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Arduino Day!

Did you know that the Arduino project is TEN YEARS OLD? Step back for a minute and think about everything that’s happened in the last ten years of your life. There’s no denying that Arduino played a very considerable role in the creation of the maker movement, and it is probably the reason why you’re even bothering to read my blog. Today is International Arduino Day, a 24-hour extravaganza of celebrations around the Arduino platform and everything it has done to empower people over the last 10 years. Read Signe Brewster‘s excellent Gigaom article about the significance of the Arduino platform. It includes quotes from me and two of my maker compatriots, Mitch AltmanMichael Shiloh. You should also tune into the special Arduino Day Live Stream from Adafruit Industries at 7PM EST (4PM PST).

Let’s cut to the chase before I start getting all nostalgic about Arduino. In honor of Arduino day, you can take 35% off the price of the print edition of my book, Exploring Arduino. Simply use the code VBH20 when ordering the book from Wiley.com. This code is valid globally for the next few days.

How Arduino Changed my Life

Seeing as how today is Arduino Day, it seems like a good time to reflect on the impact that it has had on my life. My first exposure to Arduino was in my sophomore year at Cornell. I took the inaugural INFO4320 course, taught by Professor François Guimbretière. The course, titled “Introduction to Prototyping and Physical Computing,” focused on using laser cutters, 3D printers, CAD tools, microcontroller platforms, and electronics to build interactive projects. As you may have guessed, the microcontroller of choice for the course was the Arduino. This was not my first time using microcontrollers, but it was my first experience with the Arduino. I picked it up quickly, and dove into building projects like the SudoGlove (my final project for the course). The Arduino “kickstart” I got from this course set the rest of my career into motion. Before long, I was giving talks about engineering education using open source platforms, producing wildly successful Arduino tutorial videos, designing 3D printer electronics based on the Arduino, and doing tons of other exciting engineering projects. Even today, I teach Arduino classes in my “spare time” at Google, and I consistently support hardware hack-a-thons, develop educational curriculum based around Arduino, and donate to STEAM causes via Blum Idea Labs (my consulting firm). Most recently, my Arduino experience came full circle when I found out that INFO4320, the class that first taught me Arduino at Cornell, is now using my book as the course textbook! My videos have taught engineering concepts to students of all ages in every country on earth. Even researchers in Antarctica have watched my videos and read my blog!  I am extremely humbled and honored to know that so many people have learned from me. I’m thankful that the Arduino platform has made it easy to teach people, and I promise to continue doing everything in my power to promote engineering education using open hardware platforms like the Arduino.

How is Arduino Changing your Life (and the World)?

I’ve talked to thousands of people about the exciting ways that they are using Arduino. I want to give you the opportunity to tell the world about the amazing Arduino projects you’re working on. Click the button below, and replace the capitalized text with a link to your Arduino project, and hit the “Tweet” button. I’ll select the coolest projects and feature them on my blog next week!

22 comments

  1. Ciao Jeremy,

    I celebrated the event with wife and kids at the ROBOT & MAKERS Fair in Milan and then at the Leonardo Da Vinci Mesueum where you can see the ropbots he designed in XV Century… AMAZING!

    https://www.facebook.com/giorgio.tavasanis

    Thanks again for showing the first steps in Arduino Wolrd through your videos!! I’m Automation Product Manager in my Company and I am now using sometimes the Arduino platform to research and design new poducts.

  2. Great article Jeremy! It is a wonderful story about your book being used for the course that got you into Arduino. Iterative learning? Or is it recursive?

  3. Thank you , Jeremy, for your Arduino book, It is well written because it keeps my mind moving along with the thought you are conveying. A rare treat.

  4. Very touching statement. I am a week old in the Arduino world. I am glad to have your video tutorials as my guide.
    I celebrate with you.

  5. Hi Jeremy,

    I’m dealing with adult education and your performance is really impressed me. Congratulation for your book and tutorial videos! Really nice job! I like your illustration of sample circuits! How did you draw them?

    BR, Peter

      1. fritzing NG web page added 10 or so programs to my pc
        FREE is NG
        Fun has a cost, it is better to pay.
        Your book is WOW
        All your EDU stuff is WOW
        Thank you

  6. I find the arduino environment to be very confusing.. although I’m pretty new to programming but I can’t imagine I’m alone. I understand they’ve tried to make things easier by hiding the internal workings but then when things don’t work you’re totally lost!

    For example, 2 things come to mind…

    1) just trying to download the arduino “core” library:
    https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/tree/master/hardware/arduino/avr/cores/arduino
    You can see all the files present, yet if you want to download a zip of the files. where’s that link? If you click the code symbol button, it takes you to an entirely different set of code:
    https://github.com/arduino/Arduino
    and on that page you can download a zip of all the files, except it’s totally different than the files from the first link!

    2) Is there a list of functions that are in “libcore.a”? For example, you know whether or not include cpp/h files in your project if there’s functions in the libcore.a file you are using, correct?

    i’m sure this is all pretty basic, but as a total beginner, it’s the little things (like downloading!) that can be frustrating a student just trying to get started!

  7. Hey jeremy i m huge fan of u. I m very happy after reading ur blogs and project. Presently m very much interested to work with arduino. I also went through al ur tutorial video on arduino. Recently m working for my college project i.e. Usn generator. I made d whole project using hexkeypad, finger print scanner, lcd display, rtc, sd card. At last to i stuck in final touch up. I need to print d data present in sd card using label printer. But m not getting how command my label printer. I know u’ll help me. Thanks in advance.

  8. I’m your student on arduino i started two weeks ago and i finish learning and building electronics (except some beacuase of lack of equipment).i’m a Sri Lankan and 14 years old but i understands well because of your teching skills so thank you for all.Get doing like this one day you can build a real jarvis(you mention it on your video)with artifitial intelligence.good luck!!!

  9. Sir
    I am working on a project using arduino in which I want to display resistance value on LCD when push button of particular colour is pressed (I will take 10 push buttons naming different colours to them externally by pen or marker)in sequence as printed on resistor,it should show resistance value.
    Please tell me how should I do this or what should I refer for this.

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