Book excerpt: This textbook for courses in Embedded Systems introduces students to necessary concepts, through a hands-on approach. LEARN BY EXAMPLE – This book is designed to teach the material the way it is learned, through example. Every concept is supported by numerous programming examples that provide the reader with a step-by-step explanation for how and why the computer is doing what it is doing. LEARN BY DOING – This book targets the Texas Instruments MSP430 microcontroller. This platform is a widely popular, low-cost embedded system that is used to illustrate each concept in the book. The book is designed for a reader that is at their computer with an MSP430FR2355 LaunchPadTM Development Kit plugged in so that each example can be coded and run as they learn. LEARN BOTH ASSEMBLY AND C – The book teaches the basic operation of an embedded computer using assembly language so that the computer operation can be explored at a low-level. Once more complicated systems are introduced (i.e., timers, analog-to-digital converters, and serial interfaces), the book moves into the C programming language. Moving to C allows the learner to abstract the operation of the lower-level hardware and focus on understanding how to “make things work”. BASED ON SOUND PEDAGOGY - This book is designed with learning outcomes and assessment at its core. Each section addresses a specific learning outcome that the student should be able to “do” after its completion. The concept checks and exercise problems provide a rich set of assessment tools to measure student performance on each outcome.