Improving embedded programming skills through physical computing activities in engineering education: A course experience

Abstract

Embedded programming is one of the most requested abilities by companies in industry sectors such as automation, the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and power electronics, among others. While these abilities are required to be developed in the curricula of the engineering programs, the dropout rate of the courses of programming in which these abilities are developed continues to increase. Several factors such as socioeconomic, the lack of support by the academic staff, or the teaching methodology are claimed of the most common dropout factors. In this context, this article proposes a methodology to learn to program embedded devices employing Arduino and Raspberry Pi in a course known as open hardware. Some identified factors in the students who took the course such as the lack of motivation and confidence in programming abilities were the catalysts to create and deploy the educational methodology. In addition, physical computing was incorporated as a conceptual pillar in the methodology. N=20 engineering students of a technological program in electronics participated in the methodology for 16 weeks. The methodology had a special emphasis on problem-solving, construction of algorithms, their interaction with sensors, motors, displays, etc., and teamwork. The results of the methodology show that it served to improve the abilities in programming, the understanding of the algorithms in embedded systems, the motivation, and it promoted habits such as the comments in the codes and the creation of flow diagrams that helped the students to comprehend the algorithms and their interaction with the hardware devices.