As part of the documentation for student projects from Amy Biegalski’s EF 230 class, students can create an “Instructable.” Instructables.com is a website for sharing step-by-step instructions for DIY projects. Six student teams were awarded a spot on the site’s featured page.
EF 230 students have two large projects. One is to use an Arduino or Raspberry Pi microcontroller to create a smart train device, which students demonstrate using a model train. The other project is to transform an iRobot Roomba robot into a Mars Rover that uses sensors and data obtained from a live video feed. In both projects, students develop code in MATLAB.
Links to the instructables of the following winning teams are below:
- View: Model Train Speed Control Arduino, made by Eli Darby, Will Buttrey, and Jason Morrell.
- View: Communicating Data with Arduino, made by Garrett Statum, Dustin Shults, and John Hill. This is an “Internet of Things” device that communicates sensor data over wi-fi to an API.
- View: Self Balancing Robot, made by Ifedayo Akinduro and Ryan Kelly.
“Students are learning both design and programming with the projects,” said Richard Bennett, professor and director of the engagetm Engineering Fundamentals Program. “I would like to recognize Amy for her vision and creative teaching, Will Schleter for his helping to set up a lot of things so the projects would work, and the students who have really done a great job with the projects. I think this fits in with the design theme we are working on in the TCE.