FPGA Meets Breadboard Integrating a Virtual Breadboard with Real FPGA Boards for Remote Access in Digital Design Courses

Jul 16, 2026

Remote instruction requires hands-on lab modalities that remain reliable and sustainable, especially for digital design courses depending on major hardware. This paper reports an implementation of a virtual breadboard feature that interfaces with real Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) located on the University of Washington campus. Students access the boards remotely through LabsLand to complete laboratory assignments using GPIO-based interactions, replacing physical distribution while preserving core learning objectives.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryTechnology

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

Introduction

Background

Technical Solution

User Perspective

FPGA Meets Breadboard: Integrating a Virtual Breadboard with Real FPGA Boards for Remote Access in Digital Design Courses Shuowei Li 1[0000-0003-4934-4691], Heran Wang 1[0000-0003-1207-9011], Luis Rodriguez-Gil2[0000- 0003-3611-1418] Pablo Orduña2[0000-0003-4024-3624] Rania Hussein 1[0000-0002-2859-9401] 1 University of Washington, Seattle WA 98195, USA {lis26, hw99, [rhussein}@uw.edu](rhussein}@uw.edu) 2 LabsLand, Bilbao, Spain {luis, [pablo}@labsland.com](pablo}@labsland.com) Abstract. With the transition to remote instruction, new modalities for conducting hands-on labs are needed. In particular, courses that entail major hardware components faced challenges in making the hardware available for students in a reliable and sustainable way. This paper presents our experience in implementing a virtual breadboard feature to interface with real Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) boards located on the University of Washington’s campus, where students can access the boards remotely to complete their lab assignments. Keywords: Remote Laboratory, FPGA, Breadboard, Hardware Design 1 Introduction Traditionally, universities teach Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) courses using on-campus labs, which have lab benches, PC/workstation, and other supporting equipment. In order to complete assignments, students need to be physically present in the labs to interact with these pieces of equipment. However, this approach is not feasible during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new teaching strategy based on a global network of remote laboratories is appealing in this era. Remote laboratory facilities have never been a new topic. It has been used in teaching physics, biology, and other subjects [1][2][3] . However, the majority of them are stand-alone systems that cannot be shared with different facilities. In the field of engineering education, VISIR designs a shareable system to provide seamless access for students from various universities [4] . It allows students to explore electronics, sound, and vibration or propagate radio signals through an online platform. Eventhough the previous works demonstrate how applicable the educational remote laboratory facilities are, the state-of-the-art applications lack the ability to teach the student how to use General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) ports to communicate with the FPGA boards. In particular, FPGA has been a target of remote laboratories in the literature for many years, in different initiatives in different universities [9][10][11][12] . In [8], a distributed FPGA laboratory with multiple instances in multiple locations is described. In this work, we added a new concept ontop of [8] . This new concept intends to increase the scope of the lessons by providing an easy-to-use solution for students to work with the GPIO ports ofthe FPGA. This paper introduces a feature that implements a virtual breadboard where students can use GPIO ports to interface with real FPGA boards that are accessed remotely through a global network called LabsLand [5][8] . This remote FPGA laboratory has been used to teach a junior-level course in digital design at the University of Washington during the autumn quarter of 2020. It presents a pilot project that intends to serve the needs of the course post-COVID-19. This paper presents our experience in transforming a lab that traditionally used physical breadboards and FPGA boards to an online modality. We demonstrate how the lab used to be conducted pre-Covid-19 and how it has been restructured to fit online instruction. 2 Background The laboratory experiment highlighted in this paper is one out of 5 other labs that students are expected to complete for the course. This lab experiment is a refresher of the finite state machines and introduces students to the onboard general-purpose input/output (GPIO) . The students achieve this goal during the process of designing a parking lot occupancy counter, which consists of two pairs of photosensors

FAQs

What problem does the paper address for digital design courses during remote instruction?

Remote instruction makes it difficult to provide students reliable access to physical hardware used in FPGA labs, especially for GPIO-based assignments.

How does the proposed solution enable students to work with real FPGA boards remotely?

It uses a virtual breadboard interface on LabsLand that connects students’ GPIO interactions to real FPGA boards located on campus.

What learning activity does the lab use to teach GPIO and related digital design concepts?

Students design a parking lot occupancy counter using simulated sensor outputs via switches and observe behavior through LEDs, practicing breadboard-style circuit implementation and GPIO interfacing.

Jul 16, 2026

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