Dhruv

Introduction

In school, I never really understood Physics, Chemistry or Electronics and so dropped them after class 10. But I was still fascinated by how electronics actually work. I thought circuits were extremely complex and complicated to understand which is why I never really delved deeper into the subject. But then after reading the course abstract and finding that there were no pre-requisites, I thought I could finally explore more into the subject of electronics as it will even be helpful in the future, no matter what field I choose. I feel that everyone must know basic amounts of electronics and circuitry, and especially us as artists and designers, as it broadens our knowledge and makes us more independent in our thinking approach without having to leave the technical stuff only to those who are already into it. And the extract also suggested a brief introduction to coding, which re-assured my decision of picking this course.

MicroRobots

Building our first robot

In every course, there's always the first-day excitement, curiosity and eagerness that's present in the classroom. So as I entered the class and saw all these components lying there, I was really keen on knowing how they worked and eager that by the end of the class, I hopefully would know how to operate at least a couple of these components. When we were told that by the end of the first class, we would make our very own robot, I was quite puzzled, as the word "robot" has some connotations synonymous with humanoids and Sci-Fi Hollywood movies. And there I was, getting excited after seeing one single LED light up as it came in contact with a 3v battery.

When we were shown the soldering iron, I was quite amazed at how it worked. I also thought Mr. Bala to be some sort of mad scientist turned deaf when he told us all to touch the soldering iron to see if it was hot.