ASEE Computers in Education Journal

ASEE's Computers in Education Journal

ISSN: 1069-3769

Archives for June 2024

Software-Defined Radio in Senior Design: A Multidisciplinary Perspective

Multidisciplinary projects involving electrical engineering (EE) and computer science (CS) students are both exciting and difficult to create. We have created a year-long project based on software-defined radio (SDR). The combination of software and hardware makes SDR an excellent choice for senior projects. Senior CS students have enough programming experience to handle the software development; EE seniors have sufficient knowledge to understand the basics of radio, signal processing, and circuit design. The integration of a complex hardware and software system provides an excellent educational experience. In this paper, we describe the senior project courses, the pedagogical goals, and how it supports our ABET course outcomes.

DOI

Teaching Data Path and Control Logic Using Microcoded Architecture

I regularly teach a course in VHDL and typically find that students struggle with the data path and controller (DPC) paradigm. The notion of the paradigm is that many systems, including microprocessors and peripheral devices, in theory or in practice are constructed of a data path that essentially performs the "work" of the system, along with a state machine that controls the behavior of the data path. This paradigm is essentially the registertransfer system level, which helps students to better understand many types of devices. The notion of the DPC paradigm is relevant not only to VHDL but to other hardware description languages including Verilog as well. Students generally find that coming to terms with such an advanced topic takes time and is at least as significant as a step forward as grasping the concept of state machines in logic circuits.

DOI