[TriEmbed] EE tutorial talks

[kschilf at yahoo.com]

Hi Pete,
Embedded systems are a mix of hardware and software to tackle a specific application with unique constraints of power, size, etc; otherwise, just throw a server rack at the problem.  :-)

There are many interesting topics beyond the Nuts and Volts:  machine to machine IOT stuff, mesh networks, image processing, computer vision, security, tracking, motor control, filtering, etc.  I have only been to a few meetings, but I am impressed at the number of people willing to share their expertise.  I enjoyed the presentations last month especially from Maniacal Labs because I am contemplating my own Kickstarter.  How can you say no to blinking LED's?  LED's are to Geeks as donuts are to Homer Simpson.  :-)

Many technical groups are hard-pressed to find anyone to talk at their meetings.

My input would be to setup some blocks (20 to 30 minutes at your discretion) in the next few months for member presentations.  Watch the clock, if the presentation goes long, it can always spill into the adhoc discussion at the end or re-appear at another meeting.  If we run out of slots, have the presenters submit a brief outline and have the group vote on what they want to hear about.
I am disappointed that I will miss the the pump presentation next month.  Please make the video available.  I will plan on talking in September, but I am happy to do it later if that makes more sense.  :-)

Sincerely,Kevin Schilf

     From: Pete Soper via TriEmbed <triembed at triembed.org>
 To: triembed at triembed.org 
 Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2015 2:43 PM
 Subject: Re: [TriEmbed] EE tutorial talks
   

On 07/27/2015 12:36 AM, Ryan Schuster wrote:
> Pete, that's too bad to hear you won't be there. :(
>
> My big worry is that there won't be enough time for a lot of this.  
> Even skipping the math and only focusing on basics and things that are 
> relevant to embedded systems, there's still a lot of stuff to talk 
> about.  And I don't want to cut into the face-to-face time/other 
> talks/demos.  It sounds like August could be a test run, to see how 
> much we can get through in a meeting.

This is an excellent point. Balance has to be maintained or the meetings 
will be warped away from an embedded development charter, and conveying 
even a sliver of what an EE learns for their degree would be trying to 
shoe horn days into minutes. Bite-size chunks of tutoring lasting a few 
minutes to get across one narrow concept or set of facts at a time would 
have multiple advantages. The water flow/pressure/restriction demo could 
go a long way toward helping folks get a gut feel for I = E/R, for 
example, but any use of the word "integral" during the first session 
might be problematic. :-)

I think one way to view this is to remind us that there have been 
various little tutorials at meetings over the past few years. The only 
thing knew is the effort to systematically cover enough electronics to 
help beginners to make progress and more experienced folks to maintain 
interest. So I think there should be advanced topics too, but narrow, 
short presentations about them.

But finally, we don't want to be rigid and inflexible. So, for example, 
unless I've forgotten a previously planned presentation for the August 
meeting (and I'm sorry to say my brain is itching as if I have), here's 
the agenda so far:
    1) Usual announcements, have a job/need a job, etc
    2) Ryan's water/electrical tutorial
    3) Shane's transistor tutorial
    4) Missing presi here
    5) Open discussion for the rest of the meeting

So Ryan and Shane could share almost an hour, but I think we'd be wise 
to have Kevin share the September meeting with a non-EE tutorial presi 
of some sort so we can maintain balance. Dan Struckman, Kevin, Ryan (and 
others) and I can target later meetings for further tutorials. If we 
feel like this is just not adequate we could consider a special meeting 
or two (e.g. a Wake library in north Raleigh) for the sake of getting 
more tutoring accomplished.

This is all just my two cents in the hopes of us approaching closure 
while remaining relaxed.

-Pete



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