Festival of Stuff: Arduino for beginners Masterclass

Festival of Stuff

To make your creations interactive or animated, we often need to build in electronics or programmability. This used to be the preserve of electronic engineers, but in the last decade the Arduino has changed all that. Arduino is a simple, very cheap computer specialized for interacting with the real world. It is open-source and supported by a huge user community worldwide.

It's easy to wire up input switches or sensors, and output lights, motors, and other devices. Whether you're interested in animatronics, active clothing, contollable devices or just flashing a few coloured LEDs in sequence, Arduino provides an accessible starting place without needing a great deal of specialized knowledge.

This introductory workshop is aimed at makers with minimal or no electronic or programming skills. In this hands-on morning session, participants will be connecting switches and other inputs to an Arduino, and getting it to control LEDs and servomotors, and we’ll cover the basics of software (mostly cut-n-paste programming). The session is run by Mark Handley, inventor and UCL's Robotics Programming specialist. Mark is equally at home building egg cannons, interactive halloween masks, or taking aerial photographs from a homemade hydrogen balloon, and if you see an electric snowmobile in Kingston, it's probably got his kids on board.

This masterclass is not suitble for under 11's, people between the ages of 11-18 must be accompanied by an adult.