Teaching real-time concepts in an undergraduate computer science program

Traditionally, courses in real-time programming and related real-time systems concepts have not played a major role in computer science curricula. However, this somewhat neglected area of computer science has much to offer students, especially when presented late in the curriculum. In this paper we discuss the rationale for including a real-time systems course as a component in a computer science curriculum. We then describe the structure, organization, and content of the course "real-time systems" that we have taught for the past several years as an upper-level elective to computer science students. In this course, model trains are used as the physical processes that are monitored and controlled by software that students develop using a modern suite of commercially available development tools.