A low-cost wireless platform for first-year interdisciplinary projects

This paper presents a low-cost wireless circuit that is demonstrated to be a simple, yet flexible platform to support a variety of low-level educational activities. The circuit, implemented by many for K-12 outreach activities, is based on a 555-timer and an AM radio transmitter. At the University of Vermont, Burlington, this CricketSat circuit has enabled the development of a wide variety of wireless sensor and actuator projects. In this paper, design specifics, circuit utilization within an interdisciplinary first-year design course, and assessment results are presented. The novelty of the approach is twofold. First, the course and projects pertain to the area of wireless sensor networks. Second, student groups come up with their own project applications and problem statements for which to design a system. The key finding is that this platform has enabled students to take ownership of a concept and bring it to a working reality within the time constraints of a single semester course.