Article

Faculty Professional Development for the Next-Generation Reconfigurable Electronics Workforce

---

Abstract

The electronics world is undergoing a transformation in the underlying technologies used to create new products for the world’s consumers. the movement to reconfigurable digital systems using Field Programmable Gate arrays (FPGas) and microcontrollers is sweeping the electronics world in the rush to create smaller, faster, and more flexible consumer and industrial devices. J. F. Drake state technical college has put together a team of educational partners spanning the country with the background and skills necessary to create a vibrant virtual center. the goal of this project is to provide community colleges and universities with educational equipment that is up-to-date with current technological solutions, and to offer an unprecedented opportunity to bring America’s technicians directly to this cutting edge of reconfigurable electronics technology. this project will substantially update digital logic courses by providing the tools and curricular materials needed to replace the now outdated materials most commonly used. the updated curriculum will greatly enhance competitiveness for community college graduates seeking to enter the job market or undergraduate engineering programs. additionally, the project will bring new excitement to education by introducing reconfigurable electronics with a new world of possibilities for student projects, such as robot competitions, video game design, embedded systems and more. in summary, this project will provide the training, educational resources, and promote best practices for community college, university, and high school instructors that will enable them to teach new hardware technologies to a broad range of students.

Keywords: professional development, curriculum development, higher education, reconfigurable electronics, workforce development, teaching effectiveness, FPGA and VHDL, embedded systems, K–12 outreach

How to Cite:

Alaraje, N., Sergeyev, A., Reutter, J., Kief, C. & Matar, B., (2015) “Faculty Professional Development for the Next-Generation Reconfigurable Electronics Workforce”, The Journal of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering 31(1).