[version_five]

In my EE degree (in year 2000), we had to implement something with external I/O as a state machine using logic gates (it was in an FPGA though, we drew the schematic). Pong is a way cooler exercise than whatever I did with a 7 segment display and a keypad. But the idea of state machines is still a big part of introductory digital logic.

[pjmlp]

That is way cooler of what we did (earlier 90's), the typical garage door opener.

Later on digital circuits, we got to design basic CPUs, with optional breadboard implementation, but no one bothered to go that far for optional stuff.

[sedivy94]

Did something similar for a CompE course in 2014. We made a calculator in an FPGA. Probably one of the coolest lab projects in my memory.

[version_five]

While it has nothing to do with my current work, introductory digital systems was definitely one of my favorite classes. It was amazing to go from logic gates to adders and muxes and whatnot, to state machines, flip-flops, and useful computation. Now I work in software, and although it doesn't really come up, it's very satisfying to understand down to first principles how computers can be built up from the gate level to whatever ridiculous level of abstraction we work with on a daily basis. That's what I love about engineering generally, the ability to roughly understand what is going on around me down to some first principles.

[suzzer99]

Same here! I built a 5x7 animated display from logic gates in an electronics class as part of my degree in physics. That class and fortran were the only two classes I liked in college. I'm glad I got that experience to work with circuit gates. I feel like I have some insight into the magic box I program all day.

The coolest part was our professors never told us we had to use logic (and then cycle through the pieces faster than the eye could see) to get the 5x7 led display to work for non-symmetric letters. They let us figure that out on our own. I was sitting in history class not paying attention when it came to me. I drew out the circuit I wanted and couldn't wait to get to electronics class to try it out.

[Yhippa]

This takes me down memory lane. Anybody remember Karnaugh maps?

[can16358p]

Thanks for a small flashback into digital circuit design courses. Those two-dimensional truth tables, almost forgot 'em.

[kenward]

> That's what I love about engineering generally, the ability to roughly understand what is going on around me down to some first principles.

This! It's very empowering and one of the things that drew me to tech/computers. Being able to understand things helped me realize the potential of what is possible with computers/computing technology.

I majored in EE in undergrad and didn't really appreciate my EE education until I got older (I was more interested in software).