory manual with approved microcontroller testing protocols.
• Raw bench workbook recording port configurations, register addresses, clock frequencies, and measured output voltages.
• Embedded systems laboratory sign-in register confirming equipment allocation and hardware bench usage.
• Archived original assembly language source code files with detailed register allocation comments and checksum records.

Students must record actual experimental measurements honestly, accounting for hardware clock drift and switch debouncing issues, rather than manufacturing idealized microcontroller data.

Under COREN professional regulations and university examination codes, fabricating embedded systems testing data is classified as severe academic fraud, carrying mandatory rustication and permanent loss of practical laboratory credits.

Maintaining rigorous laboratory ethics ensures that electrical engineering diplomates and graduates develop sound technical judgement required to design and deploy reliable embedded electronics systems.