I became interested in electronics because I saw circuits and equipment as hi-tech toys. Thanks to that, I had incentive to do the rigorous work that goes into becoming an engineer. Today's generation has all the electronic toys they want without the need to learn math, science, and theory, so what’s their incentive to study the difficult material related to engineering design?

If we want to encourage young students to pursue engineering, we need to show them the fun part of design first, so they’ll be willing to learn the theory later. To that end, I’m very excited about Little Bits, the electronic equivalent of Lego blocks. These building blocks snap together easily, with no soldering or breadboarding required. The modules are color coded to indicate power, input, output, and wires. Check it out:

High-Level Design

Students can build circuits without knowing how the modules work at the component level. For example, a power module, a pressure sensor, and a bar-graph output can be used to create a circuit that gives a bar-graph display of pressure.

Component-Level Schematics

Great for kids, you might be thinking, but not for college students. Think again. The modules are open source and include schematic diagrams at the component level. College students can reverse-engineer the modules, modify the designs, and build their own prototypes. Here’s the included schematic for an active filter. Sophisticated enough for you?

Projects and Lesson Plans Included

The Little Bits web site has a library of existing projects and lessons. Students can explore concepts such as resonance, music synthesis, and properties of light. I may have to build this remote chicken feed monitor for my wife. How about a weather station? (Warning: the site is highly addictive. It took me twice as long to write this article because I kept checking out the various projects!)

A Great Introduction to Electronic Engineering

In 2006 my college asked me to create an “Intro to Engineering” course for incoming freshmen. By a nice coincidence, Notre Dame University was holding a two-day workshop on that exact topic, so I signed up. I was surprised to see that their lab had Lego Mindstorm Robotic kits; I had just purchased one of those for my son, who was ten years old at the time. Surely they can’t be using Legos at a prestigious university, can they?

They can, and they do. (And don’t call them “Shirley.”) These freshman engineering students were building some very elaborate devices with Lego Mindstorms. I was so impressed that I went to my dean and requested a dozen for my class. I’ve taught that class every semester since, and the Lego kits have been great. My only problem with them is that they teach mechanical and programming concepts, but not electronics. When a colleague told me about Little Bits, I investigated them and decided to add an electronics lab component to my Engineering 101 class. My dean once again approved the purchase and I’m looking forward to incorporating these new toys - I mean educational accessories - into my class.

Renewable Energy?

I’d like to see a few renewable energy modules added to these kits. A small solar cell could become a power module. They already have a fan as an output, so if they reversed that it would become a wind turbine. Possibilities, possibilities…

^{Images and Video courtesy of Little Bits}