Embedded systems in an engineering science curriculum

Abstract

The Embedded Systems Portability project investigates how to acquaint students in an engineering science curriculum with several important modern trends and practices in embedded system design. An overview of the program is given, and the specific objectives of several elective courses in electrical engineering are presented. The project also aims to provide a flexible but powerful controller for use in designs, most notably the open-ended senior design course. As these students are largely not deeply disciplinary, the trends of modular programming and functional portability need to be presented while minimizing prerequisite knowledge and skillsets. An embedded System on a Chip utilizing an ARM or a Power Architecture core is connected to a PCI-connected Complex Programmable Logic Device to provide computation power, flexible input/output, and a high bandwidth connection between the two. This powerful combination is connected to one of three representative plants for control. Example projects illustrating the portions of the system under study in several courses at Trinity are described.