Improving Student Comprehension Through Interactive Microarchitecture Simulation and Visualization

The curricula of most Computer Science departments include at least one course on computer organization and assembly language. The seminal concepts covered by such courses bridge the gap between hardware and software by introducing multiple layers of abstraction. Appalachian State University introduces this material in the course “Introduction to Computer Systems.” The course uses the hypothetical LC-3 processor, as presented in Patt and Patel’s textbook “Introduction to Computing Systems: From Bits & Gates to C & Beyond (2nd edition).” Prior to the completion of the work presented in this thesis, tools existed for the assembly of LC-3 programs and simulation of the assembled code; however, no simulator existed to demonstrate the function of the microarchitectural level. In this thesis, research on educational simulators is presented, with an emphasis on microarchitectural and graphical style simulators. Multiple simulators were reviewed to determine which elements are pedagogically e?ective. Based on these ?ndings, a graphical microarchitecture simulator named lc3uarch was implemented. The simulator targets the microarchitectural level of the LC-3 processor. Student surveys responses indicated that the use of lc3uarch can help students comprehend the logic components of the LC-3 microarchitecture and provided ideas for making the tool more e?ective

Engineering handbook

1996 handbook for the faculty of Engineerin

Engineering handbook

1995 handbook for the faculty of Engineerin

Electrical Engineering Curriculum Development for Andover High School

This IQP focused on the development of an electrical engineering curriculum for Andover High School. A number of resources were referenced in order to provide students with an appropriate learning experience such as interactive lectures, textbooks, workbooks, a robot platform, lab kits and tools, online assessment tools, a field trip as well as visiting guest speakers who are engineers. Students learned basic electrical engineering concepts of voltage, current and resistance and how to use them in formulae for designing, constructing and working with circuits. The unit completed with a final assessment and gave the instructors feedback on what they took away from the curriculum

An introductory digital design course using a low–cost autonomous robot

This paper describes a new digital design laboratory developed for undergraduate students in this electrical and computer engineering curriculum. A top-down rapid prototyping approach with commercial computer-aided design tools and field-programmable logic devices (FPLDs) is used for laboratory projects. Students begin with traditional transistor–transistor logic-based projects containing a few gates and progress to designing a simple 16-bit computer, using very high-speed integrated circuits hardware description language (VHDL) synthesis tools and an FPLD. To help motivate students, the simple computer design is programmed to control a small autonomous robot with two servo drive motors and several sensors. The laboratory concludes with a team-based design project using the robot

Use of Online Tools in Teaching C++ Programming to Freshmen in All Engineering Majors

As computer software becomes increasingly used in analysis and design in all engineering disciplines, more engineering programs have started including computer programming in their common core for all engineering majors. C++ is a popular programming language that’s been chosen for teaching engineering students programming. At California Baptist University, EGR 121 Introduction to Computer Programming in C++ is a required course for all engineering students. Most of our engineering students take this course in their first year. This course was taught using traditional means of lecture, text book reading and exercises along with labs and programming projects. Since the fall of 2012 we incorporated two online resources, an online interactive content resource and an online exercise tool to replace the previous textbook problems as homework. We discuss our experience in the classroom along with survey feedback from our students. Although no statistically significant difference in final grades was detected, we did find anecdotal indication that students benefited from these tools particularly the online homework problems

From Microelectronics to Nanoelectronics: Introducing Nanotechnology to VLSI Curricula

© 2011 by ASEEIn the past decades, VLSI industries constantly shrank the size of transistors, so that more and more transistors can be built into the same chip area to make VLSI more and more powerful in its functions. As the typical feature size of CMOS VLSI is shrunk into deep submicron domain, nanotechnology is the next step in order to maintain Moore’s law for several more decades. Nanotechnology not only further improves the resolution in traditional photolithography process, but also introduces many brand-new fabrication strategies, such as bottom-up molecular self-assembly. Nanotechnology is also enabling many novel devices and circuit architectures which are totally different from current microelectronics circuits, such as quantum computing, nanowire crossbar circuits, spin electronics, etc. Nanotechnology is bringing another technology revolution to traditional CMOS VLSI technology. In order to train students to meet the quickly-increasing industry demand for nextgeneration nanoelectronics engineers, we are making efforts to introduce nanotechnology into our VLSI curricula. We have developed a series of VLSI curricula which include CPE/EE 448D - Introduction to VLSI, EE 548 - Low Power VLSI Circuit Design, EE 458 - Analog VLSI Circuit Design, EE 549 - VLSI Testing, etc. Furthermore, we developed a series of micro and nanotechnology related courses, such as EE 451 - Nanotechnology, EE 448 - Microelectronic Fabrication, EE 446 – MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems). We introduce nanotechnology into our VLSI curricula, and teach the students about various devices, fabrication processes, circuit architectures, design and simulation skills for future nanotechnology-based nanoelectronic circuits. Some examples are nanowire crossbar circuit architecture, carbon-nanotube based nanotransistor, single-electron transistor, spintronics, quantum computing, bioelectronic circuits, etc. Students show intense interest in these exciting topics. Some students also choose nanoelectronics as the topic for their master project/thesis, and perform successful research in the field. The program has attracted many graduate students into the field of nanoelectronics

Engineering handbook

1998 handbook for the faculty of Engineerin

Engineering handbook

1998 handbook for the faculty of Engineerin