A Holistic Approach Towards a Unified CpE Laboratory Platform

This paper outlines a plan in which the conventional computer engineering laboratories are replaced with a common configurable student- purchased platform. While there are plenty of universities that require students to purchase hardware boards as part of a requirement for a class, the plan presented here is fairly unique in the fact that the same hardware board is used throughout the undergraduate curriculum, beginning with their first freshmen programming class, and extending through the senior- level capstone design classes. This approach impacts education in a number of ways, including student economics, department logistics management, and agility to upgrade when needed.