Distributed Collaborative Adaptive Sensing: A Unifying Theme for a Junior Level Embedded Systems Course.

A new junior level embedded systems course uses the notion of Distributed Collaborative Adaptive Sensing as a unifying theme. The content of the course is inspired by research in weather radar networks but is mapped to an imaging system for a more manageable and tangible application. "Big-picture" lectures present concepts and applications in modern embedded systems. The labs involve problem solving in sensor data acquisition, signal processing and networked computing. The Altera DE2 board with System on Programmable Chip (SOPC) development platform, the NIOS softcore [1] and other peripherals is used along with a digital camera [7]. Assessment of the outcomes and impressions of the course indicates a significant improvement over a more traditional embedded systems course. The course materials are available online [2].