Bringing Open-Source EDA to Classrooms: Teaching Electronics with eSim

Access to professional Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools is often limited due to high licensing costs, making it difficult for students and institutions to gain hands-on design experience. Open-source alternatives are crucial to bridge this gap.

This talk introduces eSim(https://esim.fossee.in), an open-source EDA tool developed under the FOSSEE(https://fossee.in) project at IIT Bombay, which enables students and researchers to design, simulate, and analyze electronic circuits using free and open technologies.

The session will cover how eSim integrates tools such as KiCad, Ngspice, and GHDL to support analog, digital, and mixed-signal circuit design. Participants will learn how educators and students can adopt open-source EDA workflows for circuit design, simulation, and PCB prototyping.

Real examples from workshops and academic deployments across Indian institutions will demonstrate how open-source tools can transform electronics education.