Abstract:

The University of the Bundeswehr Munich offers a degree course in electrical engineering and computer science within the Department of Applied Sciences. In this program, traditional electrical engineering is closely linked with computer science.

This article provides an overview of the design and combination of: Digital Circuit Design (DCD), Digital System Design (DSD), System on a Chip (SoC) and Python, which are an essential parts of the program. The first two courses are offered during the Bachelor's program, with SoC being part of the students' Master's studies. Finally, Python is an additional elective course. The practical application of the RISC-V architecture is a shared focus of DSD and Python, whilst also being on of the primary research areas at the Institute for Embedded Systems (ETTI4).

Firstly teaching begins in hardware, with basic digital circuits (DCD) and concludes with a small VHDL/FPGA implementation of the open RISC-V processor architecture (DSD). Additionally, students start learning about interfacing with hardware, which is then deepened during the SoC course. In SoC the focus is placed on hardware/software-codesign. Finally, the taught Python programming is designed for advanced students. It contains projects, in which students develop small support tools or simulators, to enhance their understanding of the RISC-V architecture.

This paper addresses the technical and theoretical aspects of the courses contents, as well as the concrete decisions regarding course structure and course enhancements. It also examines how educational research influenced these decisions. Different teaching methods are contrasted, and student opinions and their feedback are discussed. The paper illustrates how students' misconceptions and problems can be individually addressed through the use of small groups during project work. Additionally, students are motivated by the possibility of earning bonus points.

All this concludes an educational framework that enables students to actively contribute to academic research in addition they gain an understanding of modern CPU architectures. Students gain hands-on experiences with developing digital electronics and are subsequently able to perform applied research in their theses.

Among other things, an example for this was the development of the institute's own RISC-V processor, which incorporates students' work.

Keywords:

Engineering education, digital system design, RISC-V, hardware/software-codesign.