The Magazine of IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu October 2017 - 39

MEMBERS AND CHAPTERS

Saturday Engineering for Everyone
IEEE-HKN Alpha Chapter, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
In an effort to actively educate and support fellow ECE
undergraduates in their studies each year, the HKN
Alpha holds dozens of exam review sessions, provides
open office hours for any student, and schedules
hundreds of one-on-one tutoring hours. However, in
order to accomplish HKN's mission of encouraging
and recognizing excellence in ECE, we expanded our
outreach by educating anyone in the community about
the immeasurable relevance of our field in society today.
Every spring, the ECE Department from the University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign holds a technical
lecture series titled 'Saturday Engineering for Everyone'
for the Urbana-Champaign community at-large. The
program serves to educate non-engineers on significant
technological advancements and the physical world
around them. The listener does not need to have any
STEM background or relevant prior knowledge. This year,
the two featured topics were drones and photonics.
The Alpha Chapter took it upon themselves to enhance
these talks by constructing and staging related demos
for the audience. Our demos provided a tangible and
hands-on means to fully comprehend the topic on which
a professor lectured. Following the talk on drones, we
presented a facial recognition demo that showcased
open-source libraries like OpenCV. We explained to
listeners how drones could use the same technology
to identify people or other points of interest. Further,
we discussed how their favorite mobile applications, like
Snapchat, could use the same concepts to apply novel
filters to their photos and much more.

THE BRIDGE // Issue 3 2017

After the presentation on photonics, we set up an optical
Morse Code generator using an Arduino, a couple photo
resistors, a speaker and a laser pointer. Participants
would stand on one end of the ECE Building Atrium
(~50 feet apart) and use the laser pointer to illuminate
each photo resistor. One sensor provided a short tone,
while the other gave a long tone, just as is employed
in Morse code. Thus, while one attendee was shining a
laser at photo resistors, another one would stand next to
the speakers and attempt to decode the sent message.
Necessary precautions were taken to ensure the safety
of those nearby. This demo provided a powerful example
about how information can be sent using light. As one
young participant exclaimed, "you mean I can say 'Hi' to
my mom using lasers?" Cool, right?
As engineers, we know that not everything can be
wrapped in a simple, insightful demo. It takes years
to accumulate the knowledge and experience to be
comfortable with these topics. Still, programs like these
can have a significant impact by sparking an interest in a
future engineer or educating an adult. We want to make
the foreign a bit more familiar. Technology should not
be mysterious or inaccessible, it should be intriguing and
inspiring. We believe these talks give relevant examples
that can motivate people to learn more or attend similar
events. By using low-cost and easily-assembled demos,
we further highlighted the accessibility of this learning
to a wide audience. Here at the Alpha Chapter, we
look forward to educating people inside and outside
our department because knowledge becomes most
rewarding when shared with others.

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http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/brid/113-3
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/brid/113-2
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/brid/113-1
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/brid/112-3
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/brid/112-2
http://www.brightcopy.net/allen/brid/112-1
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