Editor's Corner

by Anthony J Gadient
and Vijay K. Madisetti

Successfully transferring the technology being developed by the RASSP program to industry and academia is a critical component of the overall RASSP effort. To accomplish this goal, a novel, ground breaking RASSP Education & Facilitation (RASSP E&F) program was explicitly funded and a team tasked with leading the RASSP efforts to transfer technology from the RASSP program to the university and industrial communities.

To successfully transfer RASSP technology, the RASSP E&F effort must teach engineers and scientists how to use the RASSP top-down design concepts and give managers an appreciation for the potential payoff of RASSP technology, thereby creating both a technology push and technology pull. To accomplish this goal, the RASSP E&F team has adopted a multifaceted approach. This approach is designed to help push and pull individuals and organizations through the five step technology transfer process illustrated in Figure 1.

Accomplishing this process involves: (1) making available the information/knowledge necessary to progress from one stage of the process to the next, and (2) providing an education system that will assist in the transfer process. The RASSP E&F objectives in these areas are described below:

Information: develop awareness and interest in RASSP technology by providing easy access to useful and well organized RASSP-related information.

Education: educate senior management as to the potential benefits obtainable through the application of RASSP technology thereby stimulating the use of RASSP technology and the demand for RASSP trained professionals; work with universities to effect a paradigm shift in the graduate, undergraduate, and continuing professional digital system design curricula of small- and medium-sized universities to ensure that graduating students can meet industry's need for RASSP trained engineers, scientists, and managers.

The activities of the RASSP E&F program in each of these areas is detailed in this issue of the RASSP Digest. The newsletter starts with two invited papers that highlight the need for an activity like RASSP E&F. Professor Pettus, Chairman of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of South Carolina, presents an overview of the problems plaguing the university community today. Mahendra Jain, Director of VHDL International, presents industry's need for engineers educated in state-of-the-art system design techniques. These papers motivate the need to change the educational system. The article by Madisetti and Gadient entitled "A Technical Rationale for RASSP Educational Activities" explores the need to change the existing embedded digital system design education paradigm in more detail and presents the technical rationale underlying the educational efforts being undertaken by the RASSP E&F program. The article by Salinas, et. al., entitled "RASSP Educational Activities" details the RASSP E&F activities designed to enable and support the needed shift in the university education paradigm. The result is a clarion call to stimulate academic participation in a progressive educational program that adopts the latest instructional methods and industrial strength tools to revolutionize the way system design is taught in United State's colleges and universities. The article by Scharf and Karns entitled "Executive Education: Key to Implementing RASSP" details the RASSP E&F activities designed to present the business case underlying the RASSP technology. The article by Stinson, et. al., entitled "RASSP Informational Activities" details the RASSP E&F activities designed to disseminate information about RASSP.