Design Methodology Suitable For Team Based Embedded Systems Education

This paper describes a design methodology useful for team-based (cooperative) and problembased embedded systems education. The design methodology includes a detailed design convention and formalized hardware and code design reviews where the quantity and nature of each design errors are documented. Reviews are held before design implementation and dramatically reduce development time by aborting the far too common cycle of develop, test, change, and test again. The design methodology presented here yields a high-quality product within a short design cycle, while mimicking design methodologies found in industry. Furthermore, data obtained in design reviews can be used to improve the instruction quality and track the maturity of the student design skills. An added benefit of the methodology is development and exercise of the students' teaming and communication skills often neglected by traditional engineering curricula. The proposed methodology has been used in a senior-level embedded systems course at Mississippi State University. In this course, student teams design, build, and troubleshoot a microcontroller-based project composed of common embedded systems peripherals, including I/O and electromechanical devices, industry standard communication networks, and complex digital integrated circuits. The target design is progressive requiring each successive subsystem to be incorporated without disturbing previously completed subsystems. Details of the methodology as it relates to this course offering, sample design review forms, collected data and discussion are presented. Course evaluations were obtained from students and external reviewers, and the results show that offering was well received and achieved its educational objectives.