Increasing the attractivity of embedded systems courses

Compared to other university programs only a small percentage of the students chooses to study embedded systems or electronics engineering. This paper presents some statistics on the current situation and names some reasons for this fact. Furthermore, the fact that the majority of the students are male students is discussed, and some possibilities to increase the number of female students in these courses are presented. Arrangements which can be taken to increase the motivation of students and how potential students can be motivated to choose such a study program are also discussed in this paper. To get an idea of what is interesting to potential students and to students attending an embedded systems course, a questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire and the results will be presented in this paper. Based on the answers of the participants, some suggestions on how the hands-on examples can be designed are introduced. Furthermore some examples which draw much attraction to potential students are introduced. These examples suit perfect for an exhibition on public relation activities to acquire more students.