Teaching
Let's Play
This is a recent project I am very interested in and promoting. The basic idea is that board games are a great medium to experience and practice different aspects of teaching and learning. Take a look at what we've done at the our web presence on the topic.Talks on Teaching
These are various talks I've done on teaching in higher education.After winning a teaching award (Distinguished Teaching Award - 2015-16) I got to make a talk in February 2016 called:
- What I've Learned About Learning to Teach and Learn... I Think - The talk and The landing page
Research
For anyone interested in working with me (student or collaborators), please take a look at projects I'm considering/doing). If there's an area or topic you're interested in email me.Undergraduate Research
For students interested in working with me, please see areas and projects that I'm interested in working on (research projects). If there's an area or topic you're interested in email me or come to my office hours.Throughout the semester and during the summer a few students and I work on various projects that interest us. This can be related to any of my research areas of interest.
Undergraduate Summer Scholar - Summer 2026:
- Gabe Litteken Building an education model for TPU (Tensor Processing Unit) design on an FPGA — code on GitHub
Senior Design - Fall 2025/Spring 2026 (in progress):
- Joe Crimm, Jacob Rice, Michael Brown (Co-Advisor: Dr. Scott) Designing a support library and file format for a Bayesian updateable Spatio-Temporal Graph
Senior Design - Fall 2024/Spring 2025:
- Claire Hopfensperger, Jess Grady, Caroline Van Neste (Co-Advisor: Dr. Scott) Virtual Twinning Progression to Analyze/Predict Circuit Failure
- Chris Lallo, Blake Rile, Jerry Chen (Co-Advisor: Dr. Bhunia) Creating a Computer Architecture Hardware Trojan Benchmark under the Seeker's Dilemma Paradigm
- Sam Stage, Cody Radabaugh, Dana Clark, and Tommy Trihn Duplo/Lego Mindstorms robotics interface
- ECE group: Brendan Bohon, Brody MacDonald, Sam Asebrook — MME group: Danny Asmar, Liam Bohan, Matt Orlowski, Mason Shultz (Co-Advisor: Dr. Chadges) Customizing putters and automating characterization of them
Senior Design - Fall 2023/Spring 2024:
- Jared Butler, Riley Taylor, Obed Amaning-Yeboah, Deniz Misirlioglu (Co-Advisor: Dr. Bhunia) Red/Blue Video Game for Attack and Defensive Analysis
- Jimmy Roach, Alecea Grosjean, Ethan Barnes (Co-Advisor: Dr. Scott) Virtual Twinning to Analyze/Predict Circuit Failure
- Mika Burmester, Ryan Campbell, Rob Lytton, Ben Eicher (Co-Advisor: Dr. Van Scoy) Robot Agents to execute a Boids-based algorithm
Senior Design - Fall 2021/Spring 2022:
- Huan Le, Nathan Martin, Yicheng Qian (Co-Advisor: Alan Ehret, ASU Ph.D. candidate) A RISC-V architecture that implements an Arduino Toolflow
- Owen Hardy, Sam Rutschilling, Jordan Smith (Co-Advisor: Dr. Scott) Power and Energy Measurement Logging of Off-the-shelf Computing Systems
- Charlie Harders, Zhilong Yu, Yuxuan Deng, Christopher Gibson Design of a Game Engine to Execute Space and Time-based games on the Miami Trails and Campus — the seed of what became the Urban Games
- Cole Hengstebeck, Noah MacDonald, Grant Parker (Co-Advisor: Dr. Van Scoy) Swarm Robotics base infrastructure
Senior Design - Spring 2021:
- Will Zeurcher , Alejandro Cabrerizo, and Thomas Wright Tactile Lego Interface to allow Real World Lego to map to Virtual World Lego [DEAD-link]
- Lucy Rukstales, Michaela Mitchell, and Gillian Holman (Co-Advisor: Dr. Scott) Virtual Twins of Circuit to Detect Capacitor Failure
- Owen Hichens, Eric Shonaeur, and Carter Hale Evolving "Interesting" Cellular Automata systems with Genetic Algorithms [DEAD-link]
Senior Design - Fall 2020:
- Don Blank, Janelle Ghanem, and Tyler McGrew (Co-Advisor: Dr. Corti Mechnaical Engineering) a PLC to FPGA compiler in Python and a Real-system PLC/FPGA control system [DEAD-link]
- Kevan Pigott and Haokun Qian Mobile implemetation of BOIDS algorithm [DEAD-link]
Senior Design - Spring 2020:
- Cade Doebele and Connor Meek Programmable Guitar Pedal
- Zhang Geng, Wenbo Nie, and WieGuang Zhao (Co-Advisor: Dr. Sahin) Agent Based Simulation for Disaster Simulation [DEAD-link]
Senior Design - Spring 2019:
- Alex Lee, Kyle Burge, Logan Johnson, and Prasidh Arora
- Austyn Larkin, Kyle Nichols, Scott Nicholson, Storm Nicholson
Research summer of 2016 I worked with students on the following projects:
- Chris Bell, Ben Shaffer, Zach McQuigg and Kyle Burge on an open game for learning Verilog HDL (a more open extension of verilogTown)
- Connor Blandford, Oakley Katterheinrich, and Fredy Augusto Maciel Alves (undergraduate visitor from Universidade Federal de Viçosa) on Accelerating Collision Detection on FPGAs
Research summer of 2015 I worked with students on the following projects:
- Bailey Hall (Miami) and Chris Ahn (UC San Diego) on a route and weather prediction application
- Braden Campbell (Miami) and Ryan Sunderhaus (Miami) on a quadropter to follow markers to film field sports [DEAD-link]
- Alan Ehret (Miami) on using combinatorial optimization problems for procedural landscape generation (for video games) - paper submitted
- Naoki Mizuno (Miami) and Chris Bell (Miami) on a multiplayer video game flexible framework to teach ideas to classes called Culture Code - paper to be submitted and research continues
Senior Design - Some from the Past:
- Naoki Mizuno and Drake Brunner (co-advisor Dr. Corti)
- Alan Ehret and Jon Shaver
- Alex Williams, Josh Collins, and Corey White
About Online Education
In an effort to understand MOOCs and online teaching and there place in education I've participated in:- Google Power Searching - completed:
- Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
- Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master taught by Barb Oakley and Terry Sejnowski
- Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential taught by Barb Oakley and Terry Sejnowski
- Presentation skills: Speechwriting and Storytelling by National Research Tomsk State University by Alexei Kapterev
- 2020-21 Miami University's miniMBA - completed:
What students think of me
I try to come accross as a good teacher, and I do care about my students. However (in their jest), some students are not convinced:
Teaching at Miami
I have taught these courses:- Computer Aided Design - FPGA focuse - ECE 487
- Engineering Problem Solving - ECE 102
- Computer Architecture - ECE 289 (changed from 278 for ECE students)
- Digital System Design - ECE 287
- Embedded System Design - ECE 387
- Engineering Design - ECE 248 (Winter Term)
- Engineering Problem Solving - EAS 102 (Winter Term)
Cool Student Projects
A game engine that then writes code for the FPGA!!!
IEEE Student Chapter LED Dance Floor
Paintball Sentry
Laser Show
0-60 timer [DEAD-link]
Arduino Spectrum Analyzer
Golf swing tester
Circle robot
Headlight controller
Snake Game
FPGA 2D Video Game [DEAD-link]
Power Glove Quadropter Control [DEAD-link]
Keyfob Lock
ECE 287 and 387 include a lab component in which we are participators in Altera's University Program and we are very thankful for the boards they provide. In the lab we use FPGAs on these DE2 boards to implement various labs and student projects. Below, I have some of the Wikis and links to projects.
ECE 287 - Digital Systems
ECE 287 - 2019 - Some of the Best Projects In 2019, all the projects were open proposals by the students and had to be hosted online on a Github repository:PID algroithm
Too Much Cake - Game
King Fighter - Clone
Verilog Runner - Game
ECE 287 - 2018 - Some of the Best Projects In 2018, all the projects were open proposals by the students and had to be hosted online on a Github repository:
A game engine that then writes code for the FPGA!!!
DES encryption
Sound synthesizer
A MIPs Processor
Bee-Fender
A Frogger Clone
ECE 287 - 2016 - Some of the Best Projects In 2016, all the projects were open proposals by the students and had to be hosted online on a Github repository:
Turing Simulation Machine
Etcha Sketch
Farm simulation
Audio filters
Bitcoin Miner
ECE 287 - 2013 - Some of the Best Projects In 2013, all the projects were open proposals by the students and had to be hosted online on a repository:
C scale Piano with Chords [DEAD-link]
A number of 2D video games [DEAD-link]
An audio mixer [DEAD-link]
A synth board [DEAD-link]
A graphing calculator [DEAD-link]
Breakout - Video Game [DEAD-link]
Tetris - Video Game
Platformer - Vidoe Game [DEAD-link]
ECE 287 - 2012 - Some of the Best Projects In 2012, many groups worked on the encryptor/decryptor project based on some of my research findings. Some did open projects and here is a sampling:
Decryptor/Encryptor [DEAD-link] - Decryptor project
Decryptor/Encryptor II [DEAD-link] - Decryptor project
ECE 287 - 2011 - Some of the Best Projects In 2011, most of the students did what is called the encryptor/decryptor project based on some of my research findings. Still a few motivated students created some interesting open projects:
Pong [DEAD-link] - this group built a replication of Pong with SNES controllers
REDHAWK DUELS - 2010
Redhawk Duels is one possible choice for ECE 287 students to focus their final project on. For more details about this project look at the project descriptions below. Source code for the project is hosted at google code. [DEAD-link] Contributors are welcome.
ECE 287 - 2010 - Some of the best Projects
RedHawk Dual Ship I [DEAD-link] - their ship employs a circular radar screen with a crystal optimizer.
RedHawk Dual Ship II [DEAD-link] - their has a standard screen with optimization techniques and crystal information.
RedHawk Dual Ship III [DEAD-link] - similar to the above ship.
RedHawk Dual Ship IV [DEAD-link] - another similar to the above ships.
A Pic microcontroller FFPGA implementation [DEAD-link] - implementation of a PIC and included in the RedHawk Duals
A Square Wave Sound Generator with Songs [DEAD-link] - interfaces with the DE2 audio and creates sounds. They then used this to create a recording for three different songs.
A Dragon Encounter [DEAD-link] - try and get out of a fight with a dragon.
ECE 387 - Embedded Systems
ECE 387 - 2014 - Spring Term - Group Project ArchiveGarage Door Jammer [DEAD-link]
Image-based Bug tracking system [DEAD-link]
Gun Trigger Safety System [DEAD-link]
ECE 387 - 2014 - Spring Term - Individual Project Archive
Breathalyzer [DEAD-link]
Enhanced Practice Trumpet [DEAD-link]
Arcade Machine [DEAD-link]
Arduino oscilloscope Shield [DEAD-link]
Two-Player Portable Shooter [DEAD-link]
Near-Field Car Starter [DEAD-link]
Clothes Based Exercise Monitor [DEAD-link]
Guitar Effect System [DEAD-link]
Kinect/Tetris game [DEAD-link]
ECE 387 - 2013 - Spring Term - Group Project Archive
Color Tracker Turret [DEAD-link]
POV Globe [DEAD-link]
Power Glove Quadropter Control [DEAD-link]
Segway [DEAD-link]
ECE 387 - 2013 - Spring Term - Individual Project Archive
Midi Drum Controller [DEAD-link]
Infinity Mirror [DEAD-link]
Foosball [DEAD-link]
Hard drive POV [DEAD-link]
ECE 387 - 2012 - Spring Term - Group Project Archive
Quadropter B - 4 blade flying machine 2
8x8x8 LED Hypnocube [DEAD-link] - Second hypnocube, but this one is single color and bigger
ECE 387 - 2011 - Fall Term - Individual Project Archive
Individual Embedded systems - These are each of the students individual embedded systems.
ECE 387 - 2011 - Spring Term - Group Project Archive
The LED Dance Floor - An LED Dance Floor.
Light Dimmer [DEAD-link] - A light based alarm system.
Autonomous Motion Tracking Sentry Paintball Gun [DEAD-link] - A paintball sentry that tracks using image processing.
Camera Remote Control Car [DEAD-link] - Controls a remote controlled car with hand gestures.
Chord Hero [DEAD-link] - A guitar chord teacher.
Marching Robot [DEAD-link] - A strange robot that walks
Wireless Controlled Paintball Turret [DEAD-link] - A wireless paintball sentry.
Automated Parking Garage [DEAD-link] - A parking lot that tells you where to park.
ECE 387 - 2010 - Group Project Archive
The Sound Stalker [DEAD-link] - Project is based on the idea of music following you around your house (video included).
The 3D-Hypnocube [DEAD-link] - Project is a 3D cube of LEDs that displays different animations (video included).
Imperial College
In the past I have helped with many courses. While at Imperial College responsible for some marking and supervising tutorials in courses on Computer Architecture and Parallel Processing.2009 spring - Reconfigurable Computing (3rd year)
2008 spring - Reconfigurable Computing (3rd year)
2008 fall - Hardware (1st year)
University of Toronto
At the University of Toronto I was a Teaching Assistant responsible for tutorials, lab supervision, and marking 22 times for 10 different courses including:ECE419 Distributed Systems
ECE334 Operating Systems
CS258 Computer Organization
APS105 Java - Introduction to Programming
ECE443 System Software
ECE253 Digital Design for CS students
ECE241 Digital Design
ECE341 Computer Organization
ECE203 Discrete Mathematics
ECE342 Computer Hardware
CS372 Microprocessor Software