[6.002x] MITx certificates

Dear all,

The 6.002x certificates from MITx are now available for download. You should go to your 'Profile' page, and there will be a link to generate the MITx certificate. You can get it with and without the course grade.

I hope you are proud of your achievement, and that in the future you will continue to strive beyond the ordinary,

-Tony

[6.002x] The End

Congratulations to everyone for finishing the final exam of 6.002x.

The last three months were some of the most difficult in your academic career so far -- the challenging engineering curriculum from MIT, the daily lab/lecture sessions at the Sant school, as well as the fact that the entire course was conducted in English. You should be very proud of having completed the course.

I believe that all of you have learned a lot about electrical engineering -- both theory and practice. The content of 6.002x is a crucial foundation for further studies in electrical engineering, and I hope that you will stay engaged with future follow-on courses from MITx. And, for those of you who did not completely master the content of 6.002x, you should consider re-enrolling in the class during the September session. (You can then spend this summer, among other things, by reviewing math fundamentals necessary for 6.002x.)

For your information, I will be leaving Mongolia on Sunday night. I will be available at the school on Saturday and Sunday, however, to discuss anything that you're interested in. I would love to see you there.

I hope to hear of your great work in the future,

-Tony

Sant school electronics lab -- June 8, 2012

Scene from the lab:


Siren!:

The Arduino Kid

The Arduino kid and his creations:

Wiimote whiteboard at Sant school (2) and other things

Discussion and demo. More to come here.



Getting an Arduino and other electronics tools... Not an easy task to get Amazon shipments here.

Prototype (yet incomplete) of an alarm that's triggered by loud noise:

Future plans:

[6.002x] Recommended problems

Hi all,

Here's a list of homework problems that I think you should review, as a minimum, in preparation for the final.

• H1P3: Power in resistive networks
• H2P3: Logic circuits
• H3P1: SR model, static discipline
• H5P1: MOSFET analysis
• H6P4: Switched RC
• H7P2: Switched LR
• H8P1: Delta function input
• H9P2: Differential equation
• H10P2: Impedances
• H11P1: More impedance
• H12P2: Op-amp analysis

-Tony

[6.002x] Final exam

Hello all,

This week, we will take the final exam for 6.002x. Like the midterm exam, you are given a number of days to complete the exam, though you are supposed to finish the exam in a single 24 hour session.

Important information:

• My final day in Mongolia is June 10th (Sunday), so it is really crucial that we finish the exam this week.
• As far as MITx is concerned, you are able to take the exam between June 7th (Thursday this week) to June 12th (Tuesday next week).
• For 11th graders, due to the Mongolian college entrance exam, we must take the exam on June 7th (Thursday).
• Otherwise, 9th and 10th graders are able to take the exam on Friday.

On Monday -- Wednesday, please come to the regularly scheduled lab hours and class sessions. I will go over exam review with each of you. 

To do well on the 6.002x exam, I request that you review the homework assignments that we've worked on over the past three months, and make sure that you understand the basic concepts underlying their solution.

See you tomorrow,

-Tony

[6.002x] Final lab session

Hi all,

The final lab session on operational amplifiers is attached!

-Tony

[Link: Lab worksheet]

* * *

My ambient light detector:

Students:

Their light detector:

Others, not quite so pretty:

Also doing a little C programming:

[6.002x] Complex numbers

Hello all,

For those of you unfamiliar with complex numbers, please take a look at the material here:

https://6002x.mitx.mit.edu/wiki/view/MathReview

-Tony

Wiimote whiteboard at Sant school

An "IR pen" was made, with almost no tools. The pen is to be used as part of a Wiimote-based "smart"-whiteboard:

Testing out the first pen directly on a laptop screen:

Inventor:

Later... version 2:

[6.002x] Class at Sant school continues!

Hello all,

Many of you are now on your summer vacation from the Sant School. However, the 6.002x program continues into the first week of June, and the engineering lab program at the Sant School continues as well. Please come to our regularly scheduled sessions as before. Thanks!

-Tony

Mongolian countryside

Panoramas from the Mongolian "countryside":

A nomad and his horse:

[6.002x] Fifth lab session

Hello again!

I hope you are rested from the physics olympiad testing. This week, I will show you how to use first-order RC and LR circuits as filters, to perform analog signal processing. The lab assignment is attached,

-Tony

[Link: Lab worksheet]

* * *

MAX294 lowpass filter (schematic from Tom's Physics 123 page):

Gandan monastery

So far my favorite place in "UB" (Ulaanbaatar), although I've been told that the surrounding area is not the safest:

Inside, he lives here:


And off to the side:

[6.002x] Fourth lab session

Hello all,

The midterm is now over! 

The next lab assignment (attached) will introduce you to capacitors and inductors.

-Tony

[Link: Lab worksheet]

* * *

My LC ringing test:

Below, a toy DC motor is used as a generator to produce voltage:

• A battery-powered motor drives a second motor which is used as a generator. The two motor circuits are electrically isolated.
• The output of the "generator" (yellow scope trace) is cleaned up with a diode and capacitor (blue trace).
• The cleaned DC output is used to power an AVR microcontroller, which is running a "LED blink" program.

Kind of nifty setup. Inspired by several students here who are interested in power generation.

Interesting sensors and electronics parts

Hello all,

An interesting website that sells electronic sensors and parts is

    www.sparkfun.com

where I bought many of the parts that I brought to Mongolia.

You might find it interesting to browse the "Sensors" and "Robotics" sections (or all other sections!). If you find a particular item interesting, and you want to try building projects with them, please let me know!

-Tony

* * *

Possibly the first "Blinky" in Mongolia?

The Gobi Desert

Last weekend, we went down to the Gobi Desert to visit the "Oyu Tolgoi" copper mine.

We landed here, a ger airport:

In the middle of the desert, the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine has been built in the last 27 months:

Conceptually, the mining operation is simple. Rocks with copper content is dug from the ground, which are then crushed in large washing-machine-like apparatuses. (The large rocks are put into the "washing machine" with steel balls. As the machine turns, the steel balls crush the rocks.) A chemical process is then used to extract "copper concentrate" from the crushed rocks, for further (off-site) processing.

Going into the facility:

Inside. The previously-mentioned washing machines:

This is where the workers live:

This is a ger where we spent a few days. Originally, the trip was supposed to last one day, but because of sandstorms in the desert the planes were cancelled and we stayed an extra two days.

What else is in the desert? Horses, camels, goats, sheep and their nomad owners. The desert is vast:

In addition, there are also petroglyphs of unknown age: