Hi Ken, Mr. Brock and I have been discussing the lack of electrical engineering curriculum at d.tech, and we’ve decided we’d like to co-teach an intersession class in april to close that gap a little. Our most promising concept centers the annual Hackaday contest, which would be the topic of the class. I wrote up a quick one pager proposal for the class…
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What is the Hackaday Prize and why should Dtech students participate in it?
The Hackaday prize is an international hobbyist engineering competition consisting of 5 independent challenges which each target a category of real world issues. 2023 challenges include “re-engineering education”, “assistive technology”, “green hacks”, “gearing up”, and “save the world wildcard”. Generally each year includes some challenges which target green projects, some challenges which target human-centered projects (topics like education, assistive technology), and some challenges which target engineering/hobby centered projects. Projects are expected to be hardware-related. Each challenge has a 1 month entrance period, the first starting and being announced in late march. By participating in the April Hackaday prize challenge, students will be able to connect Dlab skills to real world solutions with hardware (and some software) engineering. By entering the challenge officially, students will also have the chance to win one of around 60 cash prizes offered by sponsors of the Hackaday magazine. -
Timeline
The challenge which students will enter will be released (based on historical data) on the 2nd-4th day of intersession #3. During the first several days, the class will review previous winning projects, review the general challenge criteria, and discuss topics including Ohm’s law, arduino, soldering, git, and PCB design. Assuming the challenge is announced in the early morning (as it has been historically), students will choose a project and create gantt charts to plan their completion on the day the challenge is announced. Students should have about 7 days or about 21 hours of usable time to complete their projects. Students are invited to build a project which addresses any released Hackaday challenge, even those which are old. -
Logistics, Budget,
This intersection will use its budget to acquire electronics and mechanical components, both on a per-project basis and as a general stock to prevent lead times from interfering with a fast paced project development. Additionally, student’s will need access to electronics equipment found in the upper DRG (can be moved to another classroom easily) and the 3D printers maintained by the school (also can be moved, less easily). Further resources from the upper and lower DRG may be beneficial as projects develop. Any remaining parts not used in projects will be organized into the relevant DRG storage system.
I know you are in the heat of February intersession planning, but wanted to get the ball rolling on this. Please respond whenever you have time - I’m excited to hear what you think.
Thanks,
Luca Younes