What makes a successful technical Kickstarter project? How can you use digital technology to solve a societal need? What are the most desirable characteristics of a digital system? What makes a computer powerful, is it its hardware or its software? What are the essential differences between a software program and programmable hardware? How can you build hardware that can adapt, and why would that be a useful feature? How do you judge a digital system: do you want the fastest, the least expensive, the smallest, the lowest power? How do you make sure that your work has impact? The goals for this class are to answer these and other related questions so that you can pursue successful technical careers by becoming lifelong learners, technical experts, great team players, eager to embrace the challenges brought by the quick changes (new technologies, new theories, new paradigms, new languages) that characterize the computer engineering field.

The semester long project in ECE 4440 satisfies the Major Design Experience (MDE requirement for ABET accreditation) for Computer Engineering students and can also serve as the technical project for the fourth-year STS thesis required for all UVa SEAS students.