Introducing Students to Aerospace Board Information Systems Using an Embedded Graphics System Simulator

A graduate-level engineering course in airborne sensor and control systems taught at the Czech Technical University in Prague under the title Board Information Systems takes a novel systematic and comprehensive approach to teaching airborne digital avionics systems, together with system certification and life-cycle operations. The course brings together materials from various sources to cover practical aspects of avionics systems ranging from design, prototyping, testing, certification and production through to maintenance. It prepares students to deal with a wide range of the type of real-world problems that they will meet in their professional careers. This is a required course offered in the 10th semester as a part of the study programme in Airborne Information and Control Instrumentation (AICI) by the Department of Measurement. The course was redesigned with new lecture content, practical exercises and field trips. The course evaluation survey results from 2008 and 2009 show that recent students have considered the course a valuable part of their curriculum, and that it has made them feel more competent in the field of digital avionics systems.