Asee peer logo

BOARD # 4 : MAKER: Early Exposure to Microcontrollers and Microelectronics in Engineering Education

Download Paper |

Conference

2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Publication Date

June 22, 2025

Start Date

June 22, 2025

End Date

August 15, 2025

Conference Session

Make It! Manufacturing Division Poster Session

Tagged Division

Manufacturing Division (MFG)

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/55774

Paper Authors

Download Paper |

Abstract

Microcontrollers and microelectronics power nearly everything around us, from smart home devices to advanced factory robots and 3D printers. As technology races forward, giving students hands-on experience with these tools early in their education isn’t just helpful; it’s essential. It connects classroom learning to real-world innovation and sparks curiosity that could shape their entire careers. Without this exposure, first-year engineering students might overlook a critical opportunity to build foundational skills in a field that’s shaping our future. That’s why we reviewed existing research to understand how universities are bringing microelectronics into undergraduate programs today. The data utilized for this analysis were drawn from four scholarly databases (Compendex, Scopus, Google Scholar, and ASEE Peer). We identified articles that discuss how academic institutions have incorporated microelectronics and microcontrollers into first-year and sophomore curricula. This poster presents a preliminary result of the findings showing the pedagogical methods used by institutions and students' learning outcomes engaging with these innovative devices. Additionally highlights the limitations and challenges these institutions encountered during the implementation of these devices in the programs.

(2025, June), BOARD # 4 : MAKER: Early Exposure to Microcontrollers and Microelectronics in Engineering Education Paper presented at 2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Montreal, Quebec, Canada . https://peer.asee.org/55774

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2025 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015