ABSTRACT:The theoretical teaching of Computer Architecture is not suitable longer. In the present time, students claim for a learning-by-doing according to their dynamic and active character. Nowadays, interactive teaching is possible thanks to the decrease in the prices of the Field Programmable Gate Arrays. This paper proposes a learning-by-doing methodology to teach Computer Architecture to first-year student who belong to a digital-native generation. The method consists in developing a whole computer from scratch while they are introduced to hardware description languages (HDL) and programmable logic devices. Firstly, students design each and every element of the computer by VHDL language. Later on, they interconnect the verified elements and test the complete computer. A FPGA-based board is needed to implement and check the correct performance of the designed computer. This educational approach is intended to be used with first-year students from Computer Engineering Degree, thus, it is the first experience of the students with the basics of Computer Architecture. Students have a computer and a FPGA-based board in anytime. In the final exam, a design of a different computer is propounded. Computer testing and programming is a requirement to pass. The high percentage of passed students corroborated the success of the methodology. Thus, computer functioning and construction is understood by a hands-on methodology at the same time as VHDL language and FPGA technology are introduced. Lack attention is avoided since students keep a dynamic role working with their personal computer and FPGA at all times. ß 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 23: [464][465][466][467][468][469][470] 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/ journal/cae;

The energy supply of office buildings and smart homes is a key issue in the global energy system. The growing use of microelectronics-based technology achieves new devices for a more comfortable life and wider use of electronic office equipment. On the one hand, these applications incorporate more and more sensitive electronic devices which are potentially affected by any external electrical transient. On the other hand, the existing electrical loads, which generally use electronic power systems (such as different types of battery chargers, ballasts, inverters, switching power supplies, etc.), generate different kinds of transients in their own electrical internal network. Moreover, improvements in the information of the state of the mains alternating current (AC) power line allows risk evaluation of any disturbance caused to permanently connected electronic equipment, such as computers, appliances, home security systems, phones, TVs, etc. For this reason, it is nowadays more important to introduce monitoring solutions into the electrical network to measure the level of power quality so that it can protect itself when necessary. This article describes a small and compact detector using a low-cost microcontroller and a very simple direct acquiring circuit. In addition; it analyzes different methods to implement various power quality (PQ) surveillance algorithms that can be implemented in this proposed minimum hardware platform. Hence; it is possible to achieve cheap and low-power monitoring devices that can become nodes of a wireless sensor network (WSN). The work shows that using a small computational effort; reasonable execution speed; and acceptable reliability; this solution can be used to detect a variety of large disturbance phenomena and spread the respective failure report through a 433 MHz or 2.4 GHz radio transmitter. Therefore, this work can easily be extended to the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. Simultaneously, a software application (PulsAC) has been developed to monitor the microcontroller’s real-time progress and detection capability. Moreover, this high-level code (C++ language), allows us to test and debug the different utilized algorithms that will be later run by the microcontroller unit. These tests have been performed with real signals introduced by a function generator and superimposed on the true AC sine wave

We have investigated the capabilities of a custom asynchronous spiking image sensor operating in the Near Infrared (NIR) band to study flame radiation emissions, monitor their transient activity, and detect their presence. Asynchronous sensors have inherent capabilities, i.e. good temporal resolution, high dynamic range, and low data redundancy. This makes them competitive against Infrared (IR) cameras and CMOS frame-based NIR imagers. In the article, we analyze, discuss and compare the experimental data measured with our sensor against results obtained with conventional devices. A set of measurements have been taken to study the flame emission levels and their transient variations. Moreover, a flame detection algorithm, adapted to our sensor asynchronous outputs, has been developed. Results show that asynchronous spiking sensors have an excellent potential for flame analysis and monitoring.

Abstract-We present a novel sun sensor concept. It is the very first sun sensor built with an Address Event Representation (AER) spiking pixel matrix. Its pixels spike with a frequency proportional to illumination. It offers remarkable advantages over conventional digital sun sensors based on Active Pixel Sensor (APS) pixels. Its output data flow is quite reduced. It is possible to resolve the sun position just receiving one single event operating in Time-to-First-Spike (TFS) mode. It operates with a latency in the order of milliseconds. It has higher dynamic range than APS image sensors (higher than 100dB). A custom algorithm to compute the centroid of the illuminated pixels is presented. Experimental results are provided.

Electrical engineering education requires the development of the specific ability and skills to address the design and assembly of practical electronic circuits, as well as the use of advanced electronic instrumentation. However, for electronic instrumentation courses or any other related specialty that pursues to gain expertise testing a physical system, the circuit assembly process itself can represent a bottleneck in a practical session. The time dedicated to the circuit assembly is subtracted both to the measurements and the final decision-making time. Therefore, the student’s practical experience is limited. This article presents a reconfigurable physical system based on the Arduino™ shield pin-out, which (after specific programming) can virtually behave as a device under test to carry out measurement procedures on it, emulating any system or process. Although it has been mainly oriented to the Arduino boards, it is possible to add different control devices with a connector compatible. The user does not need to assemble any circuit. Our approach does not only pursue the correct instrument handling as a goal, but it also immerses the student in the context of the functional theory of the proposed circuit under test. Consequently, the same emulation platform can be utilized for other techno-scientific specialties, such as electrical engineering, automatic control systems or physics courses. Besides that, it is a compact product that can be adapted to the needs of any teaching institution.