SLAS2020 Short Courses

Microcontrollers, the IoT and our Laboratories (Hands On, Laptop Required)

This course will introduce students to the integration of low-cost sensors and microcontrollers to build tools for laboratory applications such as monitoring and control with a review of how laboratory hardware can be connected with cloud-based systems to create a laboratory or enterprise-wide network for real time data collection and analysis.

The course will provide hands-on experience with the popular ESP8266 microcontroller and Arduino programming environment. Participants will walk through installation of the development environment, hardware testing, data collection, data analysis, controlling switches and cloud integration.

Please note: It's important to understand how accessible and easy to use microcontrollers are. To demonstrate this, the course has hands-on exercises where attendees will build useful solutions with the beginner-friendly Arduino platform. Participants will receive a kit containing a micro-controller and the hardware to complete these exercises in class. Participants will also need a laptop computer with at least one USB port and the ability to install the Arduino programming environment (administrator privileges). The cost of the kit is included with the course fee and the kit can be brought home to continue exploration and learning.

Who Should Attend

This is an introductory course and does not require any programming or electronics experience.  Everything needed to build simple systems will be provided.

• People interested in what the IoT is and how it will impact them
• People who want to begin to explore creating their own monitoring/control systems
• People looking for low cost tools for constructing laboratory instruments
• Instrument vendors looking to leverage low cost microcontrollers for system monitoring

Course Benefits

• Develop a basic understanding of the IoT
• Receive hands-on on experience with Arduino
• Gain insight into how microcontrollers can be used in the laboratory
• Understand how many sensors and microcontrollers can be integrated with each other and the cloud to form complex data gathering and instrument control networks

Course Topics

• What are microcontrollers, sensors and “smart objects”
• Using Arduino to collect and report signals
• Using Arduino to respond to events and control output
• General overview of IoT and the cloud
• Hands-on building of basic systems using Arduino

Instructor

Erik M. Werner University of California, Irvine Erik Werner began using open-source electronics to automate his laboratory when he was an undergraduate and has loathed the thought of manual data entry ever since. He has led microcontroller workshops through numerous education and outreach programs and is experienced in software and hardware integration. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at UC Irvine, where he is developing microfluidic systems with integrated logic controllers to make them easier to use and accessible to a wider audience.