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Verilog in Virtual Programming Lab

Unit testing is really important in general programming, but it's also really useful when creating interactive programming assignments. With Java, I like to use JUnit and with C I like to use the Unity unit tester. With Verilog it's actually really straight-forward to set up testing frameworks. In the EECS 2021 (Computer Organization) labs written […]

Four motions for protecting faculty, staff and students

I'm submitting the following four motions to my department's monthly meeting to see if we can set ourselves up for a safer return to campus. There are four motions: A recommendation for wearing N95 Funding for N95s A request for CO2 sensors A request for portable air purifiers (HEPA) Feel free to reuse and/or adapt, […]

COVID Questions for YorkU

October 31, 2021 (Updated Nov. 5, 2021) [Update Nov 5, 2021] In response to my questions I have received a letter from the Provost of the University, Prof. Lisa Philipps. Only the academic freedom question was addressed. The administration of York University has announced a return to face-to-face teaching in January 2021, with changes in […]

Suggestions for Computers (Oct 2021)

To new students (and their parents) who are looking to get a computer for the upcoming university school year, here are some tips (via my Twitter thread) How much? Get what you can afford.  Most people will spend between $500 and $2000 for a computer.  $1000 - $1500 will get you a phenomenal machine that […]

Lab Kit details for EECS 1011/1021

[Updated March 2024] EECS 1011 (and 1021) Lab Kit The EECS 1011 kit is available for purchase from the York University Bookstore. The link for all lab kits at the Bookstore is here. As soon as it is available your course instructor will let you know. While the official kit is designed to work for […]

The EECS 2021 Lab Kit: Grove Board + Snap Programmer

EECS 2021 Lab Kit The EECS 2021 lab requires you to have both (1) the Grove board with an ATMEGA328P chip on it (you got it as a part of the EECS 1011/21 lab kit last year), as well as (2) a Snap programmer. The Grove kit (officially called the "Grove Beginner Kit for Arduino") […]

Flying Blind into January: Update on YorkU Air Quality [Oct 2021]

It's Oct 8, 2021. Last week I heard from my Vice Dean of the plan to go back to in-person teaching in January, 2022.[1] I believe that this is potentially a premature decision as York University appears to have ignored deficiencies in its measures to fight COVID. These include a vaccination documentation system that may […]

Response to school's announcement about air quality & COVID

The CS Viamonde school board provided a response about the status of ventilation and air filtering at the La Mosaïque elementary school in the east end of Toronto on August 24, 2021. The letter is included at the bottom of this blog post Executive Summary Air filtering is vital to keep our kids safe in […]

VPL: Circuit Simulation Assignments with SPICE

Introduction In YorkU's EECS Department, we have access to NGSPICE on our department's Linux machines (via RemoteLab). NGSPICE is yet another variation on the venerable SPICE circuit simulator. Our the University's Moodle system, eClass, we have access to Virtual Programming Lab, a framework for making interactive exercises for students. It is typically used with programming […]

Open letter about COVID-related air quality in an elementary school

Executive Summary The current portable air filter setup at CS Viamonde’s La Mosaïque (LAMO) [Viamonde is the French public school board in Toronto; LAMO is its largest elementary school] does not meet the minimum set of recommendations based on the latest scientific and engineering results related to the mainly aerosol nature of COVID19.   Children in […]