Applica ons – Teams of engineers worked for years to perfect every device that you use. Every device that

has power had an Electrical Engineer on that team. Even though this project only has a couple wires and a

ba ery, you can imagine how something this simple could light a house and even power a cell phone.

This Project – Electricity is created from electrons flowing in a con nuous path. If there is a break in that

path, the electrons can’t flow and there won’t be electricity.

The path on the le shows what happens when the wires are not touching—the light can’t turn on! This is

because there is not a con nuous path that the electrons can flow through. When there is a con nuous path,

like there is in the picture on the right, the light will turn on because the electrons can flow. This project

makes a game out of keeping the light off while demonstra ng how simple it is to create an electric circuit.

Further Informa on

This project was inspired by a Wire Loop Game on instructables.com, a do‐it‐yourself website. Make sure

that you follow all safety instruc ons and always consult your teacher or parent before trying any do‐it‐

yourself electronics projects.

A good resource for ques ons about electronics is allaboutcircuits.com. This is a website that has educa‐

onal informa on about circuits that include electronic textbooks, video lectures, worksheets, and more.

Click on the ‘Educa on’ tab at the top of the page to get started.

No Contact Contact

Electrical Engineering

Basic Circuits

Applications – From the thermostat in your house to the car that you drive, microcontrollers are all around

us. Microcontrollers are tiny computers that work as our device’s ‘brain’ and allows it to work. As Electrical

Engineers, we can have the job of programming microcontrollers, or we can have the job of designing and

building them. Any of these applications that changes itself on its own while it is working is called artificial

intelligence (AI).

This Project – The objective is to create a microcontroller that plays rock, paper, scissors.

The microcontroller uses a random number generator to decide what selection to play.

The artificial intelligence is done when we convert the random number to a selection—rock, paper, or

scissors. The random number is any number between 1 and 100, and these values are divided into thirds for

rock, paper, and scissors with two limits. When the microcontroller finds out the value that the user played, it

updates the two limits to make it more likely to play a winning selection next time.

Further Information

Arduino.cc — To purchase the microcontroller used in this project, get project ideas, and learn program-

ming tips, Arduino is a very popular and relatively inexpensive way to do projects with microcontrollers.

SparkFun.com — SparkFun’s Inventor’s Kit includes an Arduino, lights, motors, and more. The Inventor’s

kit also comes with a guidebook and 16 example circuits. The website also includes tons of tutorials and

project ideas.

CodeAcademy.com — A free website that teaches you to start programming right now! Learn several

programming languages, free of cost.

Electrical Engineering

Microcontrollers &

Artificial Intelligence

Applica ons – Teams of engineers worked for years to perfect every device that you use. Every device that

has power had an Electrical Engineer on that team. Even though this project only has a couple wires and a

ba ery, you can imagine how something this simple could light a house and even power a cell phone.

This Project – There are many ways to control a circuit. Light and sound ac vated circuits are o en used to

control more advanced circuity.

The photoresistor (RP) that is in this circuit will react differently in the light than in the dark. This will give a

different signal to ‘U3’, the integrated circuit (IC), which controls the LED light. This control can also be

changed to a microphone to control the circuit with sound instead of light.

Further Informa on

SnapCircuits.net — The Snap Electronic kits used in this project are good educa onal tools for school or

fun. The come in different sizes to meet different need. The kits have instruc ons that allow you to build a

lot of different circuits.

AllAboutCircuits.com — A good resource for ques ons about electronics. The website has educa onal in-

forma on about circuits that include electronic textbooks, video lectures, worksheets, and more. Click on

the ‘Educa on’ tab at the top of the page to get started.

Electrical Engineering

Basic Circuit Control

Antennas are used around the world for communica on – cellphones, satellites, GPS, and more, all make use of antennas! An antenna works by conver ng electricity into electromagne c waves, and another antenna will convert it back! Electricity causes electrons in the current to wiggle back and forth along the antenna. This creates the electromagne c wave, like splashing something in the water. When the wave reaches a receiving antenna, the electrons wiggle around, crea ng electromagne c waves, like a buoy floa ng on a wave. The wiggling is turned back into an electric current, and an under-standable signal!

Electrical Engineering

Antenna Theory

Logic circuits process data signals to create new desired signals and informa on. This is commonly done in binary. These logic circuits o en use opera ons through gates. There are two essen al gates, AND and OR.

AND Gate: A single bit AND gate will only produce 1 as an output if both inputs are one. This is symbol for AND is ‘&’.

OR Gate: A single bit OR gate will produce 1 as an output if either of the inputs are one. This is denoted with ‘|’ .

A B A&B A|B

0 0 0 0

0 1 0 1

1 0 0 1

1 1 1 1

The NOT gate takes the input and inverts it. For example, if a 1 is inpu ed, a 0 is outpu ed.

The XOR gate is an exclusive OR gate. This means that the output will only be a 1 if the two inputs produce a 1 for an OR gate but not for an AND gate. For example, inputs of 0 and 1 will produce a 1 while an two inputs of 1 will produce a 0.

The NAND gate is a combina on of an AND gate and a NOT gate. So, the inputs are produced like a normal AND func on, then the result is inverted. For example, an input of two 1s would produce an output of 0.

Electrical Engineering

Basic Logic Circuits

Applications – Fossil fuels are a source of energy for many of our devices and machines that we use every-

day. Fossil fuels are also damaging our planet, so engineers have come up with a way to use the sun’s energy

by converting it into useable electricity that we are able to use to charge our devices and power our machines.

By using solar energy, we are using energy that it is far less damaging to our planet.

This Project – Solar power works by using light waves from the sun to heat up the electrons in solar panels,

causing them to move and creating a current in the solar panels. The current is then controlled and stored in

the solar panel to be used later. In the OWI Super Solar Race Car Kit, the speed of the car is controlled by the

current, or the amount of solar energy it receives. The more current the car has, the faster it will go. A car that

is getting a lot of light will go faster than a car that is in the dark because it is not getting any solar energy.

Further Information:

For more information, go to http://www.owirobot.com/ to learn about the kit used in this demo and to discover several other amazing kits that they have to offer. Although they are awesome, they can be expensive.

Check out these other websites for more information on solar energy and how it works: http://www.eia.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=solar_home-basics http://www.kids.esdb.bg/solar.html http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/energy/solarpower.html http://www.dasolar.com/solar-energy/solar-energy-for-kids

Electrical Engineering

Renewable Energy:

Solar Power

Applica ons – Fossil fuels are a source of energy for many of our devices and machines that we use every-

day. Fossil fuels are also damaging our planet, so engineers have come up with a way to use wind energy by

conver ng it into useable electricity that we are able to use to charge our devices and power our machines.

By using wind energy, we are using energy that it is far less damaging to our planet.

 

This Project – Wind power works by having wind turn turbine blades on a windmill, causing the windmill’s

sha to spin which creates electricity that is inverted into AC voltage that travels through the power lines.

The Green Science Windmill Generator Kit demonstrates how wind power through the use of a windmill actu-

ally works.

Further Informa on: 

To learn more about the kits used in this demo and see other science toys and kits that you can make at

home, visit:

h p://store.discovery.com/green-science-windmill-generator/detail.php?p=524774

h p://www.scien ficsonline.com/product/green-science-windmill-generator

Check out these other websites for more informa on on wind energy and how it works:

h p://www.eia.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=wind_home-basics

h p://www.kids.esdb.bg/wind.html

h p://www.sciencekids.co.nz/sciencefacts/energy/windenergy.html

h p://www.alliantenergykids.com/energyandtheenvironment/renewableenergy/022397

Electrical Engineering 

Renewable Energy:  

Wind Power  

This robo c arm is part of a research program trying to give amputees thought‐controlled prosthe cs. "APL‐built Prosthe c Arm Controlled by Thought." The Hub. N.p., 02 Jan. 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.

Applica ons: Robots have a wide variety of applica ons.

They can go places that humans cannot, from small spaces to

dangerous ones. They can be much stronger than people, and

can do repe ve tasks such as in manufacturing much longer

than people can. Robots can even be used to replace limbs that

have been lost, or help to perform surgery. Robots help to

make our lives easier, safer, and in some cases more enjoyable.

This Project: RoboNova is a robot with several servo

motors that imitate human joints, and allow it to do

many of the ac ons that a person can do, like

cartwheels! It has been programmed to perform all of

the stunts you see in this project, and can be controlled

using a remote control.

Further Informa on:

h p://www.electronicsteacher.com/robo cs/what‐is‐robo cs.php — General informa on

about robo cs.

h p://www.lego.com/en‐us/mindstorms/?domainredir=mindstorms.lego.com — To learn

more about LEGO Mindstorms, a robot made of LEGOs that can do many different types of

tasks. Can be very expensive.

h p://www.usfirst.org/ ‐ FIRST Robo cs, an organiza on that hosts robo cs compe ons for

all ages.

Ar cles on the two robots featured on this handout:

h p://hub.jhu.edu/2013/01/02/prosthe c‐arm‐60‐minutes

h p://hub.jhu.edu/gaze e/2013/july/features‐robo‐sally‐useful‐robot‐applied‐

physics

Robo Sally is a robot designed to defuse bombs in dangerous se ngs, so that people don’t have to risk their lives to do so. Rienzi, Greg. "Applied Physics Lab's Latest Robo c Wonder Does Her Work in Danger Zones." The Hub. N.p., 01 July 2013. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.

Electrical Engineering

Robo cs