Industrially inspired just-in-time (JIT) teaching

This paper describes a curriculum that relies on leaving material for instruction flexible for as long as possible prior to class meetings, termed “just-in-time (JIT) teaching.” As such, we describe a project-oriented course sequence that integrates several related disciplines in microelectronic-system design with an industrial inspired teaching model. By keeping the material of the course updated JIT to be relevant to students' conceptual discoveries and roadblocks as well as changes in the technology and design tools the students receive a more “real” design experience. The industrial inspired organizational model supports these ideals. Our initial results show that the students gain faster insight and retention of material because they are focused on solving the problems rather than just completing the assignment to achieve a grade.