FPAA chips and tools as the center of an design-based analog systems education

The ever expanding research and commercialization ac tivity around Large-Scale Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAA) asks the question whether we can broadly use these technologies in an educational environment. In fact, the research advances have been developed side by side with educational development, similar to what we saw for the early stages of digital VLSI design. Previously, we demonstrated that FPAA could be used in a classical classroom laboratory setting where students could perform lab experiments given to them, and not just a topic for the academic research laboratory. Over the next four years, we have made progress in using these devices, which has enabled wider use of these devices as well as enabling teaching system / signal-processing level projects to be attempted. These improvements include revamping one graduate course, focused on analog VLSI / system design, as a design based analog systems course where the students can experimentally measure the results of their design.