Microelectronics and Hardware Development – Beaver Works Summer Institute @ MIT

Program Overview

The world runs on microelectronics, and they have transformed our modern world. You might have heard about the chip shortage in the news in recent years. But how are these chips made and what makes them so special? And how can we get started in using microchips to create our own unique electronic hardware systems right at home? 

This course for will introduce students to the fundamentals of hardware system design and show how hardware developers approach problems and think like engineers. Students with no prior experience in hardware are encouraged to participate. Students with prior hardware experience will learn more about the fundamentals of semiconductors, digital architectures, and chip-based technology & fabrication to provide a deeper background to their understanding of hardware. (Why do computers not work well when they overheat? What actually limits CPU speed?) 

Students will be provided a basic Arduino kit in the mail and can ask for additional items to be purchased so they can implement their own unique designs for the final projects. This virtual course will aim to create an opportunity for students to be imaginative with their original hardware designs and enable them to create electronic systems that can impact our lives.

This program consists of two components: an online & pre-requisite course open to all interested students and a four-week summer program for a select group of students. See our FAQ for most up to date schedule.

Online Prerequisites

These skills will be covered in the online course:

Circuit basics
Digital logic
Transistor basics
Arduino IDE (C++)

Summer Course

The objective of the summer is to have students develop their own unique microcontroller-based hardware system. During the first part of the course, the students will learn the fundamentals of using microcontrollers and build basic but useful systems. During the second part of the course, students will work in team and will be challenged to come up with their own unique design. They can request the purchase of additional hardware items to augment their basic kit. This class will also provide supplementary lectures on topics of interest to hardware developers and microelectronics designers & fabricators. These topics may include: