Designing and Making (Electronics and Programming)

Catalog description

Humanity's future as an interplanetary species is only made possible through the continued development of new technologies able to provide solutions to difficult problems. This course facilitates students developing proficiency in both 'making' and 'designing,' and it seeks to support students in gaining basic technical 'makerspace' abilities. More important than the hard skills, students grow in their capacity for technical design thinking--the process by which modern technologies are imagined and developed. Hands-on and project-based, students learn tools and processes for solving global and interplanetary problems with special consideration given to the ways that technologies impact society. Students gain basic proficiency in the electrical, computer programming and design aspects of technology development in makerspaces through supervised research and design of creative projects that relate to aerospace engineering, space exploration and/or an inclusive, interplanetary future. Students also gain a basic knowledge of circuits and soldering, Arduino programming, tinkering and debugging methods, creative problem solving, team-based project management, the relationship between technology and society, and basic technological design methods.