Science and Mechatronics Aided Research for Teachers with an Entrepreneurship Experience (SMARTER)
2015: Week II
Brian Palacios and Ramona Fittipaldi
On Monday, July 13, the morning started off with a lecture by Jared on transistors. Transistors have two primary functions: as an electronically-controlled switch and as a current amplifier. They were categorized as BJT, JFET, or MOSFET. The differences among the transistors and their applications were explored. The group then ventured to the lab, read chapter 9, and completed the activities in What is a Microcontroller?
After lunch, Jared lectured on 555 timers, which are integrated circuits (chips) that are used in various timer, pulse generation, and oscillator applications. Then we went back to the lab to continue to work on transistors and to begin working with 555 timers. One activity included building a circuit with a digital potentiometer (instead of a manually adjusted one), a transistor, and LED. The Basic Stamp adjusted the digital potentiometer, which in turn adjusted the LED’s brightness (see picture to the right). Then we read Chapter 6 “Recording Frequency” from the book Basic Analog and Digital and completed additional activities. To wrap up the day, many teachers worked on Chapter 8 “Frequency and Sound” from What's a Microcontroller?, where they were able to code different musical notes.
Brian Palacios and Horace Walcott
On Tuesday, July 14, we opened the morning session with a brief lecture on robotics. Jared provided the definition of a robot, whose key characteristic includes being able to act on its environment in a multitude of ways (e.g., object manipulation, mobility, etc.). Robots are commonly used in the automotive and manufacturing industries. Current research is examining applicability of vision sensors in robotics. Jared then discussed the variety of motors and controllers that are commonly used in robots. The group then ventured to the lab where participants began building their Boe-Bot while completing activities in chapters 1-4 in the Robotics and Boe-Bot text. The activities focused on calibrating the servo motors, programming the Boe-Bot (BB) to move forward, backward, and turning. To close out the morning session, Lee Hollman, a 2014 SMARTER alumni, visited the group to share his past experiences and field questions from the 2015 SMARTER teachers. The afternoon session commenced with a lecture on infrared (IR) sensors. Included in the lecture were the history, theory, and electronics of IR sensors and the applications of IR sensors. SMARTER teachers were instructed on the use of IR sensors in the BB kits and the methods of assembling and testing the IR sensing apparatus as part of the navigation and sensing unit of the BB. There were discussions on solar panels, solar chimneys, wind farms, and thermal sensing in vipers and boid snakes. During the morning session, one team had already tested successfully the IR sensing apparatus on the BB on two different navigating tracks consisting of IR absorbing tape. During the afternoon session the team that was ahead of the other teams successfully demonstrated the ability of the BB to move in a zigzag pattern along the IR absorbing tape tracks. The other teams demonstrated the ability of their BB to use tactile sensing in the form of metallic whiskers, to avoid obstacles. One other team demonstrated navigation by IR sensing along the two tracks. The team that has been ahead in completion of experiments also demonstrated photo-taxis or movement of the BB towards light. A pair of phototransistors in the BB was used for light sensing. Today’s activities will be useful for the development and testing of drones employing bio-mimetic sensing devices.
Hau-yu Chu and Iulian Irimina
Just like the previous sessions, the day started with Jared’s lecture followed by work in the lab. We’ve been introduced to relays and the similarities and differences between a relay and a transistor. The relay is an electro-magnetically controlled switch that can handle more current than a transistor does but involves more internal moving parts and is slower in its response time. The relays can come in different shapes and sizes and are used in systems that require high current. Before the invention of transistors, early computers and telephones used relays. In the lab, we completed the projects assigned using the Boe-Bot. We’ve tested phototransistors and IR sensors in different scenarios. We had fun testing several IR related experiments on the lab floor.
After lunch, Jared provided an overview of the modeling systems that engineers use to understand the behavior of these systems, regardless of their domain of application (financial, electrical, mathematical, etc).
Lauren Schulman and Tchnavia Merrick
Today we started the entrepreneurship module with speaker Dr. Paul Russo. We began by learning about various business models including the lean canvas model and the business canvas model. We then had guest speaker Dr. Peter Morales teach us about the difference between the agile methodology and the waterfall method used in the past. The agile method allows for much more flexibility in designing a product since you are able to go back and modify your idea, whereas the waterfall methodology does not allow you to make revisions easily. Overall, for any method or model used, there must be a need for the product or service and a target market. Following the morning session, we met as a group at lunch to discuss ideas for startup entrepreneurial businesses that we would later develop further during our group exercise. After lunch we learned about social entrepreneurship and also social media for startups. The social media segment was led by Mr. Jeff Laut, who is working on the Atlantis Project. Next, we broke off into our groups and worked on our business startup models using the lean canvas or the business canvas. Lastly, we pitched our ideas to the rest of the class and received feedback on our startup businesses.
Brian Lam and Tchnavia Merrick
We visited a business incubator on Varick Street, which was set up by NYU at New York City’s request to support startups for NYU alumni and other city residents. We met with Steven Kuyan, who explained the startup process and raising capital. Furthermore, he taught us the differences between accelerators and incubators. He shared with us many of the pitfalls and obstacles facing startups. Paul Russo then spent some time discussing the vocabulary of intellectual property and the practical aspects of patents and copyrights for small startup companies. We also met with two entrepreneurs at the incubator, one differentiating books for different levels of learners at booksthatgrow.com, and another offering JavaScript tutorials for use in multimedia applications at vidcode.io. After lunch, teachers revised their business plans that were later pitched to the larger group. With feedback from colleagues, we were able to further develop our plans to potentially market our products. Although the ideas of all of the teachers were fabulous, we walked through the procedure so that we can teach our students as well as possibly being entrepreneurs ourselves. Afterwards, Edward Rogoff, Dean of the School of Business, Public Administration, and Information Sciences at LIU, shared with us how to implement entrepreneurship in our classrooms. He emphasized that entrepreneurship contextualizes learning and engages students to do research, conduct interviews, become better writers, and make something and scale it down. Overall, how do we get students to become entrepreneurs, we need to just do it.