Teaching Field Programmable Gate Array Design (Fpga) To Future Electrical Engineering Technologists: Course Development

FPGA-based re-programmable logic design became more attractive during the last decade, and the use of FPGA in digital logic design is increasing rapidly. The need for highly qualified FPGA designers is increasing at a fast rate. To respond to the industry needs of FPGA designers, universities are updating their curriculum with courses in FPGA logic design. As a result, the School of Technology at Michigan Technological University is stepping up to this challenge by introducing the FPGA design course. The new course will be the third in series of digital logic design, it introduces the students to techniques needed for the design of very-large scale digital systems, including computers basic building block. The paper discusses the goals of this course and relates the goals to industry needs of highly trained FPGA designers.