Last week the Embedded Systems class demoed its final projects and posted them online. The 13 projects included a spinning LED display and a plant watering system that kept track of soil moisture (ab0ve), and a “piano” that made the most of interrupts to read 8 buttons (bel0w). Projects are generally based on the Microchip 328P processor and programmed in C in the Atmel Studio environment. Yes we could use Arduino (and sometimes do) but students graduating from this class should be ready to work with whatever chip is best suited to the application. So, they spend a lot of time with the 328P datasheet learning how things work at a low level. Beyond firmware that runs on the microcontroller, there’s a mini trend toward Python and game development environments for fancy graphics on computers that connect to the microcontroller. This year’s projects included a “Boogie Ball,” a bank that added up the value of coins dropped into it, and many more. These CECS and ECE students are headed to Capstone final projects and ready to invent the future.
