Digital native generations have been technology consumers all their life. Our children should be educated to be capable to contribute, as active producers, to the digital framework with a maturity and critical attitude. To do that children should learn to program from very early stage at school and combine this with electronics can be the right way to motivate them to develop skills such as reasoning, problems resolution, logic, creativity, perseverance and team work. This paper describes the development of an augmented reality book that can be used by children to learn programming and electronics. Students alone, in groups, at home or in the classroom can use mobile devices (smartphones or tablets) and augmented reality to help them in the electronics assembly. We believe that the use of augmented reality will change significantly the teaching activities by enabling the addition of supplementary information that is seen on a mobile device.

ABSTRACT:The theoretical teaching of Computer Architecture is not suitable longer. In the present time, students claim for a learning-by-doing according to their dynamic and active character. Nowadays, interactive teaching is possible thanks to the decrease in the prices of the Field Programmable Gate Arrays. This paper proposes a learning-by-doing methodology to teach Computer Architecture to first-year student who belong to a digital-native generation. The method consists in developing a whole computer from scratch while they are introduced to hardware description languages (HDL) and programmable logic devices. Firstly, students design each and every element of the computer by VHDL language. Later on, they interconnect the verified elements and test the complete computer. A FPGA-based board is needed to implement and check the correct performance of the designed computer. This educational approach is intended to be used with first-year students from Computer Engineering Degree, thus, it is the first experience of the students with the basics of Computer Architecture. Students have a computer and a FPGA-based board in anytime. In the final exam, a design of a different computer is propounded. Computer testing and programming is a requirement to pass. The high percentage of passed students corroborated the success of the methodology. Thus, computer functioning and construction is understood by a hands-on methodology at the same time as VHDL language and FPGA technology are introduced. Lack attention is avoided since students keep a dynamic role working with their personal computer and FPGA at all times. ß 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 23: [464][465][466][467][468][469][470] 2015; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/ journal/cae;

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Motivated by the effects of deregulation over power quality and the subsequent need of new types of measurements, this paper assesses different implementations of an estimate for the spectral kurtosis, considered as a low-level harmonic detection. Performance of a processor-based system is compared with a field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based solution, in order to evaluate the accuracy of this processing function for implementation in autonomous measurement equipment. The fourth-order spectrum, with applications in different fields, needs advanced digital signal processing, making it necessary to compare implementation alternatives. In order to obtain reproducible results, the implementations have been developed using common design and programming tools. Several characteristics of the implementations are compared, showing that the increasing complexity and reduced cost of the current FPGA models make the implementation of complex mathematical functions feasible. We show that FPGAs improve the processing capability of the best processor using an operating frequency 33 times lower. This fact strongly supports its implementation in hand-held instruments.

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