Introducing signal processing through an advanced digital design course

This paper presents a project based teaching experience in an advanced digital systems design course with emphasis on design methodologies and laboratory assignments. Projects are the core of the practised teaching methodology and are structured in a pedagogical format according to the course programme. The use of the FPGA technology as the most suitable implementation technology for digital design teaching purposes is discussed. The course structure, oriented to the development of real working digital systems, challenges the students and increases their motivation. This way, the learning process is improved and the classes are more productive. A laboratory development infrastructure based on a FPGA device, used to implement a real-time video processing system, is presented. Examples of laboratory projects implemented with this infrastructure in a recent course edition are also presented.

This paper describes our innovative design efforts of a modern digital design course. The main feature that differentiates our efforts from other similar works is that we have divided both the knowledge and the learners into three categories, and clarified the corresponding relations between them. By elaborate planning for the contents, schedule, teaching, and testing, plus advanced instructional design and post evaluation, the course can satisfy the needs of a large range of learners with different inclinations.

Computer engineering education has a strong dependence on laboratory work. Teaching students in the lab does not always consist of teaching the required course material, but also of a vast number of tutorials on different platforms. In many cases, these tutorials take significant amount of time which could be better spent doing actual course material. For that reason, E2LP project has developed a platform to be used in multiple courses, covering majority of the computer engineering curriculum. This paper presents a first step in the curriculum - a course in digital system design with laboratory exercises which are implemented on E2LP platform. The platform not only gives students hands-on experience with design and verification of digital systems, but it also provides a bridge between hardware and software because using the same platform in future courses allows students to re-use their results from previous courses and continue building their knowledge. First impression of students is positive about the experience with the platform and their feeling of usefulness of the course for their career.

Incorporating VHDL programming and implementation using programmable logic devices (PLD) in fundamental digital design course for Electronics Engineering at undergraduate level has become increasingly essential. However it is experienced that integration of VHDL with fundamentals of digital design in one course students give lesser time and importance for VHDL programming. Hence learning objective related to VHDL programming is not achieved up to the expected level. Experience of giving additional training to interested students had shown improvement in students' performance. This paper discusses effect of designing of a separate compulsory laboratory course in VHDL and its effect on the understanding of students and achieving the learning objectives. It also discusses the effect on performance of students in Digital Design course after separating VHDL programming from it. The feedback of students shows that students learn better in laboratory course and they are motivated to learn further in the same area.

1 INTRODUCTION Design education usually employs project-based learning, in which students learn to research, plan, design and reflect on the creation of technological projects [1], [2]. Student experience issues may influence students' design process, as well as their perception of professional knowledge development. Studies have pointed out students are ill-informed about design education when entering university [3]. In the field of design, although there have been student surveys to analyze design thinking skills and for assessing design literacy. However, these studies are primarily assessment tools, and do not investigate students’ attitudes or experiences of their design courses. While several studies focus on measuring students’ cognitive knowledge, assessments of affective variables, such as attitude, are far fewer in number. The objective of this study was to investigate student experiences, specifically the issues and challenges faced by students in three foundational design courses – focusing on introductory design, architectural design and engineering design – at the . We investigate issues such as how do students experience various instruction modes such as lectures and studio; and their experience of working individually or as teams in the three foundational design courses. 2 METHOD We conducted a survey in three foundational design courses, in both online and paper format. The survey comprised quantitative and qualitative components. Respondents consisted of 248 students from the introductory design course, 48 students from the introductory architectural design course and 71 students from the engineering design course. Respondents rated their perceptions on 23 items in two types of questions: Likert, semantic differential. Additionally, they provided their input in two open-ended questions. 3 RESULTS A principal component analysis conducted on the data revealed five factors that primarily contributed to students’ perception of foundational design courses: (1) the fun aspects of design, (2) the stressful aspects of design, (3) Course Pressures, (4) Student temperament issues, (5) Teamwork experience. Performance pressures majorly affected student experience in all three courses. The architectural design course was seen to be the most enjoyable for students, as fun scores were higher than the stress scores, and low course pressures. The engineering design course was observed to be very stressful for students, with low scores for fun. 4 SIGNIFICANCE Student perception of foundational design courses is important because it can be used to drive forward changes in curriculum and pedagogy. While this study uses data from one university, the issues reported here are generic and relevant for instructors developing design courses across different parts of the world. Research in student experience and perspectives is crucial to develop design education and propel it into the future. REFERENCES [1] Y. Doppelt, “Assessing creative thinking in design-based learning,” International Journal of Technology and Design Education, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 55–65, 2009, [2] N. Lee, “Project methods as the vehicle for learning in undergraduate design education: a typology,” Design Studies, vol. 30, no. 5, pp. 541–560, Sep. 2009, [3] A. B. Gencosmanoglu, “Learning, teaching and administration in design education: DESIGNtrain Project: Training tools for developing design education,” in Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2010.

This paper describes the development of courses in the field of digital design that use Arduino boards as their main platforms. Arduino offers an intuitive development environment and multiple hardware and software resources that allow rapid development of microcontroller-based projects. However, due to the vast amount of information available, students were losing the capability to design their own prototypes. We propose a methodology that introduces the study of microcontrollers using Arduino to develop different types of projects and proceeds to study the system architecture to gain control on the device. This methodology has been used in an undergraduate course in microcontrollers and a graduate course in advanced techniques in digital design. The students of the microcontrollers course showed improved design skills and motivation compared to the students from previous versions of the course. With respect to the advanced techniques in digital design course, the students were able to take advantage of Arduino platform to gain a deep understanding of hardware/software co-design of embedded systems.

In this paper, the authors present a rapid prototyping environment for teaching digital logic design. Their primary goal was to build an FPGA based hardware prototyping system that provides sufficient flexibility for the implementation and functional verification of various digital circuit designs. Since the system is intended to be used as an experimental and demonstration board to support digital design courses and practices for the undergraduate students, it is simple to use and completely supported by the software for automatic implementation of digital circuits. The prototyping environment consists of a PC and the programmable board composed of 3 FPGAs. One FPGA is used to implement the digital circuit, while the rest of the devices implement an interface between the digital circuit and the PC. The PC is used for designing a digital circuit, automatic generation of the interface logic, programming the FPGAs and as a test engine for functional verification of the designed circuit. The presented environment is used in the regular educational process and the sample student projects are summarized.

The objective of this mixed research is to analyze the impact of flipped classroom in the educational process on the Combinational Circuits through data science and machine learning. Flipped classroom facilitates the organization of active activities before, during and after the class. The participants are 17 students of Electronic Electrical Engineering who took the Digital Design course in the National Autonomous University of Mexico during the 2019 school year. The results of machine learning indicate that the consultation of the videos before the class, resolution of the exercises during the class through the Quartus software and realization of the laboratory practices after the class positively influence the development of skills on circuit design. Data science identifies 3 predictive models of the use of flipped classroom through the decision tree technique. Finally, teachers can improve the learning process, develop the skills of students, build new educational spaces and carry out creative activities through flipped classroom.

Over the past five years a digital subsystem laboratory has been developed at Purdue University. The laboratory is operated in two parts: a closed shop portion with specialized instruction in digital subsystems and an open shop portion with a large repertoire of experiments from which the students may select those of particular interest. This paper describes the development of this laboratory as well as its operation. A detailed list of the various experiments which have been successfully used in both the open and closed shop portions is included. A short discussion of the accompanying digital design course material is also presented.

Intellectual property (IP) reuse based system design is becoming an industry standard recently. However, current educational system is not effective in the training of engineers who design by reuse and design for reuse. In this paper, we report our experience at the University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP) in introducing the concept of design reuse into the introductory digital logic design course. We present a practical curriculum innovation plan, which does not increase the teaching load or sacrifices the current curriculum significantly, to implement this idea. Our teaching experience show that students learn the basics of design reuse and enjoy doing IP-based design.

With a proliferation of Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs, there is a growing need to support statistical literacy of DNP and Ph.D.-prepared nurses and the collaboration between them. Nurses with advanced degrees (DNPs and Ph.D.s) are increasingly required to deeply engage in evaluating and applying quantitative research with some, namely Ph.D.s, developing quantitative research. These activities require statistical literacy. However, recent literature has identified low statistical literacy among nurses with advanced degrees. To address these needs, we developed a collaborative advanced quantitative research design and statistics course for DNP and Ph.D. students guided by adult learning theory and the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education. In this course, intraprofessional collaboration between DNP and Ph.D. students is facilitated through partnered projects. Statistical literacy is emphasized through critical evaluation of statistical literature and manuscript-style written assignments. The collaborative quantitative methods course is delivered in a hybrid format with an in-person week of class and 16 online modules. The course consists of three overlapping threads with emphasis on (a) reading and evaluation of statistical literature, (b) conducting and communicating statistical analysis, and (c) design of a quantitative research study. Forty seven students have completed the newly designed course over three cohorts. Students and faculty have reported increased confidence with statistical writing and thoughtful engagement across programs following the introduction of the collaborative quantitative methods course.

In this paper, a preliminary study using case-based teaching methodology in a digital IC design course is described. The proposed case-based course consists of ten lecture topics with hands-on labs and two projects. Each topic covers a design case example which contains illustrations of physical structure, hardware description language (HDL) codes, truth tables, waveform, and comments. Students can comprehend the essence of HDL by referring to physical logic gates, truth table, and waveform with HDL codes. This helps students to understand the abstract nature of HDL-based design flow especially for non-EE major undergraduates. To illustrate the effect of case-based teaching methodology instruction for non-major undergraduates, a specific class was constructed by 56% major and 44% non-major undergraduates. At the end of the course, both major and non-major undergraduates verified all labs and projects successfully. The questionnaire statistics show that most of the students like the course with case-based guidance. They all look forward to taking other similar engineering courses in the future.

Effective teaching of Systems Analysis, Information Systems, or Management Information Systems requires innovative approaches that go beyond the traditional classroom approaches. The panel will present ideas that have worked successfully and can possibly be utilized by other departments. The approaches center on the application of learned material into a setting that will allow the student to experience the “work place” environment. Actual projects done in a team setting is the real key to improving the students learning of the subject material in systems analysis and design courses. This approach involves the skills of working in a team, writing, and presentation. The graduate gains experience and therefore preparation for the eventual job they will be doing from their class projects. Requirements of the faculty increase somewhat in this type of approach and the panel will discuss these issues also. Robert A. Barrett, Moderator In the area of systems analysis, information systems, and management information systems, we have in past symposiums presented papers that outline the courses and the course contents. We have not dealt with some of the approaches or methodologies of student assignments and work. Our department has an advisory committee that provides input/guidance to the needs that business and industry have in regards to the individual who is working as a programmer, programmer/analyst, or systems analyst. One of the major issues that is being discussed (and has been over the past two years) is the writing, speaking and team concept abilities of the working professional. We have incorporated many of the needs in the individual classes to enhance and reinforce the learning of the student in these three areas. We put the student into teams as much as possible and require as many written reports and presentations as possible. Ernest A. Kallman At Bentley the systems design course is a capstone course for seniors only. Its objective, beyond the obvious purpose of covering the systems design function, is to help the student make the transition from textbook understanding of information systems to actual real world experience. To that end some part of the course is given over to topics such as installation organization and management. To add further realism a team project is assigned which requires the observation of an actual computer installation in some organization other than Bentley College. John F. Schrage The curriculum follows concepts noted in the major computer curricula studies from ACM on both undergraduate and graduate levels. The DPMA model curriculum also influenced the program in information systems. The programs provide training and education in both programming and systems with specializations somewhat determined by each student. The number of systems courses has expanded in the last three years. The systems concepts are presented, reinforced in intermediate courses, and culminated in a real-world project for both levels of students. The capstone situation for all students in the computer area is a real-life problem and solution. Students form into teams of three or four and find an area company which has a systems-oriented problem applicable for solution within the ten-week term. The team approach is used in most of the courses, but the independence of students in this course shows more on adapting for the job market. Team work is done in all courses after the introduction course in concepts and programming.

In this paper, the authors report on a longitudinal study of the impact of the function that a student assumes in this introductory course on his/her performance in design courses taken later in their engineering studies. The study tracks the performance of 204 students through the curriculum up to and including the final year’s capstone design project. Tracking is accomplished using repeated measures ANOVA (RMANOVA). Potential correlations are statistically examined between the introductory course grades and subgrades of the major deliverables (report and contest) and those from the later design courses after being segregated according to team function. The findings reveal strong impact of team functions on performance in design courses taken by the students up to three years later in the curriculum. Furthermore, it was also found that 64% of all teams formed for the capstone project contained two or more of the team original members formed in ME Tools.

In teaching undergraduate courses in digital logic design, it has been traditional to have hardware laboratories using logic boards or programmable FPGA boards. In these settings, students physically wire sample designs from a problem set, and present the finished product for verification to a lab instructor, together with testing the chips themselves and acquiring the experience of hands-on hardware. Many digital logic design courses have switched to using only software simulators or VHDL-based exercises, often due to lack of resource allocations. We have designed and implemented a multimedia-based virtual lab, which allows the students to practice on their design, explore in a tutorial fashion various options, and gives them as close as possible a real hands-on experience, through the use of a "virtual board" and links to background tutorial material which can be customized.