Development of the Digital Systems Unit in an Electronics Engineering CDIO Curriculum

The electronics engineering program at Javeriana University has been renovated following the guidelines of the CDIO philosophy. As a result of this process, a new curriculum is being implemented based on the guidelines of the twelve CDIO standards. The new curricular structure is organized by learning units (physics, mathematics, signals, analog systems, digital systems and CDIO projects), which are articulated and focused on the development of general competencies for the professional development of electronics engineering. This paper describes the Digital Systems Unit, aiming to train students in the construction of electronic systems that solve context problems using digital devices. The challenge of the unit is to emphasize the methodology beyond the devices, in such a way that in the future the engineers can provide solutions adapted to the accelerated changes of the technology. Our proposal begins with a description of the technological advancement of digital devices as a challenge in the teaching-learning processes of electronics engineering. Then we present the general competencies and the skills of the construction of systems that are integrated into the unit. Subsequently, the proposed courses, the integrated competencies and their thematic contents are described. At the end, a special emphasis is placed on the systemic vision of the courses and their alignment with other units of the new curriculum.