• Question: Do you have any EPQ ideas for electrical engineering?

    Asked by anon-256861 on 15 Jun 2020.
    • Photo: Amber Villegas - Williamson

      Amber Villegas - Williamson answered on 15 Jun 2020:

      Super question! I had to do a little reading to find out what EPQ is as they didn’t have such an option in my day!

      For Electrical Engineering and all EPQ projects that receive high marks are normally the ones that show their thinking and document the whole process by researching your idea, creating a hypotheses, outlining method of testing, recording data, analysing the information and producing a conclusion – in theory posting this very question could be the start of the process 😉

      Documenting projects is key in Electrical Engineering (I did my degree in Electrical & Electronic Engineering) so know all about keeping lab books. Now that I’m working we have multiple documentation control processes..I digress.

      If I had the option to be in your shoes I’d probably be looking at making a Tesla coil from scratch or something using the Micro:bit.

      Also note that it’s okay for things to not go 100% to plan, the most important skill in engineering is to analyse what happened, why and implement steps to avoid the same issue (fyi – this happens everyday in real life).

      Good Luck 😀

    • Photo: Viktor Doychinov

      Viktor Doychinov answered on 16 Jun 2020:

      I’m another electronic and electrical engineer, my area is wireless communications, and I fully agree with what Amber has said about documenting your project, and the overall engineering process. Stopping to think about the problem or thing you are trying to solve, and then reading about it, is essential.

      The only thing I would like to add is that when you start developing your solution, start small, and slowly add things. That way you make sure everything works, and if there is any problem you can narrow it down.

      In terms of ideas, getting a micro:bit or a Raspberry Pi is a great way to get into electronic engineering. Normally you might be able to borrow a micro:bit for free from your local library! They are great because there are a lot of sensors you can use with them that can tell you a lot about your environment. For example, you can do the following with a micro:bit or a Raspberry Pi:
      – Measure temperature and humidity
      – Measure soil moisture – automatic plant watering system, you can also combine with temperature and learn about soils’ health
      – Air quality monitors
      – Use all sorts of motors to build a robotic arm, or a buggy robot, or a hexapod robot!
      – Measure distance using ultrasound or light – that is how you can get robots that can move around rooms on their own. Or how you can tell if people are too close to one another
      – Measure sound and light – you can tell if it’s too loud, or if the outside is too bright at night. The second point is important to wildlife for example

      Some more exciting and large scale things you can do are high-altitude balloons, or something called a CanSat, or a satellite in a can!

      The important thing is to remember to have fun, and not to worry if things don’t work the first time! Mine certainly rarely do.

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