Updated April 9, 2008

Dr. Dennis Brylow wants to change the way that core systems courses are taught in the computer science major, and he doesn't care how many wireless routers have to be sacrificed to do it.

Recipient of an $80K grant from Cisco Systems in 2007 for "Creation of an Embedded Systems Curriculum and Laboratory", Dr. Dennis Brylow has received a second grant of $94K from Cisco Systems to support his work in building up the hardware and software infrastructure needed to refocus outdated computing courses on the technology of the future.

"With the proliferation of wireless networking, wireless access points have become ubiquitous on campuses, in businesses, even in people's homes," says Dr. Brylow. "While this kind of consumer electronic device used to be a made out of special purpose circuitry, it now contains an embedded processor. It's a computer inside; more powerful than desktop PC's were in the early 1990's. It is readily available at retail electronic stores at the reasonable price of approximately $50. Somebody needs to build the software for these devices, and that somebody is going to be people like our graduates."

Embedded systems can be found in portable electronics, vehicle control systems, consumer appliances, and even medical devices. They represent a large segment of the computer processor market, and their importance is only expected to grow as smaller and more powerful processors become possible.

"Up until recently, it was assumed that only large, state-funded research Universities could afford the specialized equipment needed to provide practical lab experience with a lot of these kinds of embedded devices," Dr. Brylow explains. "Our work here at Marquette has now shown that we can build a top-notch experimental operating systems lab that targets embedded platforms at a fraction of the cost of the larger institutions, and without the huge investment in specialized lab space." The MSCS Department's prototype environment came in at less than a tenth of the cost of its predecessor, and takes up only a few cubic feet of space, rather than an entire wall of dedicated machine racks. "Students can work on the system from anywhere -- our public labs, their dorms, anywhere in the world with a network connection."

Student involvement in the research is one of Dr. Brylow's top priorities. "Eight students are currently involved directly on the project, both graduate and undergraduate, either working off of the grant, or earning independent study credit. Another six students are working on associated senior design projects. So even as we're building the infrastructure for lower-division courses, more senior students are learning how to work together in a challenging research environment. “Students meet twice weekly during the semester to discuss current related research, design new system components, formally review their completed software, and troubleshoot practical obstacles to the groups goals.

Dr. Brylow's idea has already had a significant impact on the sophomore year sequence of hardware systems and operating systems courses, and is beginning to be duplicated at other universities. "Our goal was not just to lead the way in building this curriculum, but to pave the way for those who would follow." A dedicated team of student research assistants released the first version of the Embedded XINU operating system this past summer, and have amassed a significant body of support documentation on the project's website.

"Doing research and development in the Systems Lab has taught me what it is like to work on a large project with a team that has a common goal," said Paul Hinze, a senior computer science major. Mike Schultz, a first year graduate student, explains, "Instead of working on a trivial project in my dorm room, I get the opportunity to work with a complex and very real system every day."

Dr. Brylow further added, “Faculty at other schools want to show students how to modify code for a real system, and run it on an actual embedded processor -- we can show them how to do that now. There's no need to simulate modern RISC architectures for courses in machine organization -- we've got the real thing here." In addition to the practical education deliverables, the project is now beginning to produce research dividends. Several conference publications have already come out of the project, and several more are planned. The research group will accompany Dr. Brylow to the top computer science education conference in Portland this March where he will present his SIGCSE Paper, "An Experimental Laboratory Environment for Teaching Embedded Operating Systems".

The Embedded XINU Project webpage is at http://xinu.mscs.mu.edu/.