Do Engineering – Anywhere, Anytime

The need to create excitement about engineering has never been more critical. Our global community is faced with finding solutions to big challenges such as global warming, the energy crisis, and increasing demands on communications and urban infrastructure. To address these grand challenges, we require future engineers who are capable, innovative and equipped with practical skills in order to navigate from the design constraints to the solution. To encourage development of this practical skill, educators need to find ways to enable students to “do engineering,” anywhere, anytime. The three fundamental restrictions that prevent educators from being able to accomplish this are cost, accessibility to equipment – both in and out of the laboratory – and space and facilities. This paper discusses different ways in which educators are helping students connect with the world around them using graphical system design hardware and software technologies that are both affordable and scalable. We discuss flexible, compact, instrumentation platforms and illustrate how universities use this to enhance labs and improve practical experiences. We demonstrate how educators leverage low-cost, student-owned instrumentation hardware to teach concepts in students’ preferred environments, whether that is in the lab, library, or dorm room.