MICRO-EBLOCK: A Modular Platform for Embedded System Education

The advancement of technology in recent decades has brought computing beyond the desktop computer. With the focus on portable and interactive devices, it is necessary to equip the next generation of engineers with the necessary programming skills and a robust set of tools to create a wider range of applications. In the School of Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, we are developing a scalable microcontroller peripheral system called Micro-eBlocks to facilitate the studentpsilas learning of microcontroller based modules. The Micro-eBlocks are a suite of mix and match and plug-and-play input-output (I/O), sensor, communication and processor modules, which can be used to address a wide variety of embedded systems application needs. This paper describes the design philosophy and how it can be used to train embedded system engineers.