Experiential learning with TI India

Today, the industry is growing at a rapid pace and with it, the technology used is changing as well. To be on par with the growing industry trends, engineering students need to learn and grow by experiencing the changes in technology and working with them. TI has conducted several such workshops for this purpose. More than 13,000 engineering students and 1500 engineering teachers have been trained in the latest TI technology in the past year in India, with over 4,500 students submitting more than 16,000 WEBENCH designs.

Igniting the Passion for Innovation: Hackathon 4.0 in India

Earlier this fall, excitement was palpable at the School of Management, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Warangal in India. It was the day of Lakshya Foundation’s Hackathon 4.0, where students were deep into designing and building solutions for various problems, with TI as the technology sponsor and Internet of Things (IoT) as the theme.

A hackathon team using the MSPEXP430G2 LaunchPad to work on their prototype.

In their quest to build a working prototype while racing against time, students brainstormed with their team members, with support from mentors, and of course, we should not forget the crucial role played by the continuous supply of caffeine.
Students could pick from the published problems, such as fleet management solution, remote pipeline monitoring system and cloud-based measurement data management system, or students could contribute their own concrete ideas to provide definite outcomes.

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INVOLVE ME AND I LEARN! Hands-on workshop at NIT Calicut

To paraphrase an old adage “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.” It is the last part of this adage that took the front seat at Tathva, the annual techno-management festival organized by the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Calicut at Kozhikode, Kerala in India.

In its quest to equip students with the skills they need to innovate, NIT Calicut collaborated with the TI university program to conduct hands-on workshops with TI technologies. In the 2^nd year of its partnership, the intensive Pre-Tathva’15 workshop on September 19-20, 2015 focused on the MSP430 series, a mixed-signal microcontroller family from TI that is designed for low-cost, low-power consumption embedded applications.

With Internet of Things (IoT) being one of the main themes of Tathva’15, this workshop was the perfect launching point for those students who wanted to learn how to innovate in this space.

Attended by the first year students across various branches, the structured workshop focused on leading the students from the basics to the ultimate aim of building an FM radio with a PCB that uses the MSP430, an FM module and an LCD display.

Given the cross-section of disciplines the students came from, the workshop levelled the playing field by starting with the very basics such as the basics of logic gates, Boolean Algebra and the C language. After all, a strong edifice can only be built on a strong foundation. Once the basics were in place, the workshop delved into the programming of MSP430 using Code Composer Studio and Energia.

The workshop was very lively and interactive. Of course, the buzz was created by the intensive practical sessions where the students experienced the joy and satisfaction of building something with their own hands. Adding to the buzz were the brainteasers sprinkled liberally through the workshop. The students were challenged to a higher-order of thinking; the result was a spirit of friendly competition that spurred innovation.

The learning did not stop with the workshop. The students were given resources that would help them deepen their knowledge and act as references for any exploration they may want to undertake on their own. Given that the participants were first year engineering students, the workshop gave the students an opportunity to explore the practical aspects of engineering and apply the theoretical knowledge they had. The students came out of the workshop energized which gave them a new perspective about the role of engineering and technology in making the world a better place!