Three years ago, I got an idea. Let’s put BeagleBone Black’s (bbb) everywhere, EVERYWHERE! These cute, little, inexpensive computers are great for interfacing to equipment and doing mini science experiments. Great for robots and the like. They are fun, sort of easy, and versatile. After setting her bbb up yesterday one of my students said she felt like a “Tech Wiz”. It took 3 years but we are finally diving in.

One could argue that the students iPhone is equally good at doing these tasks and that there are devices out there that are better at connecting stuff to the outside world. Devices like Moku:Lab at https://liquidinstruments.com/ are amazing in what they can do. Its an entire science experiment in your hand. And here’s the thing, they may be too simple-ish to use.

So why dive in on BBB? I went to visit one of our industry partners over break. They had an amazing set up and that actually made me excited about a field that I do not work in. During visit, I kept thinking how much fun it would be to work there. Everyday would be “troubleshooting“. Then back to being a teacher. How many Gauss’s Law problems can you do before it is over kill? While E&M is a great time, I think I want to make sure our students are troubleshooting as much as possible. Getting over problems that arise, is a critical part of being a good scientist or engineer. Too many STEM folks give up when a problem is encountered. Instead, these problems should get our students up at 3 in the morning trying to figure out solutions. (BTW, I was playing with the wifi on the bbb last night, fun!) It is these skills that will make our students rock stars for years to come.

And of course there is the widely popular Raspberry Pi and Audreio which we do have and have used over the years. Raspberry Pi is great because of all the USB connections. Audreio are just super easy. Both are cheaper than the bbb. So expense is one of the factors. Devices like NI’s myRIO are about $500. Where a bbb is about $50.

Speed is another factor. bbb have another mode if you are willing to deal with a little bit of a headache. bbb has the pru.

Analog options are a big factor. The Raspberry Pi is prefect but there are no analog in on the board so you need to add additional features just to get going. Analog is typically how science is done.

The thing that I really like about the bbb, is the troubleshooting. It feels like science. The Unix interface is a great opportunity for students to learn how file structures work on computers (and even how computers work – it is amazing how much of a computers operation is hidden from the average user). The $500 devices are much easier to use, which is good, but as educator I don’t want to make it too easy all the time. Difficult is good right? (At some level.)

I know that bbb are old already. So maybe I am missing the boat on some new technologies. I have three students working on this problem with me this semester. We are going to ask some really fun questions:

• How to replace expensive research lab equipment with inexpensive devices?
• How to develop teaching labs where student own the whole system and have to make it work?
• How to develop a pseudo-standardized start up procedure for our innovation center in the physics department?

Meet our Team:

• Rena Beban
• Thomas Grlic
• James St. John
• Sally Lau
• Brenden Silva (Sort of…we will get there I hope.)