ICONS as a student chapter aims to provide various interesting seminars and workshops for our colleagues at at ICFO. One great advantage of being a student chapter in a research institute like ICFO is the wealth of expertise we can draw from. In previous years we have been able to ask colleagues to share their particular skill set whether that was general knowledge on an interesting topic, such as crypto currency or developing your start-up idea, or sharing skills in photography and experience with programs like POV-ray.
For this event, ICONS called on the skills of two of our peers, Pau Gomez (PhD student) and Simon Coop (recent PhD graduate) of Prof. Morgan Mitchell’s group working in the field of Atomic Quantum Optics. They have experience working with Arduinos and using electronics to control various aspects of their experiments. A number of students requested that we (ICONS) organise a workshop in this area for people interested in developing their skills or indeed learning something brand new that may be useful in their labs. It took a little while but we finally found a time that suited everyone and the boys designed and held a very successful workshop with over 27 participants.
When posed the question how does a drone fly? or, how does cruise control keep your car at a constant speed? Many people would make a good attempt at explaining the concept but few would be able to explain the finer details. That is where Pau and Simon step in. With the help of ICFO, providing some financial support for necessary equipment, Pau and Simon designed a four-hour workshop aimed at introducing the concept of a feedback system (aka a control system).
With a room full of eager participants, the workshop kicked off with a very brief introduction from Pau on the general topic to be covered and the basics of an Arduino. Simon then ran through the document he had put together as a guide for the workshop. The aim of this event was to provide hands-on experience to the students with this in mind the theory was kept to a minimum, and teams of two or three students were formed, with the two experts walking around and helping each team as problems or questions arose.
For me as the ICONS organiser and I think also for the guys running the workshop it was a wonderful experience to see the looks of sheer concentration and, at times, frustration on the faces of the groups. These looks were then, eventually followed by little cheers and ‘oooows’ and ‘awwws’ as the LED lit up or the fan started spinning with its frequency being controlled by their computer. The workshop was split into two sessions each on was 2hrs long. The first session was aimed at introducing the concept of controlling both the brightness and flashing of the LED using pulse-width modulation (PWM) while also controlling the fan speed. The second two-hour session was a little more complex and challenging,but nonetheless it was still informative and of course fun!
The two tasks for this session were to measure the speed of the fan and then to implement the PI (proportional-integral) controller to match the fan speed with the flashing frequency of the LED. This may have resulted in a few very frustrated students but at the end Simon demonstrated that it was possible to achieve but maybe we should have designed the workshop to be a little longer to allow them to complete the tasks.
Overall, I think this workshop was a real success. Unfortunately, as is the nature of science, Dr.Coop has since flown the nest and is heading off on a new adventure, in 2019.We still have Pau for a little while longer and we at ICONS look forward to working with him to build on this workshop and bring a second edition to the ICFO community in 2019. On behalf of ICONS I would like to thank Pau and Simon again for giving their time and sharing their skills with fellow scientists and I also want to thank ICFO for the funding and the logistics team for helping us set up the room and the participants that made the workshop so worthwhile!
Until next time!!! Thanks everyone!
Sarah
ICONS Treasurer
