Engineering Education - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: kilomono
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 26, 2014, 09:20:08 pm
content: I am a student at University. I do a lot of outreach for the University; taking science and engineering projects to primary and secondary schools to help generate interest in science and engineering. I'm curious about other people's learning experiences; what helped you learn electronics? What inspired you to learn electronics? What is your current rank in the electronic arts? (Engineer, hobbyist, student, hacker, maker)

author: kilomono
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 26, 2014, 09:27:54 pm
content: QuoteMy dad bought Parallax's BoeBot kit from Radioshack and gave it to me when I was too young to appreciate it. I took it out, built the bot, made the wheels turn and shelved it for years. After I graduated from high school I remembered that kit and got it back out. I found it much more interesting in my old age. I was very impressed with how it worked and how you could make circuits and interface them with the microcontroller to control the robot. It seemed like the sky was the limit and I was interested in learning more about electronics so I enrolled in university.QuoteI've always been a book learner. I love reading textbooks and working through experiments in hobby books. I really started learning the practical side of electronics when I started designing my own experiments.QuoteI am a student at Ohio State University.

author: dr.diesel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2014, 09:34:33 pm
content: My interest came built in at birth. I was taking stuff apart very early, could build and do basic designs in grade school.Star Trek, NASA, amateur radio, general Sci-Fi stuff, magic smoke, robotics, local library etc all helped inspire me.Quote from: kilomono on February 26, 2014, 09:20:08 pm^ Yes.Today I do custom projects ranging from EE design work, software, automation, to custom engine builds and vehicle restorations.

author: c4757p
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2014, 09:40:14 pm
content: QuoteWhen I was about eight or nine, my parents figured I had disassembled enough appliances and would cause less trouble with one of those Bazillion-in-One Project Kits from Rat Shack. They were right; I didn't really understand what I was doing for a while, but I still loved plugging things together to see how many ways I could let out the magic smokeI drifted off to computing for a while, but somewhat recently, and suddenly, rediscovered my old interest.QuoteA deep dislike of not understanding things, and a stubborn tendency to procrastinate to make time for electronics experimentation to fill those annoying knowledge gaps...QuoteHobbyist and junior BSEE student. And we're all makers - I made a fart five minutes ago, and lunch a few hours before that.(Yes, Ihatethat term)

author: Noise Floor
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 26, 2014, 10:05:35 pm
content: Always a geek of sorts, but what sealed the deal for me was participating in FIRST Robotics competition here in the states.

author: echen1024
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2014, 05:29:11 am
content: I loved taking random things aprt, and I got a 130 in one thing. My dad studied nuclear electronics, and when I made the magic smoke come out of the first, went ahead and bought me another one. that one has survived. My hobby has just grown from there.

author: nuhamind2
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2014, 06:36:27 am
content: I love electronic because i like tearing down apart everything. I have been holding screwdriver since pre school and my preferred toy is the one with a lot of screw.

author: ivan747
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2014, 12:50:39 pm
content: QuoteMy dad always used to build stuff. He always had some kind of hobby, hobby RC planes and cars, Linux, PCs, audio systems, electronics. When I was very young I started taking apart toys, specially little RC cars and always planned of making something with them. The cars I took apart never used to come back together. I also played with Lego and Knex.Before getting into electronics I tinkered with Linux, lustered after an RC plane (never got it), dreamt of builting a go-kart or club house. So, as you can see I always had that inclination of building stuff. (I still want to build my clubhouse)But the thing that really really inspired me was when my dad got fully into the hobby. I was too young, maybe 10, to really understand everything. But every sunday I came to visit him there was something new and interesting in the bench.QuoteOne day, for some reason I can't remember, my mom got me an elecronics magazine, Saber Electrónica. It features a little Picaxe 08 robot on the cover, and also had some other circuits. I asked my dad about building the robot, and I am guessing now that he was more or less a beginner himself, and he didn't do digital electronics, just analog and audio. We built a 555 mosquito repellent instead. It emitted ultrasound to confuse mosquitoes and make them easy to catch.Later my mom found an electronics course for me in a classified ad. I was in 8th grade, mind you. I still took the course and loved it. I understood it quite well, but it was all my research and practice that actually made me understand everything.My first breadboard circuit was a monostable 555 timer. I was scared of having the 100+uF timing cap installed backwards.Some months later my father caught a bacterial infection while hospitalized with a heart disease. As you can imagine things got extremely ugly. They had to move him to a better hospital and during the transport everything got really bad. He passed away after some hours in the intensive care unit.That meant a lot of things. It was sad. Let's say we had some family issues with the in-laws, that's all I can say, but in the end they let me keep dad's electronics stuff. That made me progress a *lot* in the hobby. From that point on I guess I am just a regular lonely hobbyist. A knowledgeable one, but not a pro. I admit most of my knowledge came from taking a second course, that gave me understanding of the theory, building stuff and watching Dave's videos.QuoteI am a student at Institudo Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, Intec (Santo Domingio Institute of Technology). And I am still a hobbyist.

author: Galenbo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2014, 01:05:34 pm
content: Quote from: kilomono on February 26, 2014, 09:20:08 pmElektor, Velleman, school and my Philips experiments board.Quote from: kilomono on February 26, 2014, 09:20:08 pmBlinking leds, didn't need arduino for that.Quote from: kilomono on February 26, 2014, 09:20:08 pm11001

author: nanofrog
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2014, 05:10:40 pm
content: Another person that began taking things apart to figure out how they worked at a very young age (i.e. took the tail light assemblies off and back on of my Mom's Opel Kadet when I was 4). Downhill from there, as I've been doing it ever since. Made things growing up (started with Radio Shack n in one kits, then progressed to Forrest Mims books they sold), ultimately getting a couple of scholarships (academics + due to an AI robotics project I made).Don't get to do electronics design at work these days (shifted into Storage Architecture due to one lay-off too many), so I'm still an avid hobbyist to keep my electronics addiction satisfied.

author: klr5205
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2014, 05:57:36 pm
content: What Inspired Me?I was always perpetually interested in how things work, but I think what got me into electronics was actually my love for playing the guitar. When I was in high school I came across a schematic and explanation of how to modify a standard GCB-95 Crybaby to have a wider sweep. I bought a cheap radioshack soldering iron, a few components and did the mod and I was pretty much hooked after that. When it was time to choose a school I was still seriously considering a career in music but reason won in the end as I figured people will always need electricity and so there should always be jobs available.What helped me learn?Mostly a genuine interest in the field. I picked up the fundamentals while I was in school earning my EE, of course, but I've learned MUCH more about practical electronics from my own hobby projects and from talking with my coworkers... and the more I learn, the more apparent it is how little I actually know!Electronics and electrical engineering in general is vast and awesome and I love it.Current rank in the field?Engineer and hobbyist, and I think it's pretty impossible to have this interest and not be a student in one way or another!

author: Neilm
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 27, 2014, 08:08:54 pm
content: My interest was finding I could give my brother electric shocks with a small transformer and 2 AA batteries