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Learning Embedded Controls by Designing "Smart Cars" and Flying "Smart Blimps"

In an oval-shaped room designed to bring people closer together, students design miniature cars that zigzag along lines of tape on the lab floor. Teams brainstorm and create both the hardware and software to run the “smart cars,” and in the process, learn the ins and outs of embedded control. Then, they apply it to 11 ft blimps. Enabling the blimps to fly autonomously, without the use of remote-controls.

Good-bye lecture halls, hello living-lab.

“We’ve done away with lecture halls where students could hide in the back and snooze,” said Paul Schoch, Associate Professor. “We’re breaking down the artificial walls in traditional classrooms by creating a living-lab atmosphere that reflects the way industry works. We’re also avoiding the ‘sardine can’ method of stuffing concepts into a 90-minute time slot, where you fill it up and close the can.”

This mode of teaching brings students into the studio, eschewing lecture halls altogether. Reflecting the high-tech, new-wave style of teaching, the class opens with a 10 to 30 minute discussion on a given topic, with visual aids displayed on flat panel screens in front of each team. Lecture notes, class exercises, and homework assignments are on the Web to catalogue the week’s curriculum. After the initial topic discussion, student's roll up their sleeves and get to work test-driving their theories.

This class is an awakening.

“Most of my classes are two hours long, but they feel like a lot longer,” said Galby Celestin, an electronics engineering sophomore. “This class flies by, and I look forward to going into open studio time.” “The lectures are short and it keeps your attention,” agreed Elizabeth Nast, a mechanical engineering senior.

Teams develop their own embedded intelligence, using micro controllers to run their mechanically-identical smart cars and smart blimps. In the real world, the micro controllers have seemingly limitless applications, and are used in everything from anti-lock brakes to household appliances to prosthetic joints. There are micro controllers planted beneath the surface of the New York State Thruway to track temperature changes and signal crews to start salting roads. In an average home, more than 100 microchips keep things humming. Since embedded control is found in all disciplines of engineering, the multidisciplinary course is taken by most of the engineering students at Rensselaer.