An undergraduate embedded software laboratory for the masses

Abstract

In addition to lectures on basic theoretical topics nowadays curricula demand more and more practical experiences from the students. Due to the so-called bologna process in Europe the graduation scheme at the department of computer science at RWTH Aachen University was changed, towards Bachelor and Master degrees. Within this change additional courses were established in order to improve the quality of education. The paper presents a lab course given at RWTH Aachen University already twice. It gives third semester bachelor students a first impression on creating embedded software. The course has to be attended by all undergraduate students. Due to the increasing number of students in computer science this will be up to 250 students, which is one of the biggest challenges of this course. In addition to embedded programming many system software concepts are practically implemented in this lab course. This enables the students to gain crucial knowledge in basic fields of computer science.