Teaching reconfigurable systems: methods, tools, tutorials, and projects

This paper presents an approach that has been used for teaching disciplines on reconfigurable computing and advanced digital systems, which are intended to cover such topics as architectures and capabilities of field-programmable logic devices; languages for the specification, modeling, and synthesis of digital systems; design methods; computer-aided design tools; reconfiguration techniques; and practical applications. To assist the educational process, the following units have been developed and employed in the pedagogical practice: animated tutorials, miniprojects, hardware templates, and course-oriented library of digital circuits. To stimulate the student’s activity, an optional project-based evaluation technique has been applied. All the materials that are required for students are available on the university website (WebCT) and can easily be used for studying inside the university, for obtaining additional information during practical classes and for distance learning.