Real-time systems course in undergraduate CS/CE programs

Interactions with industry hiring new software engineers from undergraduate computer science and engineering programs show, case after case, that universities do not pay enough attention to the practical aspects of software development. Another well-known deficiency of the undergraduate programs is in the area of time-critical, reactive programming. The present paper describes a senior course in a computer science undergraduate program designed to address some of the above problems. The real-time course provides the students not only with the basic concepts of real-time programming, but also provides a vehicle for development of small class projects which address methods, tools and the critical aspects of a modern software development life cycle. The experience with teaching the course may serve as a model for similar offerings in other computer science, computer engineering and software engineering college programs. The paper describes lessons learned and future plans.