The RASSP (Rapid Prototyping of Application Specific Signal Processors) Education and Facilitation (RASSP E&F) program is developing the innovative education and facilitation system needed to make RASSP technology widely used.
The RASSP E&F team has three primary objectives: 1) to transfer the RASSP knowledge and technology into use in defense and commercial industry, 2) to transfer the RASSP knowledge and technology into university curricula, and 3) to facilitate the continuous improvement of RASSP through rapid feedback.
To accomplish these objectives, the RASSP E&F program is developing university and continuing education; a single point source for all RASSP information; and facilitating technology transfer to industry and academia. To stay abreast of RASSP technology development and provide user input to help steer the development, RASSP E&F maintains a strong interface with all other RASSP programs.
RASSP is developing the methods, tools, and DSP architecture needed for a paradigm shift in the way systems are designed, verified, and upgraded. That paradigm shift is needed to reach the RASSP objective of a four-fold decrease in design time with associated improvements in quality and upgrade potential. However, even if the RASSP technology were fully available today, there are very few educators or engineers who are familiar with the key facets of that technology.
Other components of the RASSP initiative are eliminating design tool, DSP architecture and methodology gaps. The RASSP E&F program must address the scarcity of trained industrial technical staff and educators. Unless these individuals are trained in the effective use of RASSP concepts, RASSP objectives can not be met. Education and facilitation are vital if commercial and defense companies are to realize the RASSP benefits. RASSP E&F must both increase the supply of and accelerate the demand for skilled RASSP technologists.
Our RASSP E&F approach recognizes the large diverse audience of management, engineering, and university people that must be reached and their differing needs and objectives. Different techniques will be used to reach that diverse community, emphasizing the portions of the overall RASSP message relevant to the particular target audience.
The RASSP E&F program will develop a RASSP Education System (RES), demonstrate the RES effectiveness, and ensure its long-term availability as the innovative education and training needed to make RASSP technology widely used. RES will be developed and delivered in both academic and industrial settings. This education will act to increase both the supply of and the demand for RASSP qualified engineers.
The RASSP E&F goal is to collect, consolidate, and disseminate RASSP information and technology. RASSP E&F will educate the user and facilitate proliferation of RASSP into industrial practice and RES into university curricula to change the way embedded system design is performed and taught. RASSP E&F will also provide users with a mechanism to feedback their perspective to RASSP developers to ensure that RASSP is continuously improving its focus on key user issues.
The RASSP E&F team is working with industry and academia to identify the issues that must be addressed for successful change. The entire RASSP E&F offering is tailored to meet those needs. Careful attention to overcoming barriers is being coupled with innovative learning and information dissemination techniques to ensure the target audience is receptive and RASSP technology widely used. RASSP E&F will continually monitor and improve the effectiveness of the RES approach, delivery mechanisms, and information content.
The RASSP E&F team consists of leading university professors, technical managers, electrical engineers and computer scientists from SCRA, Georgia Tech, University of Virginia, University of Cincinnati, Raytheon, Merkel and Mears Group, and Arthur D. Little (ADL). To accomplish the necessary technology and knowledge transfer, RASSP E&F has four organizational segments: Interface, Education, Information, and Transition. Jack Corley (SCRA) and Vijay Madisetti (Georgia Tech) provide the overall program leadership, while team leaders include Jim Aylor (University of Virginia), Joe Wong (Raytheon,) Hal Carter (University of Cincinnati,) and Anthony Gadient (SCRA).
The RASSP E&F team is using a spiral, continuous improvement approach to deliver education and facilitation. This spiral consists of four steps: 1) define/refine objectives, 2) define/refine infrastructure and requirements, 3) develop/refine mechanisms and metrics, and (4) deliver and evaluate effectiveness.
An innovative approach to modular courseware is being used by the Education segment. This modular approach provides a simple, cost-effective way to continually improve the material, use the same material for multiple purposes, and stay abreast of the RASSP technology improvements. Each module will contain three components: 1) theory and fundamentals, 2) examples and metrics, and 3) detailed RASSP systems design examples linked to RASSP tools and methodologies. This unique approach simplifies course creation, maintenance, and transfer to educational institutions outside the initial RASSP E&F team.
To reach the geographically dispersed audience, RASSP E&F is making maximum use of computing and communications facilities for innovative instruction delivery (multimedia, Internet, video-based instruction, etc.) State-of-the-art Internet communication tools will provide a logical single-point interface to on-line education materials, information and services from RASSP E&F, the other RASSP programs and EDA vendors. The same Internet tools will be used for team collaboration and to interface with other RASSP programs.
Through these distributed education and facilitation mechanisms, RASSP E&F is providing the apparatus needed to make RASSP technology broadly available. The overall effect will blur the boundary between information, education, and use of RASSP services. Users will skip introductory and tutorial material as they become expert, with on-line reference manuals, interactive help and refresher training only a click away. Users will progress effortlessly from novice to expert. The end-result should make RASSP technology ubiquitous, making the RASSP four-fold improvement goals broadly realized.
Your comments and suggestions are vital to the continuing improvement of RASSP and RASSP E&F. Contact information to remember includes:
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