Gen_Eng 295, Fall 2017 -- Makerskills

"Maker" at Northwestern means a lot more than access to a 3d printer. It means having the skills, experience, and confidence to turn your ideas into working devices. This class will give you a fast start as a maker, or advance your skills. You will be more capable in your design and project classes, labs, and extracurricular activities.

We'll do practical electronics on protoboards, use oscilloscopes, connect to arduino microcomputers and laptops, learn solderboard construction, program microcontrollers, use tools in the machine shop, design and cut plastic parts on the laser cutter, and build things.

Fall 2017 Makerskills is intended to match with the maker-DTC section in Spring 2018. The maker section of DTC will draw on the greater skillset of many of its members, to allow more sophisticated solutions to be built.

Instructor – Prof. Michael Peshkin

Class size – 28

Schedule – MWF, 12:00 to 12:50 PM, F281 Tech active classroom

Text – no textbook is needed; video, online, and print materials will be provided.

Eligibility – First year engineering undergraduates in all disciplines.

Prerequisites – none

Credit – Gen_Eng 295 counts as an elective in all engineering departments.

Materials and fees – You will need a laptop computer, running Windows or Mac OS, every day in class, and also for homework.

Format – Class sessions are a mix of lecture and guided work sessions. Homework is due at the beginning of most class days. There will be two one-hour in-class tests and a two-hour final exam.

What do students say about this class?

Here are the CTEC comments about it from 2015. Note however that Makerskills Fall 2017 will be different from the previous two years.

Here are the CTEC comments about it from 2016.