The aim of this project is to facilitate the establishment of an Undergraduate ASIC Computer-Aided Design Laboratory in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics at the University of Detroit Mercy that will result in a significant enhancement in the manner in which digital system design is taught. The area of digital design is one in which the teaching of theory is intertwined with, and as important as, the teaching of practice. The availability of the proposed laboratory would make it possible to formulate realistic design projects, that would be comprehensive in scope and enable the complete design cycle to be exercised, from initial specifications to final product. The students will have the opportunity to see the conceived model as working hardware. While the proposed laboratory will strengthen junior and senior level offerings in the EE program in general the availability of state-of-the-alt digital design automation tools will have special impact on the Digital Logic I, Microprocessors, Advanced Microprocessors, and Digital Logic II: VHDL courses. In all cases, a well planned sequence of laboratory assignments and projects involving analysis, design, and simulation will provide students with strong hands-on experience. In this proposal we are requesting four modern workstations, license fees for software, and FPGA interface and programming hardware. The justification for requesting each of these items is outlined in the proposal. Given the number and diversity of the students who will utilize this laboratory, we are confident that the impact of this laboratory improvement will be significant.
