Design, implementation and evaluation of a FPGA embedded digital systems course at the university level

This work describes the first teaching experience of FPGA-based embedded digital systems at Facultad de Ciencias Exactas e Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, Argentina. The course contents, modality and ways to assess student learning are detailed, also results obtained from student assessment and from course evaluation are presented. Hardware description languages are strategically taught to student with basic knowledge of digital systems. The course is oriented to electronics engineering advanced students and professionals from exact sciences' area. Course contents include VHDL language learning, practical work realization, and FPGA-based system design as a final evaluation. The course evaluation is performed by means of quantitative results obtained from student assessment- considering realized practical work and FPGA-based system design- and from an inquest answered by the learning group.