Summary of the project
The "Design Your Own Chip!" project has been developing a gamified design environment with the objective of providing students with an engaging platform through which they can explore circuit and layout design. The serious game comprises multiple levels, each of which is designed to educate students on the essential components and system design of integrated circuits (ICs). The students engage with the game by addressing authentic IC design challenges and formulating their own designs within a sandbox environment. The project incorporates instructional guides and visualization tools to facilitate comprehension of complex concepts, thereby encouraging both individual creativity and collaborative learning through the utilization of shared high-scoring examples and competitive scoreboards. This approach is aligned with the university’s objective of fostering an independent and challenge-based learning environment.
“Everybody has their own learning methods, especially when it comes to complex information such as electronic circuits and chips. Current methods are mostly based on circuit analysis. ”
Aim of the project
The objective of this project is to address the educational challenges associated with teaching analog integrated circuit (IC) design, which students have identified as a particularly difficult subject. The project's objective is to demystify IC design and attract more students to this field, thereby addressing the critical need for skilled IC designers in an era of increasing demand for complex electronic chips. This will be achieved by implementing a serious game. This innovative educational tool is aligned with the university’s strategy of shifting from teaching to learning, with the objective of fostering the development of creative problem-solving skills that are essential for future engineers. The game provides a scalable solution for delivering individualized feedback and for bridging knowledge gaps, with the ultimate goal of contributing to a more effective and inclusive engineering education.
“We want to shift this to design-based education. We develop a game that contains the required information and tools and that guides the player through all steps of chip design.”
Results and learnings
The project to gamify Integrated Circuit (IC) design is progressing well. Enversed Studios in Eindhoven has been selected as the collaborating gamification studio. The team has also sought advice from various experts and written a comprehensive game concept. An exciting development is a potential collaboration with the University of Twente, which is exploring gamification from a different perspective, specifically the visualization of chip structures. Discussions are ongoing to potentially integrate Twente's visualization tool as an add-on to the current game. This collaboration, though still in the exploratory phase due to legal considerations, is highly anticipated as it could significantly enhance the educational value for students.
The primary objective remains to support the students of Eindhoven University, though there is hope that the University of Twente will also adopt the game for their educational purposes. The development phase is set to commence after the holidays, with initial efforts focused on interfacing Unreal Engine, a game development platform, with NGspice, a simulation software for electric circuits. Following this, the project will proceed to creating game levels and developing methods for visualizing circuits. This innovative approach aims to provide a dynamic and engaging learning experience for students in the field of IC design.
“This way, students can experience the fun of circuit and chip design themselves. ”
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