Reconfigurable systems in engineering education: Best practices and future trends

Abstract

Advantages of reconfigurable systems and their importance for engineering education are reported in many publications. The paper presents recent results in this area that are achieved within long-term collaboration of two Universities: University of Aveiro in Portugal and Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia. Many alternative curricula have been analyzed and tested, and finally the following two-level strategy has been chosen: 1) an introductive segment on FPGA technology is given within the disciplines on digital design for the first year students; 2) a number of advanced courses, one of which is obligatory and the other optional, are given for the fourth and fifth year students. The paper discusses the methodology that has been developed and successfully realized. We also demonstrate advantages of both the proposed course structure and continuous evaluation with the main objective to disseminate the results.