Reflections on Implementing and Teaching an Advanced Undergraduate Course in Embedded Systems

Many universities offer introductory courses that focus on microcontroller-based systems and embedded programming. Advanced course offerings vary, and are often not available until the graduate level, leaving a gap in training undergraduates. Courses are emerging that take advantage of new embedded development platforms that support hardware-software codesign. At Iowa State University, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering has developed a senior-level course on embedded systems design (CPRE 488) that sits between the introductory course on microcontrollers (CPRE 211) and a graduate course on system-level design (CPRE 588). The course has now been offered twice, during the fall 2005 and 2006 semesters. Reflections on course design and delivery are presented in this paper.