practical engineering

Practical EngineeringI hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do

and I understand. - Confucius

Ashwith Jerome Regoashwith@ieee.orghttp://ashwith.wordpress.com

What is it?• College lab experiments - not the way

you're doing it now.• Smaller experiments - because the

labs cannot cover everything.• Projects - That's why you're here

today.• Exploring beyond the syllabus• Teaching is the best way to learn

Why should you care?• Improves your Résumé (That's what

everyone really cares about isn't it? ;-))• Get a feel of how R&D works.• What did Confucius say again?• Strengthens understanding - Interviews

will be a piece of cake!• Bragging rights! :-)• Syllabus becomes more interesting.• Marks aren't everything. Projects really

show what you know.• That's how things get discovered or

invented• The most important reason - It's fun!

What's important?• Know the theory first - know it well.• Try to create something small from

what you've just learned.• Build up from here.• DO NOT COPY! Work hard, struggle,

design it yourself. It feels great in the end!• Share what you create. Teaching is the

best way to learn.• Keep it Simple. Have Fun.

The Fun part: Projects• Do your homework. Study the required

material. Do a thorough literature survey.• Plan a schedule (with your mentor). Set

deadlines and stick to them.• Document your work from the

beginning. • Work hard. "Pick a formula and

substitute" doesn't always work. Get your hands dirty. That's how we had fun as kids :-)• Be independent. If you don't get it right

do everything you can to figure it out yourself. Your mentor should be your last resort.• Regular updates - Keep your mentor

informed.

Where do I start?• If you want to build circuits, learn to

solder. It's easy, takes a few minutes to learn and only a day or two to master.• If you're going to code, learn to do it

right.• Your college lab. Don't complain. It's

much better than you think.• Simulation tools.• Cheap boards and equipment.• Contests, tech fests.• Workshops.

Basic Equipment• Multimeter x 2• Soldering Iron• Breadboards• General Purpose PCBs• Basic components: assorted resistors,

capacitors, op-amps, transistors, wires (or any analog starter kit), sensors, motors.• Batteries: 12V, 9V, 5V.

Basic Equipment

More Equipment• Power supply• Soldering station• Oscilloscope

Embedded Systems• Platforms: 8051, Arduino (or any other Atmel

platform), MSP430, PIC.• Software: Keil evaluation edition, Arduino IDE,

CCS Studio limited edition, GCC.• First learn to read from various sensors as well

as control actuators such as motors, LCD displays and simple display LEDs.• Start with simple projects which directly use

these sensors. Thermometers, light detectors and motion sensors.• Move to the next level: Robots, manufacturing

plant controllers (remember what you've learned in Control systems).

Embedded Systems

Analog Design• Be thorough with the theory first.

Analog circuits, signals and systems, controls systems are important subjects.• Simulation tools:

o gEDA: http://www.gpleda.org/o Online Tools: https://www.circuitlab.com/

• Design on paper. Verify with simulation. Then go ahead and build.

Analog Design

Digital Design• Platforms: Discrete ICs, PLDs, FPGAs.• Pick either Verilog or VHDL.• Design + Verification. Very few know

the latter.• Understand the entire workflow - from

architecture specification to synthesis.• Automation using Scripts. Perl, Shell

Scripting.• OVM, UVM and SystemVerilog,

SystemC.

Digital Design

Software• Get familiar with any *nix environment.

Then slowly become an expert.• Concentrate more on how to design and

think about a program. Languages are secondary.• Learn to write fast efficient programs

(Algorithm design/selection). Not everyone has a fast multi-core CPU with a lot of RAM.• Coding style and standards compliance is

important.• Raspberry Pi:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/ Gertboard• Android/iOS/Windows Mobile/Java.

Software

• Fedora Electronic Lab (GNU/Linux)• Scilab, Octave• Maxima, Sagemath• Libraries: LAPACK, OpenCV, NumPy,

SciPy• Online Courses

o edX: https://www.edx.org/o Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/o Udacity: http://www.udacity.com/

• Use the right books!• Use the right software!

Free Resources

• Blogs and websites:o Ashwith http://ashwith.wordpress.com/o Flip flop http://msuraj.wordpress.com/o Infinity Redefined

http://msharmavikram.wordpress.com/

• Workshops• Online Forums• Remember: Teaching is the best way

to learn! (I won't repeat that again :-))• Résumé boost.

Sharing is caring

Rewind...• Always start small.• Understand why things work.• Plan thoroughly. Break everything into

manageable bits.• Be patient. Projects are hard and it takes time.

That's how the industry is as well.• Learn because you want to and you like it.• If it's not fun it's not worth it. Find out what

really is your passion.• Share what you learn.• Open-hardware, Free and Open Source

Software (FOSS).• Protecting your work - licenses.• Learning never stops after college!

Any questions?

Don't be shy!

Thank You!

This is the part where you clap ;-)