ACM SIGBED Review (ISSN: 1551-3688)
Special Interest Group on Embedded Systems

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SIGBED Review, Volume 6, Number 1, January 2009
Special Issue on the Workshops on Embedded System Education (WESE) in 2007 and 2008


Content:

Introduction to the Special Issue
Regular Columns
Special Issue on the Workshops on Embedded System Education in 2007 and 2008

Selected Papers from the Workshops on Embedded System Education (WESE) in 2007 and 2008

Embedded System Education is difficult, for various reasons. For example, embedded system design involves several disciplines, not all of which can be integrated into a single course. Moreover, real systems are too complex to discuss them in a very limited amount of time. Furthermore, embedded systems are missing in many curricula in which they should be taught. Other difficulties are described in papers on the subject.

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


Regular Columns:

Upcoming Events:

Contributed Papers


Newsletter Editors:

Welcome to the SIGBED Review. The peer-reviewed quarterly publication provides a dissemination forum for research on embedded computing. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, embedded software, embedded system architecture, model-based design, distributed real-time middleware, real-time architectures, feedback control, low-power computing, sensor networks, security, and embedded applications. Submissions on these and other topics should be sent by e-mail to Tarek Abdelzaher,

Last update: 01-31-2008
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