The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Outreach team organized an “Introduction to Arduino in Tinkercad 21” interactive workshop on 15 and 17 December 2021. The workshop aimed to introduce the Arduino microcontroller and common uses of such embedded systems to secondary school students via the Autodesk Tinkercad platform. Students experienced making and simulating their interactive systems on the Tinkercad platform.
The workshop was conducted virtually over 2 days (1 pm – 5 pm) via Zoom. Over 50 secondary 2 to secondary 3 students from 5 different schools, namely Beatty Secondary School, Dunman High School, NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ Secondary School, and River Valley High School participated in this workshop. The students were divided into 10 groups and each group was mentored by an NUS Buddy, an undergraduate Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering student from ECE. The NUS Buddy acts as a mentor to the group of student participants and guides his/her group of students through the planned hands-on activities.
The workshop started with a lively welcome by Dr. Chua Dingjuan, followed by an opening speech by Associate Professor Arthur Tay, Deputy Head for External Relations and Outreach, ECE. This was followed by an introduction and a brief lecture by Dr. Rajesh Panicker on the Arduino and Tinkercad platforms. Then, students in their groups worked in separate breakout rooms for more detailed and in-depth guidance from their NUS Buddy. Students have learned about electrical circuits, sensors, coding, and practical engineering applications through this process. The end of the workshop concluded with an exciting Kahoot Quiz on Arduino where the top ten students walked away with a $10 Popular voucher!
