Online Prototyping with Maker Electronics

Please click the "register now" link above to register on our partner website - yougotclass.org.

Class Description:

Online learning is a fun, enjoyable and very productive way to learn. Millions of people are learning online each year. You will engage with the instructor and other participants, as well as get to know them, and perhaps connect on future products and ideas that the class will inspire. 

Course Objectives: 

• Get an overview of the electronics commonly used in maker-type projects including Arduino-compatible components and fashion-oriented sewable circuits.
• Understand how projects make it possible to build up several skills at once.
• Learn where the open-source and free resources can be found to learn more.

The class is broken down into 4 units. In each unit, you will:

• Read the print readings (about 20 pages a week)
• Have the option of accessing the online readings
• Listen to the audio presentation for the Unit and view the slides
• Have the option of taking a self-quiz to see how much you have learned
• Engage in written online discussion with your instructor and other participants

Unit 1: What are Maker Electronics?

• The maker movement philosophy of learning iteratively
• Applications
• Technologies that you will learn about in this class
• What makes a project easy, intermediate or hard.

Unit 2: Basics of maker electronics: hardware

• Open-source standards
• Getting started with Arduino microprocessor hardware
• Basic circuits: Ohm’s Law
• Components: resistors, LEDs, sensors
• Where to learn more

Unit 3: Basics of maker electronics: software

• How to program Arduino and similar systems
• Basic project ideas
• Where you can learn more.

Unit 4: Fashion Tech

• Making sewable circuits
• Wearable circuits: Flora, sensors and neopixels
• Designing interactive garments and accessories
• Where you can learn more.

It is easy to participate in your online course. After you register, you will be given a web address to go to get into your online classroom. You will have a password and use your email address and password to gain access.

You can participate any time of day or evening. The online classroom is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There are no live real-time requirements or meetings. You decide when you participate. For the best learning, participants should log into the course on 2-3 different days of the week.

For the best learning experience, you should make one or more comments at 2-3 different times each week. The content (readings, audio lectures, slides) and self quizzes are accessible for the entire course, so you can work ahead, or go back and review again, at your convenience.

This is a UGC course and students will have the opportunity to earn CEUs upon course completion. Students who enroll through MatterHackers will be awarded a Learning Resources Network in Partnership with MatterHackers certificate.

Meet your Instructors: Joan Horvath and Rich “Whosawhatsis” Cameron

Horvath and Cameron are the co-founders of maker technology consultancy Nonscriptum LLC (www.nonscriptum.com) and previously were respectively VP of Business Development and VP of R&D at a small Kickstarter-funded 3D printer company. They collaborate on books for Apress, most recently “The New Shop Class.” Joan’s experience includes a 16 year stint in the aerospace industry, adjunct positions at several universities, and consulting in a wide variety of circumstances. She has degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT and an Engineering MS from UCLA. Rich is an open-source 3D printer guru who designed one of the early open source 3D printers, the Wallace, and later the commercially-available Bukito.

Recommended optional e-book:

Horvath, Hoge and Cameron, Practical Fashion Tech (Apress, 2016)