Addressing low-power electronics in a digital system and FPGA design course

Abstract

Low power dissipation is a current topic in digital design, and therefore, it should be covered in a state-of-the-art electrical engineering curriculum. This paper describes how low power design can be addressed within a digital design course.Doing so would be beneficial for both topics because low-power design is not detached from the systems perspective, and the digital design course would be enriched by references to current challenges and applications. Thus, the presented course should serve as an example of how a course can be developed to also teach students about sustainable engineering.

Design of lab exercises for teaching energy-efficient digital design

“…This new module will first be taught in the summer term of 2015. To support the didactic approach of the lecture [3], a plan for the hands-on labs has been designed and implemented. The exercises for the hands-on labs are based on experiences gained by student projects performed with a prototype of an evaluation board [4] developed for the handson labs.…”

“…Consequently, the learning objectives of the course "Energy Efficient Microelectronic Systems" concerning sustainability are defined as in [3] The lectures are complemented by a hands-on lab [10] to achieve these learning outcomes.…”

“…The module "Energy Efficient Microelectronic Systems" [3] intends to manage the implementation of sustainability in a traditional engineering curriculum. To prepare this course, a prototype [4] of an evaluation board designed for hands-on labs ("EduPow board") was used in a student project.…”

Teaching low-power design with an FPGA-based hands-on and remote lab

“…Therefore, teaching low-power design to electrical and computer undergraduate engineering students is very substantial and valuable. This topic is proposed to address when developing an electrical and computer engineering curriculum [1,2,3].…”