Digital IC test development engineering teaching and learning in higher education

This paper will consider the role of technology in the laboratory for a new course (module) in integrated circuit (IC) test development engineering for fifth year students in a higher education programme of study in electronic and computer engineering. Engineering laboratories form an essential part of the higher education learning experience for students in the engineering disciplines. They allow for theoretical aspects of a subject to be experimented with, and in many cases, ideas suitably visualized. This is particularly important to support student learning and understanding. In the electronic and computer engineering disciplines, laboratories can take several different forms from hands-on computer coding through to physical electronic circuit design, build and test exercises. This paper will discuss the development of module, and the creation of a laboratory arrangement using the field programmable gate array (FPGA) for a range of possible teaching and learning scenarios that will focus on required industrial IC test activities.