An Interdisciplinary Curriculum On Real Time Embedded Systems

IEEE Pervasive Computing, 2000

Real-time systems are systems that require timely responses to facilitate their operation or they risk performance degradation or even total system failure. These systems serve missioncritical applications, such as flight control, financial transactions, and telecommunications. Real-time operating systems are a class of operating systems that enable real-time application

ACM Transactions in Embedded Computing Systems, 2005

Embedded systems encompass a wide range of applications, technologies, and disciplines, necessitating a broad approach to education. We describe embedded system coursework during the first 4 years of university education (the U.S. undergraduate level). Embedded application curriculum areas include: small and single-microcontroller applications, control systems, distributed embedded control, system-on-chip, networking, embedded PCs, critical systems, robotics, computer peripherals, wireless data systems, signal processing, and command and control. Additional cross-cutting skills that are important to embedded system designers include: security, dependability, energyaware computing, software/systems engineering, real-time computing, and human-computer interaction. We describe lessons learned from teaching courses in many of these areas, as well as general skills taught and approaches used, including a heavy emphasis on course projects to teach system skills.

… the 2008 Workshop on Embedded Systems …, 2008

The body of knowledge for engineering real-time and embedded systems spans multiple computing disciplines. To effectively prepare students to work in these areas requires coursework that uses an interdisciplinary approach. This paper describes the approach that Rochester Institute of Technology's Departments of Computer Engineering and Software Engineering developed. This approach uses a cluster of three courses which cover a range of topics in real-time and embedded systems engineering. Students in each discipline take the courses, and teams of two, with one student from each discipline, work on all course projects. The paper describes the cluster of courses, their evolution over the last five years, and the laboratory in which the classes are taught. We present evaluation data to show the courses' effectiveness increasing student interest in real-time and embedded systems, and helping them obtain employment in the area.

2011

The article proposes a new didactic platform for practical study of embedded Real Rime Operating Systems (RTOSs). Three fundamental parts that are included in the platform are discussed in detail: the hardware part, the firmware part and the software tools. In the description of the hardware part the following parts are addressed: main controller, input/output module, executing module and programmer module. The project of the hardware part is distributed according to GPLv2 license. The firmware of the platform is based on FreeRTOS distributed according to the modified GPL license, ported by the authors on the microcontrollers not originally supported, i.e., Atmega128 and Atmega168. The firmware part of the platform proposed and described in the article implements: the command line interpreter, file system, the protocol for communication between main controller and executing modules, TCP/IP stack and xModem protocol, among others. All the software tools work on the Linux operating system and are free of charge; most of them have open source code. Particular attention is given to a presentation of laboratory exercises that have been worked out in the process. These exercises are designed to facilitate the learning process in the study of embedded operating systems with the application of the proposed didactic platform. The proposed platform is not expensive and is easy to assemble. Most students can afford to build or modify it on their own.

2002

Introduction University Computer Engineering programs continue to be a popular draw for students. Still, since they are relatively new, their defining curricula continue to evolve. Traditional courses such as digital logic, and digital design, microcontrollers, computer interfacing and computer architecture are mainstays, but there continues to be many holes to fill. Part of the problem is that Computer Engineering (CE) is still considered to be an interface between Electrical Engineering (EE) and Computer Science (CS). Electrical Engineering, where it is usually housed, embraces the notion that computer hardware is fundamental to the discipline while computer science views computer software as the defining entity. The truth is that both are correct and computer engineering students need to understand both disciplines equally well. At the same time, this understanding needs to go beyond simply knowing about EE and CS. Students must be able to apply the principles of high level syste...

2005

The increasing complexity of embedded systems parallels the difficulty of adequately preparing students to design them. Two topics key to the success of a graduate in the area of embedded systems are hardware/software co-design and real-time computing. This paper serves as a case study describing how an undergraduate applied hardware/software co-design in the design of a spectrum analyzer with real-time constraints for a Capstone senior design project. The goal of this work is to produce a co-design approach more suited for undergraduates having little design experience.

This paper addresses a hands-on teaching experience dealing with Real Time Embedded Systems for undergraduate and graduate Computer Science courses at ITA, in Brazil. An appealing case study with a suitable scope reduction has led students to a prototype development. This approach has required from them, besides team working, skills of dealing with software development process, involving planning, requirements specification, modeling on Unified Modeling Language -UML extended for the Real Time domain, coding and testing. A special software engineering supporting tool was employed to enable quick prototyping. Students were asked to work in competing teams and share results and experiences in an executive seminar style just to level up their expertise. The applied methodology was proved successful in exposing students to key technological challenges and research open issues besides promoting a higher synergy between education and development.

2008 38th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference, 2008

Traditionally, real-time systems are built for a very small set of mission-critical applications like space crafts, avionics and other distributed control systems. The various steps in building such systems include, characterizing the workload, designing scheduling algorithms and performing schedulability analysis. Conventional teaching methodologies for real-time systems have primarily focused on these topics and the choice is completely justified for the targeted traditional real-time systems. However with the evolution of small scale real-time embedded systems like cell phones, PDAs, sensor motes and other portable control systems primarily driven by a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS), the conventional teaching methods fall short in several ways. This is because, building such real-time embedded systems poses certain different design and implementation challenges branching out of the severe resource constraints that these devices should operate under.

ACM SIGBED Review, 2017

Embedded computer systems are proliferating, but the complexities of embedded software make it increasingly difficult to produce systems that are robust and reliable. These challenges increase as embedded systems are connected to networks and relied on to control or monitor physical processes in critical infrastructure. This paper describes a senior-level course that exposes students to foundational characteristics of embedded software, such as concurrency, synchronization and communication. The core of the class is a sequence of laboratory assignments in which students design and implement a real-time operating system. Each student-developed RTOS has the same API, so all can run the same application code, but internal implementations vary widely. The principal challenges that arise in the design and debugging of a multi-tasking RTOS tend to be instances of the general problems that arise in embedded software. In our experience, the activity of creating a working RTOS is effective i...

Frontiers in Education …

With embedded computer systems being a core topic in computer engineering, there are typically one or more courses in a program that provide varying coverage. Many universities offer introductory courses that focus on microcontroller-based systems and embedded programming. Advanced courses often do not have a common focus and are not available until the graduate level, leaving a gap in training undergraduates. At Iowa State University, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering developed a new senior-level design course on embedded systems design (CPRE 488) that bridges the content between the introductory course on microcontrollers (CPRE 211) and a graduate course on system-level design (CPRE 588). This paper presents the process of developing the integrated series of courses that spans early undergraduate to graduate levels, including the team approach used. The set of courses and the development process should be of interest to educators considering expanding or enhancing the curriculum in embedded systems.