Week of Feb 25

You will continue exploring circuits using flip-flops this week. On Monday, you will create a circuit that will count from a specific starting point to a specific end point ( as opposed to 0 to 2^n) and then learn about a chip that combines several flip-flops in one chip (4 bit counter/frequency divider).  Chips that incorporate 10-100 gates on the same device are classified as Medium Scale Integration (MSI).

Be sure to watch the video on asynchronous modulus counters before Monday.  The video for Friday is over asynchronous counters on a PLD.

Leave your journals in class this week as I will be grading them.  Be sure to follow the usual journal requirements and that you have notes and work on the designs that you have been working on.  Also, make sure to answer the conclusion and going further questions in your journal.

Students have the choice sheets to sign up for courses for next year.  I created and gave a presentation in class last week that described the course sequence for engineering classes.  In order to be recognized as an academy graduate, you must complete IED, PoE, and Digital Electronics (DE). In addition, we offer Civil Engineering and Architecture (CEA) and Aerospace Engineering (AE) as specialization electives.  Both courses appear on the choice sheet for next year.  If you skipped over PoE this year, you need to go back and take it as it is a prerequisite for all other engineering courses.  If you have any questions about the courses, what they involve, or what you should take, get with me.

Week of Feb 18

It is that time of year again - when students begin making choices about classes for next year.  For one thing, if you are planning to take the next engineering elective, know that we will be offering Aerospace Engineering next year.  The RRISD academy model requires that you take IED, PoE and DE, specifically and may take the specialization electives above and beyond that.  Those electives are currently Civil Engineering & Architecture and - now - Aerospace Engineering.  The plan is that we will alternate AE with CEA every other year.  Both of those are showing up on your course selection sheet for 2013-2014.  For now, I would expect that AE will be offered in 2013 and again in 2015.  If you are planning on AE, you should make room in your schedule next year in case it is not offered in 2014.

DE classes will continue a study in flip flop chips.  This week you will look at various applications that use the flip flop functionality.  I have placed the video describing this on Youtube.  On Thursday, we will cover asynchronous counters (video linked).

This is the start of a new six weeks.  The year is already 2/3 over and going fast!  Look for report cards to come home late this week.  Also, I graded journals for the six weeks.  If you did not leave yours at school, make sure to do so tomorrow so that I can grade it before grades are finally due.

Parents, we have a student teacher for this semester.  Mr. Peterson has been with us for a month now but will start taking on more and more of the responsibilities for my classes for the next couple of months.  You can still contact me if you have any questions, but I wanted you to know in case you start hearing a new name.

Week of Feb 11

This week, we will move to the next unit on flip flops and latches.  These are very useful devices in building digital circuits, as you will see throughout the week.  The background info required for Tuesday's class, so I broke it up in to two videos: flip flop basic introduction and how to connect the flip flop for Tuesday's lesson.  I will also post a video for Thursday's lesson on the application of flip flops.

This is the last week of the six weeks, so make sure that you are up to date on all of your assignments.  To help with that, Wednesday will be a WOW day.  Make sure to get a WOW pass from any of your teachers for whom you need to make up or redo work.  There is no late start on Thursday, however.

Since this is the last week of the six weeks, I will do a journal check this week. Make sure that your journals are up to date and left in the room so that I can access them.

Don't forget that next Monday (Feb 18) is a student holiday.  I hope that you enjoy your 3 day weekend.

3d Printing Challenge Update
The IMAPS conference for this month has been postponed, so the time pressure is off.  However, we are going to continue the challenge. If you are interested and have not signed up yet, there is still time.  Go to this link and give me contact information so that I can let you know when information comes out.  We will assemble a kit of parts that you can use and give to each team that will include an LED light, watch battery and battery holder, and some amount of ink.  Each team will experiment with the ink and the printer to vet out various approaches and then select the one that they feel has the best chance of success.  Then, you will design with that approach in mind, evaluate and even redesign. Remember that your design not working doesn't mean the project didn't succeed.  We are exploring territory here that hasn't been developed yet, so knowing the pitfalls and problems is in itself a success.  Check out the history of the rocket industry.  Today, we send humans and equipment in to space with regularity, but the industry spent years and years in "failure" as rocket after rocket exploded or rose a few feet in the air and then sank back and crashed back in to the ground.  After each failed attempt, the teams analyzed what went wrong and solved the problems - one at a time - to create the scientific and engineering success that we all know today.

We will start meeting weekly with the Novacentrix engineers and possibly others to exchange knowledge.  They will be able to share with us their knowledge of the conductive ink, and we will share with them our findings about how it interacts with the 3d printing materials and process.

Week of Feb 4

We are starting the unit on programmable logic and get to finally play with the much-anticipated Programmable Logic Boards.  These are prototype boards that let you do the troubleshooting we've been doing on the breadboards mostly on the computer. You will design the circuits in Multisim and download directly to the PLD board.  Troubleshooting is as "simple" as making changes to Multisim and re-downloading.  <pause for groans to cease>  Make sure to watch the first video before Monday so that you are ready to dive right in to the boards and start working right away.  You will ultimitely recreate your date of birth circuits on the PLD.

Paying for college is expensive.  RRHS' PTSA is hosting an information session to help you (and/or your parents) pay for college without going broke.  Check out the link or visit the PTSA home page for more information.

This week has both WOW on Wednesday and Late Start on Thursday.  

Last desperate plea for Semi High Tech U.  This is an incredible opportunity for our you to explore the life of an engineer in a high-tech company and get good advice about how to best prepare yourself for a technical career.  The deadline for applications is this Wednesday  I will be glad to answer any questions or help you in any way that I can because I know you would enjoy the experience as well as learn from it.