Teaching optical communications concepts in embedded systems courses

There have been significant technological developments and advancements in areas related to telecommunication, medicine, and computing. Optical engineering has played an important role in all of these. Optical engineering is becoming more prevalent because of its wide range of applications in almost every field. The goal of a teaching effort was to create embedded system lab exercises that could be used to teach optical communications hardware interfacing and control. This paper identifies pedagogy for teaching these concepts and conducting laboratory exercises. It then presents the experiences of introducing board-to-board communications using simple infrared and fiber optical communications devices in the classroom. Specific assessment of student skills that were needed as a prerequisite and successes are also addressed.