Due to these difficulties, it is very important to discuss approaches for solving the problem between educators, taking feedback from employers into account. Several attempts have been made to provide platforms for such a discussion. The European network of excellence ARTIST published a report on the issue [1]. A view from Berkeley is provided by Alberto-Sangiovanni-Vincentelli and Alessandro Pinto [2]. Annually updated views are available at the Workshop on Embedded System Education (WESE). This workshop is part of the Embedded Systems Week which rotates between the continents.

The organizers of the WESE workshops believe that the results from the WESE workshop should be accessible to all interested specialists. Therefore, the organizers have cooperated with the editors of ACM SIGBED Review and the authors to publish the results of selected extended WESE papers in the form of this issue of the ACM SIGBED Review online journal. All extended papers have been re-reviewed in order to ensure journal-quality of the papers.

The first of these papers is authored by Kenneth Ricks and Jeff Jackson. This paper presents additional problems in embedded system education and ideas for solving them.

The second paper is by Hewijin Christine Jiau and Kuo Chen Wu. This paper is to be seen in the context of the Embedded Software Consortium (ESW) which was initiated by the Taiwanese Ministry of Education in 2004. The course on middleware design is part of the educational program run by ESW. Another Taiwanese course on embedded software design is presented in the third paper, authored by Yu-Lun Huang and Jwu-Sheng Hu.

Careful selection of the themes to be taught is the topic of the fourth paper by Peter Bertels et al. from Ghent University (Belgium).

New ways of using microcontrollers in embedded system courses are presented in the fifth paper by Sing Ming Loo and C. Arlen Planting as well as in the sixth paper by Scott Siwory, David Sheldon, Tony Givardis and Frank Vahid.

In the seventh paper, Dennis Brylow and Bina Ramamurthy propose employing a wireless router as a platform for embedded system lab sessions.

Easy composition of embedded systems with various sensors even for non-specialists is made possible with so-called eBlocks presented in the next paper, written by Anuradha Phalke, Miria Biller, Susan Lysecky, and Christopher Harris.

Multiprocessor programming is obviously becoming more important. The last paper demonstrates an approach for teaching multi-processor programming in embedded system design. The authors of this paper are Andreas Hansson, Benny Akesson, and Jef van Meerbergen.

May the availability of this special issue help to improve our knowledge in embedded system education!

Special Issue Editor:
Peter Marwedel
Informatik 12, TU Dortmund
44221 Dortmund, Germany

References:
[1] J. Sifakis, B. Bouyssounouse et al.: ARTIST network of excellence: Guidelines for a graduate curriculum on embedded software and systems. http://www.artist-embedded.org/docs/ Publications/Education.pdf, 2003.

[2] Alberto Luigi Sangiovanni-Vincentelli and Alessandro Pinto: Embedded System Education: A New Paradigm for Engineering Schools?, ACM SIGBED Review, Vol. 2, 2005, pp. 5-14

Incorporating System-Level Concepts into Undergraduate Embedded Systems Curricula
Kenneth G. Ricks and David J. Jackson
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alabama


The Development of Training Course for Embedded Middleware Design
Hewijin Christine Jiau and Kuo Chen Wu
Department of Electrical Engineering, Insitute of Computer and Communication Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan


Hands-on Oriented Curriculum and Laboratory Development for Embedded System Design
Yu-Lun Huang and Jwu-Sheng Hu
Department of Electrical and Control Engineering, National Chiao-Tung University, Taiwan


Teaching Skills and Concepts for Embedded Systems Design
Peter Bertels, Michiel D'Haene, Tom Degryse, and Dirk Stroobandt
Department of Electronics and Information Systems, Ghent University, Belgium


Use of Discrete and Soft Processors in Introductory Microprocessors and Embedded Systems Curriculum
Sin Ming Loo and C. Arlen Planting
Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Boise State University, Idaho


Virtual Microcontrollers
Scott Sirowy¹, David Sheldon¹, Tony Givargis¹, and Frank Vahid^1,2
1Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of California, Riverside
²Department of Computer Science, Center for Embedded Computer Systems, University of California, Irvine


Nexos: A Next Generation Embedded Systems Laboratory
Dennis Brylow¹ and Bina Ramamurthy^2
1MSCS Department, Marquette University, Wisconsin
²CSE Department, SUNY at Buffalo, New York


Non-Expert Construction of Customized Embedded Systems to Enhance STEM Curricula
Anuradha Phalke¹, Miria Biller², Susan Lysecky¹, and Christopher Harris^2
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona
²Department of Teaching and Teacher Education, University of Arizona


Multi-Processor Programming in the Embedded System Curriculum
Andreas Hansson¹, Benny Akesson¹, and Jef van Meerbergen^1,2
1Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
²Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven, The Netherlands