The first EDA MOOC: Teaching design automation to planet earth

Author

Rutenbar, Rob

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

1-5 June 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

6

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) can deliver advanced course material at planetary scale, combining internet-based video content delivery, and cloud-based assignments. From March to May 2013, I taught the world´s first EDA MOOC, entitled VLSI CAD: Logic to Layout, based on roughly 20 years of experience teaching electronic design automation in a conventional face-to-face classroom setting. Over 17,000 participants registered for this MOOC. This paper summarizes my experience with teaching EDA at planetary scale: how we covered ASIC synthesis, verification, layout, and timing; how we built cloud resources to enable students to experiment with open-source tools; how we designed software projects and deployed cloud-based auto-graders to support realistic EDA tool projects. The paper also discusses what MOOCs could mean to the dynamism of the EDA community.

Keywords

application specific integrated circuits; cloud computing; courseware; distance learning; educational courses; electronic design automation; electronic engineering education; public domain software; ASIC synthesis; EDA community; MOOC; VLSI CAD; advanced course material; cloud-based assignments; electronic design automation; internet-based video content; massive open online courses; open-source tools; planet earth; planetary scale; teaching design automation; Boolean functions; Data structures; Design automation; Layout; Materials; Software; Very large scale integration; ASIC; CAD; EDA; Layout; Logic; MOOC; VLSI;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Design Automation Conference (DAC), 2014 51st ACM/EDAC/IEEE

Conference_Location

San Francisco, CA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1145/2593069.2593230

Filename

6881540