Recognizing the need to keep abreast with the ongoing advances in electrical engineering, the University of Sydney is using Altium technology as the foundation of new computer engineering courses that are helping to create the next generation engineers.

"The combination of Altium Designer and the NanoBoard provides a complete and effective platform for teaching digital systems design and computer architecture. Training students on Altium Designer ensures they have a solid and practical foundation for entry into the electronics design industry."

Peter Stepien
Lecturer
School of Electrical and Information Engineering
University of Sydney

The School of Electrical and Information Engineering (EIE) at Australia’s prestigious University of Sydney is committed to providing a learning environment that remains at the forefront of electrical technology and design techniques. To train the next generation of engineers to meet the current and future demands of industry, the School of EIE recognizes the need to create the engineering courses and learning systems that match those ongoing technology developments.

The rapidly rising trend in the development of complete electronic systems within the programmable domain is a case in point for the school’s Computer Engineering unit, which has recently refocused both its course structure and engineering systems to accommodate this future path. Along with an increasing number of educational institutions worldwide, Sydney University has selected Altium technology as the ideal solution for both its current and future educational needs.

Key challenges

While the perennial challenge for learning institutions is to keep pace with the rapid evolution in electronic design technology, the increasing levels of complexity and abstraction in the latest design processes creates the added difficulty of implementing the these developments as a practical and efficient learning process. For Sydney University’s School of EIE this means that the teaching systems applied within its Computer Engineering courses must be capable of dealing with the sophistication and complexity of modern electronic design, but at the same time not impose conceptual or operational barriers that inhibit learning.

With the recent course changes, the challenge for the university was to introduce an easy to learn and use electronics design system that would serve as a fully-featured teaching platform for the entire Computer Engineering course, including both the theoretical and practical project-based aspects of the syllabus. With the course covering a wide range of computer engineering concepts and disciplines – from HDL design and simulation though to peripheral interface board projects – the electronics design system platform would need to provide a consistent and ideally, self contained learning environment for all stages of the electronic development process.

Meeting the challenges

The university’s School of EIE has selected a combination of Altium Designer and Altium’s FPGA-based development board – the NanoBoard – as the best learning platform for its Computer Engineering courses. Altium Designer delivers the features and capabilities needed for all stages of the syllabus – including hardware design plus software and programmable hardware development – within a single, unified application and user interface. This combined with the vendor-independent NanoBoard forms a complete learning environment that eliminates the obstacles imposed by the disparate collection of separate tools used as a teaching solution in the past. Altium Designer’s consistent user interface provides a design environment that allows students to focus on electronic engineering, rather than on learning the disjointed operation of several disconnected tools.

Along with meeting the course requirements for students to develop FPGA-based designs using VHDL then simulate the results, Altium Designer also offers the unique ability to develop FPGA designs at a schematic level by simply ‘wiring up’ ready to use FPGA components from its extensive libraries. This provides students with a fast, easy to use adjunct to traditional design using HDLs, while opening the opportunity to freely explore advanced embedded systems such as Wishbone-compliant peripherals and 32-bit RISC processors. The NanoBoard’s unified relationship with Altium Designer further adds to the course outcomes by allowing students upload, analyze and debug their designs on their choice of supported FPGA – all in real-time, as enabled by Altium’s LiveDesign methodology.

The results

Altium technology has allowed Sydney University to redefine its Computer Engineering course structure and outcomes to meet the evolving needs of industry, while providing students with a singular learning platform that is easy to use and offers the latest in electronic design technology and techniques. Thanks to the unified design environment and NanoBoard students are able to see and interact with the results of their work in a hands-on lab environment, bringing a new level of reality to largely abstract processes such as VHDL design. During the course, students undertake tutorial and major projects using the system, where the NanoBoard’s external I/O connections are used to interface real-world peripheral boards, which in some cases are developed through to a PCB prototype stage – again, using Altium Designer.

This and the fact that Altium provides regular software updates and a comprehensive level of online help resources and support makes Altium Designer and the NanoBoard the most cost-effective, efficient and future-proofed learning system for institutions at the forefront of electrical engineering practices, such as Sydney University’s School of EIE. In an increasingly complex and abstract engineering world, Altium is helping to make learning both engaging and real.

About the university

The University of Sydney, founded in 1850, is Australia's oldest university. Over the past 150 years, the University has built an international reputation for its outstanding teaching and as a centre of research excellence. University staff are committed teachers as well as leading researchers of international standing, encouraging students to think for themselves and to achieve the highest academic standards. With 45,000 local and international students, the University of Sydney offers high quality undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a comprehensive range of disciplines including Electrical and Information Engineering.

For more information about the University of Sydney or the university’s School of Electrical and Information Engineering (EIE) visit www.usyd.edu.au or www.ee.usyd.edu.au