Roadmap to Embedded Engineering

This repository should serve as a guide to anyone who wants to study software and hardware for embedded systems but doesn't know where to start.

Motivation

Maybe some undergratuate students who wants to study and work with embedded systems have found some difficulty to know what to study. Many are used to work with Arduino, which is a good start, but when it comes to make prototypes and projects more like real world projects, making hardware and software more professional, it's hard to know the best way to do it.

I notice the problem when I started to look for internships and Jr. jobs. The companies are always asking for knowledge that the university doesn't teach usually. Of course, if you are a Computer Engineering student or some course related, you'll have a strong base to work in this area. But this isn't enough.

To work serious with embedded systems, some preparation is necessary, in order to achieve the knowledge needed to work with both universes: software and hardware.

Nota para quem não fala inglês: Um dos principais requisitos exigidos na maioria dos cargos oferecidos na área é um conhecimento em inglês suficientemente bom para falar e escrever, no mínimo. Por este motivo o repositório e tudo que for escrito será em inglês, não só para incentivar a leitura e aumentar o alcance dos temas abordados, mas também para que eu mesmo pratique a escrita dia após dia.

Note to non english speakers: One of the main requisites that are required in jobs and internships is english. At least you need to speak and write. That's the reason this repository is being written in english, not only to increase reach, but for me either to train english everyday.

Index

Under construction!

Goals

The main goal here is to study most of the things needed to work with embedded engineering. With a lot of research I've done a collection of subjects that we need to know. Based on what professionals in the field says and what internships and junior jobs asks, we'll study the main topics in order to be prepared.

How will this works

We are going to explore two main subjects: software and hardware. This repository structure will be divided in directories, which every one will have their own README with links to access courses, indications of books, articles and examples of the exercises that I'll do and document.

This repository should be updated a lot, in order to give you the best way to learn all of the subjects that will be learned.

Some study subjects

I'll list some fo the topics that we will see and explain in this repository.

• Software

  • Programming languages (basic and advanced subjects)
    • C/C++, Python/Micropython, Java, Rust
  • Object-oriented programming (OOP) concepts
  • Data Structure
  • Algorithms
  • Bare-metal programming
  • RTOS Knowledge (Real-time operating systems)
  • OS programming (Linux)
  • Linux OS practical usage
  • Bits manipulation
  • DIP (Digital Image Processing)
  • DSP (Digital Signal Processing)
  • Database technologies
  • Native android development with Java and C++ (NDK)

• Hardware

  • Digital Logic
  • Hardware architecture (Arduino MCU among others)
  • Core (CPU, Registers, Bus, Cache, Flash/SRAM/DRAM memories)
  • Features and peripherals (GPIO, PWM, Clock, Watchdog, ADC, DMA, EEPROM, RTC, etc)
  • Protocols (UART, I²C, SPI)
  • Understand WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee and others
  • Interrupters, Timers, Counters
  • Microcontrollers interface (e.g AVR Programming or Arm Cortex)
  • PCB Design
  • Datasheet reading

Real world examples of internships and jobs offers

Click on the offers to see some examples. I will update this section whenever interesting opportunities arise to show.

General Content

Here I'll put some content that are useful, not only for studying but also implementing and practicing in real life projects.

README

👁‍🗨 Good documentation can be the key to your project's success.

Version Control - Git

👁‍🗨 The versioning system in the development world is a necessary knowledge in practically 100% of the serious projects you are likely to work on. Whether in professional or personal projects, having a solid foundation in this is essential to ensure a good workflow, as well as being an ally of documentation.

[¹] Lecture notes have a lot of usefil links that you can use to learn more about the tool and see more advanced content.

YouTube contents to watch

Software Content

Android Development

[¹] It's a beginner course in Android field, but needs previous knowledge with programming language (Java or C++) and OOP

Data Structure

[¹] C/C++ programming is necessary to implement and practice the data structures that are showed in playlist. If you are just looking for data structure knowledge, you can just watch the teorical videos explaining them.

RTOS (Real Time Operating System)

👁‍🗨 A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system that runs multi-threaded applications and can meet real-time deadlines.

[1] It's a beginner course, but probably it's good if you already have knowledge on Arduino and/or boards like ESP32 development.

Qt: for embedded GUI applications

👁‍🗨 Often you can find job offers with Qt applications on embedded devices. It's a C++ framework that can run anywhere (Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android, IOS, Raspberry, etc) and have more than 25 years of development and presence on the market.

❕ Bryan Cairns is one of the best Qt teachers. He also have a lot of great paid courses on Udemy, but I'll not put them here, becase they are easy to find. If you want his paid courses for free, you can access the facebook page that he created to exchange knowledge about programming. Very often he gives several Cupom Codes for people who wants to learn from his courses for free.

[1] It's a beginner course, but since this is a C++ Framework, it is recommended that you learn basics of C++ before.

Cmake

👁‍🗨 CMake is an open-source, cross-platform family of tools designed to build, test and package software. CMake is used to control the software compilation process using simple platform and compiler independent configuration files, and generate native makefiles and workspaces that can be used in the compiler environment of your choice. (Text from official website)

Hardware Content

Under construction!