Title :
Teaching digital design to computing science students in a single academic term
Author :
Amaral, José Nelson ; Berube, Paul ; Mehta, Paras
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci., Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta., Canada
Abstract :
How should digital design be taught to computing science students in a single one-semester course? This work advocates the use of state-of-the-art design tools and programmable devices and presents a series of laboratory exercises to help students learn digital logic. Each exercise introduces new concepts and produces the complete design of a stand-alone apparatus that is fun and interesting to use. These exercises lead to the most challenging capstone designs for a single-semester course of which the authors are aware. Fast progress is made possible by providing students with predesigned input/output modules. Student feedback demonstrates that the students approve of this methodology. An extensive set of slides, supporting teaching material, and laboratory exercises are freely available for downloading.
Keywords :
computer aided instruction; computer science education; educational courses; electronic engineering education; field programmable gate arrays; logic CAD; FPGA; computing science student; digital design teaching; digital logic laboratory exercises; field-programmable gate arrays; Education; Feedback; Field programmable gate arrays; Laboratories; Light emitting diodes; Logic arrays; Logic design; Logic devices; Programmable logic arrays; Programmable logic devices;
Journal_Title :
Education, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TE.2004.837048