GIFTS: Bridging Code and Circuit: MATLAB-Guided Arduino Walkthroughs for First-Year Engineering Student
- Conference
- Location
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University of Maryland - College Park, Maryland
- Publication Date
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July 27, 2025
- Start Date
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July 27, 2025
- End Date
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July 29, 2025
- Conference Session
- Tagged Topics
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Diversity and FYEE 2025
- Page Count
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2
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--55262
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/55262
- Download Count
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23
Paper Authors
Dante Charles Scalfi Northeastern University
I am an Italian American born in Houston, Texas in 2003. After living in Texas, Kentucky, and New Jersey, I graduated high school with honors at George Walton Comprehensive High School in Marietta, Georgia. I am currently pursuing a combined degree of Mechanical Engineering and Design from Northeastern University. Early in my high school career, I worked weekends at Bagel Café in Chester, New Jersey. I oversaw cleaning and maintenance of the griddle, and customer relations when it came to taking orders. Later on, I dedicated most of my time to rowing, where I became the captain of the rowing team in my senior year of high school. Every year, I would work as a coach for the Learn to Row developmental squad camps for middle schoolers and my fellow high school students during the summertime.
Currently in college, I am an active participant in the Northeastern community as a teacher’s assistant for the Stacked Cornerstone class. Moreover I have taken my first Co-op (6 month internship) at Piaggio Fast Forward (PFF), a robotics startup in Charlestown, MA. PFF utilizes cutting edge robot and radar technology to create robots to support people mobility. To continue I have taken my second Co-op at Keurig Dr. Pepper for the Coffee side of the business. While there I worked on the Alta brewer, the next generation of single serve coffee that uses biodegradable pods.
Meanwhile on campus, I participate in the ASCE Concrete Canoe club as head of modeling and drafting of the seasons canoe. He is also a forward for the Northeastern University Men's Rugby Team.
Turner Marks
Kathryn Schulte Grahame
Northeastern University
orcid.org/0000-0001-9990-2255
Dr. Kathryn Schulte Grahame is a Teaching Professor at Northeastern University and the Associate Director of the First-Year Engineering Team at Northeastern University. The focus of this team is on providing a consistent, comprehensive, and constructive educational experience that endorses the student-centered, professional and practice-oriented mission of Northeastern University. She teaches the Cornerstone of Engineering courses to first-year students as well as courses within the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. She is a recipient of the Martin Essigman Outstanding Teahing award, the Excellence in Mentoring Award, and the Outstanding Teacher of First-Year Students Award. Her research interests include service learning and work that informs and enhances the teaching of first-year students.
Leila Keyvani Northeastern University at Oakland
Dr. Keyvani has a background in Civil Engineering and over a decade of experience teaching project-based first-year engineering courses. She is dedicated to creating an inclusive and supportive learning environment, ensuring that students from diverse backgrounds feel empowered to explore and excel in engineering.
Abstract
Engaging first-year engineering students in programming and hardware integration is crucial for fostering problem-solving skills and hands-on learning. To support this goal, this work presents six structured walkthroughs designed to introduce students to Arduino programming through MATLAB App Designer and the MATLAB Support Package for Arduino Hardware. These walkthroughs serve as intuitive, user-friendly guides that bridge the gap between traditional Arduino IDE programming and advanced graphical data visualization, making coding more accessible and interactive. Implemented within the Cornerstone of Engineering courses across multiple campuses, these walkthroughs offer a structured approach to integrating MATLAB and Arduino, enhancing students’ learning experiences while supporting instructors in adopting these tools seamlessly into their curriculum. By incorporating a diverse range of Arduino components, the walkthroughs expose students to real-world applications, reinforcing foundational engineering concepts through hands-on experimentation.
Scalfi, D. C., & Marks, T., & Schulte Grahame, K., & Keyvani, L. (2025, July), GIFTS: Bridging Code and Circuit: MATLAB-Guided Arduino Walkthroughs for First-Year Engineering Student Paper presented at FYEE 2025 Conference, University of Maryland - College Park, Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--55262
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