Virtual Digital Electronics Laboratory Anytime Anywhere Using a Python-Based Digital Kit

A course on digital electronics (UG core course for ECE, CSE, and EEE disciplines) is not complete without an associated laboratory where the students can verify the functionality and performance of digital circuits. However, the equipment cost, and more significantly, the dearth of skilled manpower required for running such a laboratory have vastly compromised the effectiveness of such courses. This problem came to a sharp focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, which catalyzed the hybrid interface between teachers and learners through the use of innovative teaching methodologies. Most universities that started with online and distance education courses with an aim of community outreach to students who could not attend physical classes had to compromise on courses that required a physical laboratory for performing experiments. This paper presents an innovative and novel virtual digital kit that enables students to perform simple digital electronics experiments on their laptops using a Python-based simulation that gives the look and feel of an actual digital kit. The simulation software can be freely downloaded as a package and run on a simple computer, in parallel for any number of users. The kit has a built-in interface for testing any digital design coded in Verilog. This gives the students early exposure to hardware description language designs and RTL simulation tools. In this paper, we will present the technical details of the kit, its development, and usage, including the challenges faced and solutions, arrived at. We will also share its successful deployment and evaluation during a course taught at Shiv Nadar University.