Overview of Calit2's mission for engineering education and some feedback to electronics designers on electronics education products for makers and technical education

1. Michael Klopfer, Ph.D.
Microsemi Innovation Laboratory & CalPlug, Tech. Director
Prof. Mark Bachman, Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine
The Modern Face of Engineering Education:
Building the Next Generation of Innovators
October 2017
International System On A Chip Conference

4. How can we better train the next
generation of engineers?
• Modern hands-on technical education
• Training for the 21st century and encouraging “Innovation”

5. How did you get started in Engineering?

6. The Original “Maker” Movement

7. School building and assisting the growth
of technical passion
“Never let school get in the way of education” – Mark Twain

8. How it worked for many Millennials

9. How it worked for many Millennials

10. Changes and implications
Technology is changing and connecting exponentially
• Rapid, unpredictable changes in markets, opportunities
• Global impact, rapidly changing competition
• Unintended consequences
Agility and adaptability are ever more important traits to develop.
“If you want to liberate [a people],
give them the Internet.” - Wael
Ghonim, Egyptian Activist
“[Like automation], the rise of
artificial intelligence is likely to
extend this job destruction deep into
the middle classes, with only the most
caring, creative or supervisory roles
remaining."- Stephen Hawking

11. It it really about Science Technology Engineering and Math?

12. Or is CREATIVITY our competitive edge for the future?

13. Why Art?
Art is the essence of creativity
and innovation:
1) A framework of discussion
for new ideas in technology.
2) Often key to enabling the
end application.

15. Technically competent innovator
Excellent technical skills and knowledge. Large toolbox of techniques. Able
to think critically, perform experiments, analyze data, draw conclusions,
communicate results. Problem solver. Can adapt to changing
requirements, changing technologies.
Skilled manager of projects and teams
Able to stay on top of complex projects with multiple deadlines. Can plan
projects for success, and adapt to changing situations. Can work with
multiple people, assign resources and tasks. Can make a team of people
perform as a unit. Can communicate well.
Bold decision maker
Able to see big picture, identify trends. Can make decisions based on
incomplete data and limited resources. Can plan strategically for long term
success. Can think creatively and see possibilities in a confusing world.
Calit2’s Educational Goal:
To train next generation of innovators and leaders

16. RISK TAKING
Must be willing to fail
ADAPTABILITY
Must be able to improvise
CREATIVITY
Must be able to do original things
EXECUTION
Must be able to accomplish things
Four ingredients for student innovation at Calit2
R.A.C.E. to innovation

17. Cultivating Creative Risk-taking
A+ means: “DO NOT FAIL”.
How our children learn to perform.
Conservative attitude  A+ student

18. Risk taker  Innovator
Innovator means: “Don’t be afraid to FAIL”

19. The key skill for Innovation
YOU MUST LEARN TO FAIL! *
* But you should “fail smart”
• Think, then DO!
• Improvise
• Fail quickly, fail often, (fail cheap)
• Learn from your failures, take notes, document what you did
• Be systematic in your failures
• Fail with an expectation of eventually succeeding
• Turn failure into success: Not “Why does it fail?” but “what will it take
to succeed?”

20. Improvisation is key to innovation
Improvise
1: to compose, recite, play, or sing extemporaneously
2: to make, invent, or arrange offhand
3: to make or fabricate out of what is conveniently on hand

21. Path to success is not a straight line
Adaptability
Project
Success!
Today
Some of our best ideas come when we leave the straight path.

22. Innovation is a creative process
From cooking to pottery, creativity leads to
innovative results.

23. Yes, technical skills matter
Execution

24. Experience completing real world projects
Execution
Results and proper communication of them are critical!

25. Bridging the Gap in Education
• How do we harness creativity, general technical savvy, and the
explosion of information available to this new generation?
• The modern maker movement is growing, but it is different than
in the past. Information and tools are plenty but diffuse, and
hardware is low cost and relatively easy to integrate.
• Most “relevant” projects to this generation are application driven
rather than “tinkering” - how can we extend upon this trend?
• How to we build leadership AND channel innovation? Think beyond
lab classes.

26. Today’s young people are systems integrators

27. Enabling Application Development: Past Lessons
Key enablers for innovative Dot-Com applications
• Free web browsers (e.g., Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer)
• Free web server software (e.g., Apache)
• Easy to use development languages (HTML, PHP, Perl, JPEG)
Message:
Low cost and easy to use tools enable non-experts to produce new, innovative
applications.

28. Small companies supporting small innovators

29. Large companies supporting small innovators

30. Calit2’s Inxus Verve – A tool to build control solutions

31. Spaces and vision to cultivate innovation

32. Calit2’s take on Maker Spaces
Fabworks
Microsemi Innovation Lab

33. Supporting Technical Education and Innovation

34. Supporting Technical Electronics Education
1. Make it robust at reasonable cost
Easy damage results in costly downtime.
2. Prepare template lessons or programs
Must be easy for instructors to build lessons around or it will not be adopted or
actually used. These must be clear and application focused.
3. Provide excellent training support for educators
This is especially true in the K-12 market jumping into STEAM ed., provide
documentation!
4. Develop solutions with innovative educators!
Practical workflow is the make or break for technology in education. Build off
other creative solutions or de-facto standards (hint, Arduino!).
5. Build an educational solution from products
Multiple products/lessons to fit different educational points. Provide “student
versions” -these are the students which will be using your products in the future!

35. K-12 Education

36. Supporting (non-expert) innovators?
1. Make it low cost
Should be cheap enough to make mistakes
2. Make it flexible and easy to use
Can do many things, should be simple to connect, simple to
program
3. Provide excellent support
Lots of examples, videos, project kits, user forums, searchable
documentation, bring in educators in solution development
4. Make it part of an ecosystem
Work with third party products, accessories, tools, etc.
5. Build a community
People sharing code, tips, ideas, etc. Maker Faires, App Jams, etc.

37. Questions?

38. Thank You
Contact Information
Prof. G.-P. Li, Director
Mark Bachman, Calit2 IoT Evangelist, Education Program
Developer
Michael Klopfer, Technical Director
CalPlug & MIL, UC Irvine
mklopfer@uci.edu