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Towards an Embedded Systems Curricula for the next-generation workforce

Embedded system design is covered on a typical undergraduate curriculum in Computer Engineering using standard embedded microcontrollers with limited features. Powerful embedded microprocessors (e.g. Intel Atom®) offer a wider range of opportunities for learning skills in high-demand in industry today, but this is not covered in a standard Computer Engineering curriculum. Oakland University has partnered with Intel in order to develop and implement an embedded curriculum that meets the needs of the next-generation of graduating students entering the workforce. A first step is the evaluation of the undergraduate Computer Engineering curriculum at Oakland University with respect to the Hardware and Software curriculum proposed by Intel. This work presents a gap analysis of our Computer Engineering curriculum. To cover these gaps, we also present a proposed embedded curriculum tailored to the needs of both our graduating students and industry. The plan is to deliver the contents via various venues: content-updating of some courses, seminar series, a summer workshop, and summer research experiences for undergraduates, and an elective course. Our ultimate goal is to train the next-generation workforce with the latest embedded technology on current industry-relevant applications.