Description

PIC Programming workshop for the 1st year undergraduates of Department of Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka was held on 16th of November 2017. Mr. Janith Kodithuwakku, a graduate from University of Moratuwa and the Founder and the CEO of Ace of Modern Electronics (Pvt) Ltd. The microcontroller is an electronic component, which is programmed to perform various control operations. The PIC is a family of the microcontroller, which is manufactured by the different companies such as NXP, microchip, etc. The PIC stands for “peripheral interface controller”, which contains memories, timers/counters, serial communication, interrupts and ADC converters built into a single integrated chip. The PIC microcontrollers are programmed by the embedded C language or assembly language by using the appropriate dedicated software. Having a prior experience and understanding about PIC programming is essential for an Electronic Undergraduate and at the Semester 2, they are given a project to implement using PIC Micro Controller. But most of the Undergraduates fail to finish this project due to lack of expertise in this technology and as industry applications society, we stepped in to give them a sufficient understanding of the technology. Since only a handful of students had prior experience in this area, the workshop mostly covered the basics and fundamentals. Students were taught from the basic level of installing the required software to a level where students were able to run a small smart robot. They were taught to program motor drivers, sensors and implement the PID algorithms in PIC micro controllers. This workshop was a huge success with the participation of more than 100 undergraduates and we had good reviews from the students about the session. Project Chairperson for this project was Mr.Lakshitha Gunasekara, current president of IEEE IAS in the University of Moratuwa.