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Understanding the principles behind the functioning of basic analog and digital systems is a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for independently designing embedded electronic systems. Under the guidance of your instructor, come and experience how challenging it can be to design and implement a working prototype of an electronic device.

This course is taught in the winter semester and is recommended for second-year bachelor's students. It is preceeded by KEI/VPP1 in the previous summer semester. Together, these two courses cover the complete development of an electronic device with an STM32 microcontroller, first focusing on hardware and then on software aspects.

The VPP1 and VPP2 course pair is intended for beginners or slightly advanced students in the field of electronic systems. In each semester, the initial few exercises provide theoretical background on the respective topics (HW in VPP1, SW in VPP2), followed by an introduction to the required design software (Altium Designer for the HW part, STM32CubeIDE for the SW part). After that, students work independently on a semester project of their own choosing. Typical projects include weather stations, distance meters, or volt-ampere meters. Students are also welcome to bring their own ideas and, upon approval from the instructor, develop their own custom projects.

The course typically uses STM32 microcontrollers from STMicroelectronics along with the aforementioned design tools. However, students may use other microcontrollers or design environments if they wish, but in that case, they must rely more heavily on their own knowledge or self-study, as no direct instruction will be provided for those alternatives.

For projects from other fields (outside of microcontrollers or other departments than KEI), students should register for VPP courses offered by the relevant department. The KEI/VPP courses are specifically focused on microcontroller-based topics, and completing a project in this domain is required in order to receive credit.