IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2021 - 170

REGIONAL
Future Innovators Workshop
Spring 2021 Report
University of North Texas Robotics and Automation Society
T
he University of North Texas
(UNT) IEEE Robotics and
Automation Society (RAS)
Student Chapter recently held
its first Future Innovators Workshop
(FIW). This event, held in conjunction
with the IEEE North Tech-Students
Advancing Society (SAS) Summit
hosted by the IEEE UNT Student
Branch, is a science, technology, en -
gineering, and mathematics outreach
initiative targeting students from
kindergarten to 12th grade. During
this completely free event, students
who registered received free elec -
tronics kits provided by the UNT
RAS Chapter to teach them about the
wide world of electricity, circuits, and
microcontrollers through hands-on
projects. All of our 85 slots for students
were filled up within a week of open -
ing registration, with more than 20
additional students signing up to be
notified of future offerings.
The workshop was divided into
three experience levels: beginner, intermediate,
and advanced. The workshops
were originally intended to be held during
the first days of the North Tech-
SAS Summit on Saturday (20 February)
and Sunday (21 February). However,
because of the major winter storm that
affected many of our registrants in
Texas, we added four additional meeting
times on Saturday, 20 March and 27
March. In total, we held four workshops
for beginners, four for intermediates,
and one for advanced students. All of
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2021.3095992
Date of current version: 10 September 2021
Figure 1. The contents of the kits provided for the FIW, including the electronic and
project components, an insert listing the components and describing how to access the
meeting/handbook, and the box in which the components are shipped.
the workshops were held using Google
Meet and included an introduction
video from UNT Chancellor Lesa Roe,
an introduction to the parts of the
session, and a walkthrough of the
selected project.
In the beginners' workshop, we
focused on analog circuitry, building a
simple adjustable LED circuit to introduce
students to the basic concepts of
electricity and instructing them on how
to build a basic circuit on a breadboard.
In the intermediate workshop, we built
a basic buzzer circuit controlled by a
pushbutton. Then we introduced the
Arduino and its programming ecosystem
through the Arduino Integrated
170 * IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE * SEPTEMBER 2021
Development Environment to teach
students how to interface an Arduino
with a circuit by creating a programmable
buzzer. In the advanced workshop,
we taught students how to create an
" Etch-A-Sketch " device using the Arduino,
two potentiometers, a pushbutton,
and a 1.8-in thin-film transistor display.
Each of these three projects is
included in our free online FIW handbook
located on the FIW homepage of
the IEEE UNT Student Branch website
at https://edu.ieee.org/us-unt/fiw/. The
handbook designed so that students
can continue to learn and explore
(continued on page 179)
https://edu.ieee.org/us-unt/fiw/
IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - September 2021

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