The document emphasizes the importance of hands-on projects in engineering education, encouraging students to engage actively with their learning process. It provides practical advice on how to approach experiments, develop skills, and utilize resources effectively while highlighting the necessity of theory and independence in learning. Ultimately, it promotes sharing knowledge and experiences as a means to deepen understanding and improve resumes.

1. Practical Engineering
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I
understand. - Confucius
Ashwith Jerome Rego
ashwith@ieee.org
http://ashwith.wordpress.com

2. What is it?
• College lab experiments - not the way you're
doing it now.
• Smaller experiments - because the labs
cannot cover everything.
• Projects - That's why you're here today.
• Exploring beyond the syllabus
• Teaching is the best way to learn

3. Why should you care?
• Improves your Résumé (That's what everyone really
cares about isn't it? ;-))
• Get a feel of how R&D works.
• What did Confucius say again?
• Strengthens understanding - Interviews will be a piece
of cake!
• Bragging rights! :-)
• Syllabus becomes more interesting.
• Marks aren't everything. Projects really show what you
know.
• That's how things get discovered or invented
• The most important reason - It's fun!

4. What's important?
• Know the theory first - know it well.
• Try to create something small from what
you've just learned.
• Build up from here.
• DO NOT COPY! Work hard, struggle, design
it yourself. It feels great in the end!
• Share what you create. Teaching is the best
way to learn.
• Keep it Simple. Have Fun.

6. The Fun part: Projects
• Do your homework. Study the required material. Do a
thorough literature survey.
• Plan a schedule (with your mentor). Set deadlines and
stick to them.
• Document your work from the beginning.
• Work hard. "Pick a formula and substitute" doesn't
always work. Get your hands dirty. That's how we had
fun as kids :-)
• Be independent. If you don't get it right do everything
you can to figure it out yourself. Your mentor should be
your last resort.
• Regular updates - Keep your mentor informed.

7. Where do I start?
• If you want to build circuits, learn to solder.
It's easy, takes a few minutes to learn and
only a day or two to master.
• If you're going to code, learn to do it right.
• Your college lab. Don't complain. It's much
better than you think.
• Simulation tools.
• Cheap boards and equipment.
• Contests, tech fests.
• Workshops.

8. Basic Equipment
• Multimeter x 2
• Soldering Iron
• Breadboards
• General Purpose PCBs
• Basic components: assorted resistors,
capacitors, op-amps, transistors, wires (or
any analog starter kit), sensors, motors.
• Batteries: 12V, 9V, 5V.

9. Basic Equipment

10. More Equipment
• Power supply
• Soldering station
• Oscilloscope

11. Embedded Systems
• Platforms: 8051, Arduino (or any other Atmel platform),
MSP430, PIC.
• Software: Keil evaluation edition, Arduino IDE, CCS
Studio limited edition, GCC.
• First learn to read from various sensors as well as
control actuators such as motors, LCD displays and
simple display LEDs.
• Start with simple projects which directly use these
sensors. Thermometers, light detectors and motion
sensors.
• Move to the next level: Robots, manufacturing plant
controllers (remember what you've learned in Control
systems).

12. Embedded Systems

13. Analog Design
• Be thorough with the theory first. Analog
circuits, signals and systems, controls
systems are important subjects.
• Simulation tools:
o gEDA: http://www.gpleda.org/
o Online Tools: https://www.circuitlab.com/
• Design on paper. Verify with simulation.
Then go ahead and build.

14. Analog Design

15. Digital Design
• Platforms: Discrete ICs, PLDs, FPGAs.
• Pick either Verilog or VHDL.
• Design + Verification. Very few know the
latter.
• Understand the entire workflow - from
architecture specification to synthesis.
• Automation using Scripts. Perl, Shell
Scripting.
• OVM, UVM and SystemVerilog, SystemC.

16. Digital Design

17. Software
• Get familiar with any *nix environment. Then slowly
become an expert.
• Concentrate more on how to design and think about a
program. Languages are secondary.
• Learn to write fast efficient programs (Algorithm
design/selection). Not everyone has a fast multi-core
CPU with a lot of RAM.
• Coding style and standards compliance is important.
• Raspberry Pi: http://www.raspberrypi.org/
Gertboard
• Android/iOS/Windows Mobile/Java.

18. Software

19. Free Resources
• Fedora Electronic Lab (GNU/Linux)
• Scilab, Octave
• Maxima, Sagemath
• Libraries: LAPACK, OpenCV, NumPy, SciPy
• Online Courses
o edX: https://www.edx.org/
o Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/
o Udacity: http://www.udacity.com/
• Use the right books!
• Use the right software!

20. Sharing is caring
• Blogs and websites:
o Ashwith http://ashwith.wordpress.com/
o Flip flop http://msuraj.wordpress.com/
o Infinity Redefined
http://msharmavikram.wordpress.com/
• Workshops
• Online Forums
• Remember: Teaching is the best way to
learn! (I won't repeat that again :-))
• Résumé boost.

21. Rewind...
• Always start small.
• Understand why things work.
• Plan thoroughly. Break everything into manageable bits.
• Be patient. Projects are hard and it takes time. That's how
the industry is as well.
• Learn because you want to and you like it.
• If it's not fun it's not worth it. Find out what really is your
passion.
• Share what you learn.
• Open-hardware, Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).
• Protecting your work - licenses.
• Learning never stops after college!

22. Any questions?
Don't be shy!

23. Thank You!
This is the part where you clap ;-)