The MIT 2.679 (Electronics for Mechanical Systems II) class offers a kind of alchemy that transforms students from consumers of knowledge into explorers and innovators and equips them with an array of essential up-to-date tools at their disposal, students say.
The course guides students through the process of designing, manufacturing and assembling a printed circuit board (PCB). Ultimately, this process, full of twists and turns depending on each student’s design idea, culminates in the circuit board being incorporated into the device – in a sense, bringing the device to life to perform a specific function.
“The design intent of 2.679 is to allow students to ‘imagine it, build it,’” says Tonio Buonassisi, professor of mechanical engineering. “There is a universe between these two elements, and the goal of this class is to help aspiring engineers bridge that gap.”
Senior Jessica Lam is amazed at how much she has learned in one tiny semester, attributing this deluge of education to class labs that are “extremely well organized.”
“I’ve found that in many other labs and project-based classes, they give you a lot of information at once, expecting you to already have some experience with certain software or hardware, and most of it is scaffolded and feels like a black box,” Lam says. without much understanding of what is actually happening. “In version 2.679, Steve Banzaert has a better understanding of what we already know and how to build on it.”
After passing the exam with a score of 2.679, he says he “feels much more confident in designing electrical systems, and I have a more complete knowledge of integrating mechanical and electronic systems.”
Banzaert, the course’s technical instructor, says the class is designed to guide students down their chosen path of discovery and show them that they can overcome the challenges they encounter along the way.
“Every semester we see really great examples of growth, not only in terms of the learning material, but in the best cases in terms of students’ understanding of what they are truly capable of,” he says.
Chen, a mechanical engineering major who is graduating early to start working as a hardware project manager at Formlabs, agrees that the class did just that.
“Students have great freedom in choosing their own final projects, which allows them to explore topics that particularly interest them. “And because each project is unique, there is less pressure to ‘get it done’ in the traditional sense,” he says. “On the contrary, each student learns different skills and is encouraged to achieve the most in their chosen project. Steve emphasized that the scope of our projects will inevitably change because in the beginning you just don’t know what you don’t know yet, and that’s totally fine!”
Banzaert says: “We try to make it very clear that yes, we are talking about essential general concepts of theory and analysis, but that is because these are tools that engineers operate to solve problems. I think maybe this focus will assist remind students what brought them here in the first place – that the reason you are an engineer is because there is something in the world that you want to make better, that you are the person to do it ( or at least assist), and if you want to do it right, you will have to learn a lot of things to have more tools in your toolbox.
Senior Yasin Hamed designed a car in class that uses computer vision to follow a black line. The car comes with a camera that captures images and transmits them to a Raspberry Pi computer that is also connected to the car. Real-time image processing allows the car to locate the black line and turn or go straight, controlling the car’s speed.
Although Hamed, who is majoring in mechanical engineering and later in computer science, had built another similar system in a previous class, he said the focus in the previous class was on software. Through the design of the 2.679 car, he learned the “basic” of “the design of the power electronics and control circuits that are necessary for everything else to work.”
“Most of my “enlightenment” came from this class from the little bits of electronics information I learned during the course, such as learning/practicing soldering, understanding how to operate integrated circuits, learning PCB design, etc.” – says. “I benefited the most from collecting all of these things.”
Jordan Parker-Ashe, also a senior, appreciated how the 2,679 students combined electronics lessons with research and presentations from Buonassisi’s lab. “It’s great to see engineering being applied to research,” he says.
While many of the skills she learned on the course were up-to-date to her, one of them was an “old enemy,” she says, and that 2,679 allowed her to make friends. Parker-Ashe, who is majoring in nuclear engineering, used a computer vision program called OpenCV for her first project in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program as a freshman.
“It was the hardest thing ever, and at the time it really felt like an insurmountable obstacle,” he says. “Now that I could effortlessly use OpenCV in labs and for homework, it was a full circle moment.”
She says the class opened up a whole up-to-date field for her, and Banzaert “directly inspired her” to take class 6.131 (Electronics), “which was life-changing,” she says.
“2.679 helped me believe in myself, which inspired me to take 6.131, the notorious electrical engineering capstone, which made me realize that my future lay in being a nuclear electrical engineer, not just a nuclear engineer,” says Parker-Ashe. “I want to study electrical engineering in the future, but it wasn’t considered before.
“Not to mention that it opened the door to very rich landscapes for project ideas, creating exploration, art, taking on new roles in group projects, etc.” – says. “I am very happy that I was able to find opportunities in Course 2 that helped me gain hands-on experience in applied engineering.”