HRI Coastal and Marine Geospatial Lab hosts successful Microcontrollers Workshop

The first HRI Researchers Group workshop, “Introduction to Microcontrollers and Environmental Sensing,” was held at the Harte Research Institute on November 7. Despite a huge demand for the workshop it was decided to open 20 slots in order to ensure a high-quality experience for the participants.

The workshop was organized and coordinated by several members of the Coastal and Marine Geospatial Lab including Michael van den Eijden, Mark Besonen, Michael Williamson, Son Nguyen and Joe Holland. Participants learned basic information about microcontrollers, and then in a hands-on task assembled a temperature-pressure-humidity logging device from provided supplies and software. The assembled microcontrollers were then programmed by the participant teams to record time-based measurements of temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure onto SD-card media. Notably, the workshop was also attended by a few special guests from the Bell Library’s upcoming Makerspace.

The workshop received positive feedback, and there were requests to have an advanced workshop. This is a huge motivation for both the workshop facilitators and the HRI Researchers Group committee. This first workshop was created to help fulfill HRI leadership’s desire of increasing collaboration, interaction and data sharing between HRI research groups.