DDECS
Stara Lesna, Slovakia, April 20, 2004
D&T Education & Training in Europe
What are the Main Challenges?
Some thoughts and experiences
Raimund Ubar,
Tallinn Technical University
ESTONIA
Tallinn Technical University
Test Issues and Engineering Education
• The importance of test (fault diagnosis) as a teaching objective is
underestimated in traditional engineering education
• Test is taught usually as a subtopic in a design course
• It is taught as an independent discipline only when it is a hobby
horse of the professor
Why?
• Because Test is interpreted as a nonproductive issue (vs.
design)
• The number of courses that should be taught at universities
doubles in a decade (Tenhunen, EWME, Lausanne, April 2004)
Tallinn Technical University
Didactical Issues
• Fault Diagnosis is not only an Electronics Systems related issue, it
has an important didactive role for the engineering education in
general:
• It is a method to learn how to ask right questions
• It develops the ability of analysing cause-effect relationships
• It is looking for answers to the questions like what is the
reason of what happened
--------• Logic world (digital systems) because of its inherent logical
complexity could be the best objective for learning the concepts of
diagnostic analysis for any technical systems in general
Tallinn Technical University
Test Issues and D&T Education
What is the University?
A student is not coming to university to be taught,
he is coming to learn how the professor thinks
• Students should not be asked to press simply on buttons in labs to
get results which only confirm what they know already
• The real targets of education are: creativity, critical thinking,
problem solving skills
Therefore,
• Learning Test at a university should be research oriented
• The test issues because of their complexity can be really
understood only by hands-on laboratory research
Tallinn Technical University
Problems:
Commercial test tools for using in university
laboratories are too complex and expensive
They may develop skills, but they do not educate
How to cross during a single course the gap
between introductory trivial issues and hands-on
research oriented learning?
Tallinn Technical University
Our Experience
• At TU Tallinn a teaching environment has been developed to
introduce students into the world of Digital Test
• It is a combination of
– playing with internet based simple “living pictures”, and
– hands-on training with a set of commercial design tools, and lowcost university tools
• Living pictures (Java applets) target introductory teaching
issues, and can be used
– by the teacher during lectures,
– by students for self-learning purposes, independent on time and
place, and
– by the teacher during exams
• Hands-on experiments target more advanced research teaching
issues
Tallinn Technical University
Living Pictures
Test generation:
Signal values for fault
activation and propagation
can be inserted directly on
connections
Fault simulation:
The test vectors can be
inserted manually or
generated automatically
The game-like character raises the
students' curiosity
Fault diagnosis:
Because of interaction the learning
process becomes more efficient
Sequential method (guided
probing) and combinational
procedure (by processing
fault tables) are supported
Tallinn Technical University
Applets for Learning RT Level Test
Task list:
• Microprogramming
• RTL Design
• Fault
simulation
• Test program
design
• BIST
architectures
Tallinn Technical University
TT: Tool Set for Hands-On Training
Methods:
Deterministic
Random
Genetic
Levels:
Gate
Macro
Fault models:
Methods:
Stuck-at-faults
Stuck-opens
Delay faults
Single fault
Parallel
Deductive
Test
Generation
Design
Test
Fault
Simulation
Fault
Location
Fault
Table
Fault
Diagnosis
BIST
Simulation
Methods:
BILBO
CSTP
Store/Generate
Tallinn Technical University
Test
Optimization
The number of courses that should be taught at
universities doubles in a decade
Test as a teaching objective has an intensive didactic
content
A student is not coming to university to be
taught, he is coming to learn how the
professor thinks
Learning test should be coupled with research
Tallinn Technical University