University receives over £500,000 worth of technology to enrich students’ learning

Computing students at the University of Northampton are benefiting from more than £550,000 worth of new cutting-edge hardware and software, which has been donated to the institution by leading players in the technology industry.

The hardware kits, which are widely recognised in both industry and academia, will allow University of Northampton students the opportunity to develop their learning at an industry standard – ensuring that once they graduate they leave University with the skills and experience that employers require.

The hardware and software – which is worth collectively over £553,000 – has been donated by three leading computing organisations: Altera (now part of Intel), ARM, and Texas Instruments.

The donated kit includes two different types of circuit boards; one which supports high-intensity computing applications such as cloud computing, data acquisition and network processing, and another which is suitable for a wide range of exercises in courses on digital logic and computer organisation.

The computing software and hardware that have been donated will be used in research projects and group work to provide students with the knowledge required to design an ‘Internet of Things’ system and/or modern embedded systems applications. The ‘Internet of Things’ concept will mean that every device that can ‘power up’ could potentially be controlled from the internet – either from a PC or smart device, or by using Bluetooth technology.

All of the donations will be embedded into the teaching curriculum and used by students studying Computing (Computer Systems Engineering), and those undertaking postgraduate research at the University.

Dr Michael Opoku Agyeman, Lecturer in Computing, explained: “The kits are well equipped with state-of-the-art technology to cover a wide scope of applications in Computer Systems Engineering. Both our undergraduate and postgraduate research students will benefit from rapid prototype and evaluation of basic to advanced digital world projects in game console design, robotics, home and industrial automation, wearable computing, digital signal processing, reconfigurable computing, digital electronic devices and Very-Large-Scale-Integration circuit design.

“Donations such as these support the University’s mission to transform lives and inspire change.”

The University of Northampton’s Computing (Computer Systems Engineering) degree allows students to study the integral role that effective computer systems play in 21st Century society –  from local, small scale systems that may be developed by a single person to make their devices interact; through to larger multi-national companies with employees who need to communicate fast and securely.

Find out more Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Northampton. Computer Science at the University was recently ranked 19th in the United Kingdom, in the 2017 Guardian University Guide.

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Pictured: Dr Michael Opoku Agyeman, with some of the donated technology.