Abstract
For software testing teachers interested in extending their CS students' experience, we propose an innovative solution that adds two, less traditional-yet fascinating-ingredients: hardware and mistakes. Highlighted here are a few original components, including: (1) miniature, microcontroller-based systems-under-test that mimic real-life IoT devices, such as a smart home; (2) a gentle tutorial on how embedded systems work and fail, and (3) a bug-hunting game to assess students' testing skills. A first deployment to 96 Msc CS students showed that their frequent, unforgettable "Eureka!"moments richly compensate for (limited) accidental hardware damage and (substantial) technical and financial efforts. Future plans include extending the collection of systems and bugs, and sharing the design of this unusual-for-CS intervention with other interested educators. Our hope is that a new generation of professionals will emerge, better prepared to engineer the safe systems we all can rely on.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | ITiCSE 2023 |
| Subtitle of host publication | Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education |
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery |
| Pages | 581-582 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9798400701399 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jun 2023 |
| Event | 28th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2023 - Turku, Finland Duration: 8 Jul 2023 → 12 Jul 2023 |
Publication series
| Name | Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE |
|---|---|
| Publisher | ACM |
| Volume | 2 |
| ISSN (Print) | 1942-647X |
Conference
| Conference | 28th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, ITiCSE 2023 |
|---|---|
| Country/Territory | Finland |
| City | Turku |
| Period | 8/07/23 → 12/07/23 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The VU-BugZoo project is funded by the NRO, The Netherlands Initiative for Education Research, as part of a Comenius Teaching Fellow grant. The authors would like to thank all TAs and students participating in the 2021-2022 course, for their commitment and Lars Eeuwijk, Frans Hendriks, Ramon Parmessar, Joost Rosier, from the Fine Mechanics and Engineering group, for their contribution in crafting the complex and innovative technical infrastructure for this tutorial.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Owner/Author.
Funding
The VU-BugZoo project is funded by the NRO, The Netherlands Initiative for Education Research, as part of a Comenius Teaching Fellow grant. The authors would like to thank all TAs and students participating in the 2021-2022 course, for their commitment and Lars Eeuwijk, Frans Hendriks, Ramon Parmessar, Joost Rosier, from the Fine Mechanics and Engineering group, for their contribution in crafting the complex and innovative technical infrastructure for this tutorial.
Keywords
- embedded systems
- fault injection
- IoT
- software testing education