Have you ever wondered how exactly the devices we use in our daily lives are constructed? We can all learn to use a digital camera, even if we don’t all know exactly how the digital signal processor inside of it works.

Rather than follow the traditional “build-up” approach to teaching, in this workshop we will take the opposite tack and do a hardware “tear-down”. Let’s peel back the layers of abstraction and look inside the black box of hardware. Nothing works merely by magic, and the more familiar we are with the pieces that compose electronic devices, the better we will be able to build newer and greater ones without being intimidated by their complexity.

Participants will be provided with used digital cameras. We will work together to take them apart, look inside, and see their composition at an embedded systems level. What makes them similar? How are they different and why? Bring your curiosity and expect to use your hands and your minds to do some investigating. Let’s take the mystery out of hardware!