Software-hardware Integration of System Design Discipline

The paper expounds the practices utilized in teaching an undergraduate curriculum in Electrical and Computer Engineering / Technology from the perspective of System Design. This approach is a paradigm shift from the piecemeal methodology of dividing the discipline into bifurcated courses. Rather, this approach prepares the student to pursue the discipline of System Design from at least four different perspectives, via: 1) PLD/FPGA centric system design, 2) Microcontroller-based Embedded System Design, 3) PC based / or System on the Chip (SoC)based systems such as Beagle Bone Black-based Network-oriented Distributed System Design, IoT and cloud-centered programming, and 4) DSP-based Real-time Processing-Based System Design. The paper will summarize the content of eight total courses that all have the common vein of system design. Also examined in this paper is the origin of Outcome Based Education (OBE) as a philosophy and its implementation in our curriculum, designed and delivered with the principles of Outcome Based Education. As such, it lends itself to an Outcome Based Assessment, which is the cornerstone of ABET. The paper presents details of the protocols that were utilized and adhered to in the implementation of OBE. Furthermore, the paper also discusses a set of courses in the areas of hardware, software, firmware, networking and DSP, which provides a roadmap in the form of a curriculum that utilizes the same tools the industry is employing. The content of these courses is presented to the students in the context of system design, and the courses are conducted in an environment that does not follow the traditional routine of lectures and labs, which are secluded from each other and disjointed. Instead, the total discourse of these courses takes place in a lab/studio setting, and always with reference to system being designed. Such an approach bridges the gap that exists between classroom practices and workplace practices. This unified approach is meant to bring about students with career-bound knowledge that is essential for the industry.