Course Syllabus
Arduino Prototyping: Model Systems Design and Construction
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| Office: | R House HRI lab (611 North Park Ave). | ||
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Course Description
| Your goal this semester is to create a physical digital agent that will aid the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering in its mission for education and community outreach. To do this you will study the literature and tutorials from from the hobby electronics movement, known as the "maker movement", in order to develop a working prototype and communicate a creative vision for the model. By the end of this course students will have working knowledge of the practices, tools, and materials available today for building prototypes as well as the organizational opportunities and challenges in building such systems. |
Assignments
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In this course you work in groups but are graded individually most of the time. This allows for groups to be more fluid and for groups to merge or individuals to break off from the group if they have an idea they want to pursue on their own. Every week you will build portfolio made up of 1) drawings, diagrams, and notes made in a physical lab journal and 2) digital files that are posted as entries on your Canvas homepage. Your journal is a sequential log of your activity while your homepage should be curated to highlight the most current or best state of your knowledge on a subject. We all learn at different paces and come to the course with different background knowledge. For this reason you will also need to demonstrate knowledge transfer by assisting your peers or, if you need assistance, seeking expertise within the classroom. You can do this by using the 5 or 10 minutes at the beginning of class to make announcements asking for help, offering help, pointing the class to resources you created, or sharing some new insight with the class. If you are working one-on-one with peers then you can document this in your lab journal. Each of you will also select one or two professional roles that you will delve into further for the semester, such as electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, industrial designer, creative director, system architect, interaction designer, use researcher, ethicist, programmer, data scientist, market and business strategist ..etc. As you work on this focus I will ask you to write reflections two or three times during the semester, which will go into your portfolio. As for the product of your work, you will present two working prototypes during the course. The first one will be an introductory project and then a final project. The final project will be presented at the Fall Research Symposium on November 30. Finally you will be graded on workspace stewardship. At minimum you are required to clean up your workspace when done and to retire materials with care and with sensitivity to how they will be used in the future. Any ideas about how to beautify or improve the efficiency of the prototyping labs are encouraged and fit the spirit of stewardship of your workspace. |
Tools and Equipment
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The majority of parts and tools you will use this semester will be supplied by your instructor. Although breakage is a fundamental part of learning you will need to exercise common sense when using these. Components can be easily broken or burnt out. Double and triple check your circuit before supplying power. It is not required that you have your own electronics tools or components. Some of you will, however, want to have a basic set to use at home. Having your own set will accelerate your learning. If you do wish to purchase your own tools and parts you can use the Prototyping parts lists page to see what tools and parts we are using this semester and where to order them. You be required to bring drawing notebook, graph paper, an assortment of pencils (3H,H, and 2B), a sharpener, and an eraser. I recommend visiting Pygmalion's Art Supplies to purchase these. For those of you who are interested in intellectual property you would want to purchase a bound lab notebook. |
Software
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The main software you will use for design is Autodesk Fusion 360, which is available free for educational use. It is your job to install this software on your computer or access a computer with it installed. This software requires that you create an Autodesk account. Other software that you will need on your workbench:
Optional Software but very useful to have on hand:
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Work Space
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There are several educational prototyping labs within the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering that are at different states of completion and have different resources (CREST, Smith Research Center, Living Learning Center, and Info East Prototyping Labs). After the first week we will hold class primarily in the Informatics Prototyping Work Studio (room 009) located in the basement of Informatics East. This is directly across from the Fabrication Lab (010), which houses 3D printers, tools, and a laser cutter. Two of the rooms are not yet ADA compliant and if there are any students who need access we have alternative spaces and can hold class in one of the other spaces. If you have any accessibility needs please talk to your instructor immediately so we can make accommodations. Informatics Prototyping LabThe lab is an excellent facility that you are expected to maintain in excellent condition. This means it is YOUR responsibility to ensure that the lab and your work area are cleaner than when you arrived. It does not matter whether you made the mess, you should clean it up and take pride in your workspace. Please use the lab benches for all cutting, soldering, etc. Sharing a lab also means that you do not have access to your projects at all times. When other classes are in session, you may not enter the classroom to retrieve anything from your lockers. A full class schedule is posted on the lab door. If a group is found interrupting other classes, their grade will be adversely affected. You should never paint inside the informatics buildings or on any cement areas, decks, or sidewalks surrounding any IU building. Place a painting tarp on a grassy area and paint far away from any permanent structures. Sometimes others will leave equipment or projects out on the work surfaces. This happens when lab users run out of time and have to leave quickly or they are planning on returning shortly to their work. If you absolutely must leave your work out then put a note on it explaining the circumstances. Other lab users should have the discretion to clear off work surfaces so they can use the space and so that they can spray and wipe them clean. To clear a work surface I suggest moving objects carefully to a storage tray while retaining the orientation the pieces had while on the work surface. Stow this tray in on a stable place out of the way and return the parts in the tray to the work surface when you are done. |
Schedules
Textbooks
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There is no required textbook to purchase for this course. Several excerpts will come from the following electronics books that are available online through the library. You must have your Arduino Sketches: Tools and Techniques for Programming Wizardry (1-118-91960-2, 978-1-118-91960-6), Langbridge, James A.
John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015.
Pro Arduino (1-4302-3939-5, 978-1-4302-3939-0), Anderson, Rick.
Apress, 2013.
Practical Arduino Engineering (1-4302-3885-2, 978-1-4302-3885-0), New Edition / Timmis, Harold.
Apress L. P., 2011.
Practical Raspberry Pi (1-4302-4971-4, 978-1-4302-4971-9), Horan, Brendan.
Apress, 2013.
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Some Learning Objectives
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Circuit and electricity basics
Ultimate debugging
Obsessive documentation
The material culture of electronics
Robustness as craft
System architecture
Visual communication
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Computers and Canvas
Since we will be programming and testing micro-controllers throughout this semester and using Canvas to organize our work bring a computer to every class meeting.
Academic honesty
While most of the assignments in this course are meant to be easier to do than to either fabricate or plagiarize there will be issues of misconduct. Please refer to Indiana University Code of Student, Rights, and Responsibilities for details on what constitutes academic misconduct. Cases of misconduct are subject to harsh penalties, such as an F for the course.
Attendance
Most of all the interesting stuff happens during class discussions. For this reason I will provide ample time for talking about the issues in class. It is also required that you attend each meeting. I will allow two unexcused absence without a grade deduction. If late arrivals become a problem I will begin counting two late arrivals as one unexcused absence.
Late Work
Stay on top of the assignments because it is difficult to catch up after getting behind. Turning in work late comes with what I see as a fairly soft penalty (-20%) while the assignment is still open. The window turn in late work is one week after due date. After that the assignment will close. After an assignment closes then you will have to contact me or talk to me in class. I will likely let you turn in late work. However, after the closed date then a standard 40% deduction is taken. Be aware that it is more difficult and takes more time to grade late work.
Course Summary:
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