Introduction to Digital Design: A Paradigm-Based Approach

Introduction to digital design is a standard undergraduate course in computer science, and electrical and computer engineering curriculums at many universities. While there are a wide variety of teaching approaches which emphasize different topics and aspects of digital design, there are numerous strong conceptual and education similarities. We present three strategic objectives in this article. The first is to summarize our extensive experiences teaching, searching, and developing conceptually new and highly effective ways to prepare students in designing digital systems. The second objective is to present a paradigm-based teaching approach for designing large scale and detailed digital designs. The approach emphasizes structured heuristic thinking and the application of reusable synthesis rules and templates. Finally, to make the educational material intuitive and interactive, we have developed a set of games which leverage on design knowledge and skills for effective play.