I am more of a computer engineering/systems software guy than a hardware guy, but I've been doing more hardware projects lately. There are several of us who try to do things with open source here at University of Kentucky (UK), but the program is not really open source oriented. Many students and faculty want students to use "real" tools that are commonly used in industry. To some extent it is hard to blame them. Some employers (particulary the HR people) are looking for certain keywords on the resume and anyone without them gets weeded out, regardless of how well they understand the underlying concepts. Also we have gotten some of the the software packages donated or sold at a greatly reduced price for a University-wide site license, which makes the free-as-in-beer argument harder to make.
Many (but not all) students detest any program that runs from the command line, as it must be horribly primitive. I have used Icarus verilog to try automating testing of Verilog assignments. The command line interface is an asset, IMHO, because makes it possible to run from a CGI (or other automated regression testing script.) The biggest problem I ran into was that the Xilinx tools the students were using was different enough that somethings that worked under Icarus did not work on Xilinx and vice versa (partly because the version of Xilinx we used had no behavioral simluation.) It was no worse than trying to assign a C or C++ program and giving the students one compiler, then trying to grade it on another (in other words it was a big mess, but not really Icarus's fault.) I have gotten good enough using gschem->gsch2pcb->pcb for my own projects that I feel comfortable recommending it to people. None of the classes I am involved with directly do board layouts, but I do get people working with me on independent projects and senior projects or just asking for advice about tools... Bill. On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 23:23:12 -0500, Ales Hvezda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Clarification: > > > > Does anyone know of universities with degrees in EE that are > > open-source friendly? > > > > Well, I try to encourage its use here at Federal University of Rio > Grande do Sul, Brazil. But students don't seem to like it. They say that > Linux (of course, Linux is not the same as open-source, but...) is much > harder to use than Windows. I argue that that's because they use Windows > for a long time and are just starting with Linux. When they started with > Windows the difficulties should have been similar. > > Nonetheless, one or two semesters ago for the first time I had a > student that told me the opposite with respect to a Windows based > Laboratory assignment. He allways used Linux and claimed to me that > Windows is much more complicated to use. > > Our department is also responsible for a CE program. Of couse, CE > students are much more familiar with open-source than EE students. > Perhaps because CE students understand better the concept of open-source > and its technical implications, while EE students perceive it like a > religious war between Linux and Windows. Of couse, I am talking about EE > students and CE students in general. When it comes to people, there are > allways exceptions. > > -- > [ ]'s > Walter Fetter Lages <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > <http://www.eletro.ufrgs.br/~fetter> > -- Bill Dieter. Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Kentucky Lexington, KY 40506-0046
