When Professor Kendall Farnham agreed to show within the on-line Grasp of Engineering in Pc Engineering at Dartmouth, she knew it wouldn’t be straightforward.
“How will we facilitate studying with desktop {hardware} once I can’t look over your shoulder and inform you that you simply plugged one thing in backwards and that’s why it’s smoking?” she laughs.
However for Farnham, the problem wasn’t a deterrent, it was a chance. Her mission: Make the web expertise for {hardware} as compelling and hands-on because the in-person model. It’s the form of artistic, decided power that defines each this system and her philosophy of engineering schooling.
From Software program to {Hardware}, and Again Once more
Farnham’s path again to Dartmouth (the place she earned her undergraduate engineering diploma) was something however standard. She began in software program gross sales at SAP however shortly realized she was on the unsuitable observe. “Gross sales was not for me,” she says. So she pivoted to software program engineering regardless of not having a proper software program background. “I feel like a pc,” she says, merely.
After three and a half years as a software program engineer, a fateful recruitment journey to Dartmouth pivoted her path solely. A dialog with engineering professor Petra Bonfert-Taylor sparked the concept of graduate faculty. “She advised me, ‘You’re getting form of previous,’” Farnham jokes. “I didn’t understand I used to be an historic fossil at 26, however it was truthfully life-changing.”
She returned for a PhD, earned a NASA fellowship, and constructed a medical system on an FPGA (field-programmable gate array). And when she realized Dartmouth didn’t supply graduate-level FPGA programs? She constructed one. “I advised my advisor that one of these course was lacking, they usually mentioned, ‘Nice, go train it.’”
That mindset and private motto, “Study it, train it, break it, repair it,” has come to outline her instructing type.
Educating {Hardware} On-line: Breaking and Constructing, Collectively
Having simply defended her PhD in February 2024, Farnham was keen to leap into the brand new problem of academia, a path she by no means thought she’d take. Nonetheless, when advised that the course could be taught on-line, she had an preliminary second of panic. She thought: “That’s inconceivable. {Hardware} is so onerous! How are we going to do that on-line?”
She was decided to determine learn how to convey the hands-on elements of in-person studying to a web based setting. Her strategy to on-line instructing turned deeply rooted in trial, error, and collaboration. “My instructing type is: train 20 to half-hour, then do it. And if you happen to do it and fail, you’ll be taught.” So, bringing that via in a web based setting was her mission.
Farnham understands that not everybody learns the identical manner and is enthusiastic about ensuring her instructing strategies are participating and clear. She data movies exhibiting not simply the what, however the why and how:
“I say to myself, that is how I take into consideration the issue, that is the logical stream. Your stream may look totally different, however right here’s my methodology.”
Collaboration in an On-line Setting
So, how do you convey that iterative, hands-on power to a web based setting?
“I used Slack to fake we’re in a pc lab,” she explains. “Screenshots, threads, and questions all labored rather well. Nothing is a silly query, and the scholars assist one another out loads.”
Regardless of being formally asynchronous, every on-line Dartmouth course additionally makes a degree of getting two non-compulsory synchronous classes every week. For Farnham’s FPGA course, these had been extensively fashionable.
For the {hardware} programs within the curriculum, Dartmouth additionally ships bodily kits to every pupil’s house, in order that the educational could be actually hands-on.
In her instruction, Farnham combines documentation, hardware-cam demos, whiteboard explanations, and even efforts to gamify a few of the content material. “Principally, I take into consideration how I can provide you this data in each potential manner. No matter clicks for you, clicks.”
Having been a latest pupil herself, she can be immensely meticulous about the kind of materials she supplies to her college students.
“I’ll document an tutorial video and all the time watch it again. If I’m bored watching it, I’ll re-record it and attempt to discover methods to make it extra fascinating. If I don’t wish to watch it, why would you wish to?”
The Dartmouth Distinction: Studying to Study
What makes Dartmouth’s on-line MEng in Pc Engineering so highly effective, Farnham says, isn’t simply the content material. It’s the mindset.
“The reality is, tech is altering so shortly. What you be taught right this moment because the gold normal may not be the usual in 12 months. We train you learn how to be taught, and learn how to continue learning.”
From hands-on FPGAs to the ideas of machine imaginative and prescient, this system’s initiatives tie on to real-world trade challenges. “Within the FPGA course, we’ve had learners apply their mission on to their job. That’s the aim: make it tangible.” The coursework is designed to have use instances throughout a mess of industries.
Now embarking on her new machine imaginative and prescient course, she takes college students via weekly case research throughout fields like underwater robotics, agriculture, and aerospace. “The Mars Rover was constructed on an FPGA. You begin with a digicam and ask: How do you talk the info? What are the mechanical challenges? You may plug this into any trade.”
Her aim is for every pupil to be an efficient learner and communicator. “You generally is a actually good engineer, however if you happen to can’t talk your design, you may as nicely not be an engineer. Engineering impacts all the things; you can not work in a silo.”
Recommendation for Future Engineers: Be Curious. Take Dangers.
Farnham by no means anticipated to turn out to be a professor. “I wanted a change at work and needed to broaden into {hardware}. I do know tons of people that have completely pivoted their careers as a result of they realized one thing new, and that’s what I did,” she says. However now she’s a Dartmouth “lifer” and enthusiastic about increasing entry to engineering schooling.
“In case you’re interested in what else is on the market past your speedy bubble, go discover,” she says. “In case you’re excited about grad faculty and unsure why, however one thing’s pulling you, attempt it. What do it’s important to lose?”
Her recommendation? Be open. Keep adaptable. “Planning is nice, however don’t tie your self to the plan. You may be taught one thing new and pivot. That’s what engineering is. It’s drawback fixing, rethinking, and iterating. Identical to life.”
Able to take the subsequent step?
In case you’re curious, bold, and keen to know how issues work and learn how to make them higher via clever programs, Dartmouth’s on-line Grasp of Engineering in Pc Engineering is likely to be the next move. With professors like Kendall Farnham main the way in which, you received’t simply be taught {hardware}. You’ll learn to be taught, suppose, and talk, 100% on-line, hands-on, and head-first into the longer term.
