A five-day short course is being offered twice--once in Knoxville, TN, and again in Sacramento, CA. The course introduces new techniques for designing microelectronic systems that rely on rapid prototyping using field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Thus, a design can be taken from initial specification to a working implementation involving all the steps in the design, debugging, and evaluation cycle. Laboratory exercises permit each participant to complete a project that can be taken home. Also, each participant receives a starter kit containing class notes, reprints, sample completed projects, and instructions on how to obtain donations of vendor hardware and software.