ES 1400 Introduction to Engineering, ECE Module
An introduction to engineering through hands-on projects, lectures, and lab sessions: Python on the Raspberry Pi, AI and reinforcement learning, pulse code modulation, servo control, encryption, and communication systems.
Sessions
- 1
The curious goat
What do we actually mean when we measure something? And what does a corner case mean once data has many dimensions?
On the atlas: Curse of dimensionality, Bellman, 1957
- 2
Hello, world
Hands on with tic-tac-toe, and a tour of electrical and computer engineering through sensing, interfaces, software and AI.
On the atlas: Tic-tac-toe on a computer, Douglas (OXO), 1952
- 3
Reinforcement learning
How do people learn? The same habits train a computer agent: look far ahead to balance long- and short-term reward, reflect to update what each choice is expected to bring, and balance exploring with exploiting.
On the atlas: Learning from reward, Sutton (temporal differences), 1988
- 4
Learning to play lab
Train a tic-tac-toe agent on a Raspberry Pi with reinforcement learning, and watch its choices improve.
On the atlas: A matchbox that learns, Michie (MENACE), 1961
- 5
Pulses that move things
A small motor spins. Add gears, a sensor and a controller, and it moves to a position on purpose.
On the atlas: Feedback control, Minorsky, 1922
- 6
A card full of clues
A card is a key you carry. Follow its information from the stripe or antenna to the reader, and ask what the reader can really know.
On the atlas: Magnetic stripe card, Parry (IBM), 1960
- 7
Keys, locks and secrets
How encryption protects a message, and how authentication checks who is allowed in.
On the atlas: Public-key cryptography, Diffie and Hellman, 1976
- 8
Build a candy safe lab
Bring code, sensors, outputs and decisions together in one Raspberry Pi project.
On the atlas: Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi Foundation, 2012
- 9
A message on a wave
Follow a signal through a radio system as it carries a message across space.
On the atlas: Radio, Marconi, 1895
- 10
Listening with ultrasound
Send a pulse of sound above human hearing, and use its echo to estimate distance.
On the atlas: Ultrasonic echo ranging, Langevin, 1917
- 11
Play the space around you lab
Turn distance into pitch, and build an instrument inspired by the theremin.
On the atlas: Theremin, Léon Theremin, 1920
- 12
A hello across the network
Send a message between computers, and discover the agreement that lets it arrive.
On the atlas: TCP/IP, Cerf and Kahn, 1974
Co-taught with Bennett Landman (2024, 2025) and Zhiyuan Li (2024). Bennett Landman leads sessions 1, 5 and 9, and session 2 with Zhiyuan Li; sessions 6 and 12 were developed with Zhiyuan Li.
See it on the atlas.