E-learning tools and remote reconfigurable systems for engineering education

This paper presents an original approach proposed and successfully used in University of Aveiro and targeted to advance e-learning tools and remote laboratories for state-of-the-art engineering education. Nowadays, reconfigurable systems, in general, and FPGA (field-programmable gate array) based systems, in particular, constitute an essential part of engineering practice. The respective professional trends are, however, not reflected accordingly in contemporary engineering education curricula. The paper argues importance of reconfigurable systems in education and proposes effective learning methods and tools, which include laboratory templates, animated tutorials, education-oriented examples, a remotely reconfigurable prototyping system, and a virtual software/reconfigurable hardware co-simulation environment.