Guidelines for a graduate curriculum on embedded software and systems

Abstract

The design of embedded real-time systems requires skills from multiple specific disciplines, including, but not limited to, control, computer science, and electronics. This often involves experts from differing backgrounds, who do not recognize that they address similar, if not identical, issues from complementary angles. Design methodologies are lacking in rigor and discipline so that demonstrating correctness of an embedded design, if at all possible, is a very expensive proposition that may delay significantly the introduction of a critical product. While the economic importance of embedded systems is widely acknowledged, academia has not paid enough attention to the education of a community of high-quality embedded system designers, an obvious difficulty being the need of interdisciplinarity in a period where specialization has been the target of most education systems. This paper presents the reflections that took place in the European Network of Excellence Artist leading us to propose principles and structured contents for building curricula on embedded software and systems.

A vision for computer science — the system perspective

“…Today, research in Computer Science lags far behind these needs. With a few exceptions [1,2,12,13], the importance of system design is seldom recognized as a priority in research agendas and roadmaps.…”

Risk areas in embedded software industry projects

“…Examples include [1], [7], [10], [11] and previous courses at Carnegie Mellon [3]. Other curriculum proposals include an explicit software engineering courses (e.g., [8]).…”

The Discipline of Embedded Systems Design

“…For example, aeronautics and space engineering-two closely related fields that address similar problems-use different methodologies, design flows, and tools for reasons that seem more cultural than technical. 10 Often, engineers untrained in software abstractions or control theory are asked to architect complex embedded systems that critically rely on both disciplines.…”