Learn More! DigiKey Continuing Education Center

DigiKey has been sponsoring the Continuing Education Center (CEC), hosted on Design News, since 2012. Now in its twelfth semester the CEC has a plethora of knowledge at your fingertips free of charge. After a quick registration (less than a minute), you can access the 130+ classes. Topics that have been covered include Microcontrollers, Sensors, IoT, Automation and much, much more.

Why do I have to register? We hear you. For those of you who are apprehensive about giving your email out to another service, we have decided to host a couple of the sessions on our YouTube page. This way you can get a taste of what the sessions have to offer without handing out your personal information. We are providing you with the introductory lessons of two of the classes which are a way to get familiar with the series. The deeper you get in the series, the classes become more in-depth and are more intended for someone already familiar with the specified platforms or ideas.

To pique your interest, the first session (from October 2016) taught by Jacob Beningo is titled “Embedded System Design Techniques – Getting Started Developing Professional Embedded Software – Session 1: Electrical Engineers, Computer Scientists and the Science of Selecting Microcontrollers”. Jacob provides an overview on MCU selection and what specifications are most important to an electrical engineer versus a computer scientist.

The second session offered (from August 2016) taught by Don Wilcher is titled “Getting Hands-On with Arduino Mechatronics – Class 1: Introduction, Driving LCDs and Audio Alarms with an Arduino”. In this session Don gives an introduction to Mechatronics and presents some opportunities for hands-on projects that include creating a DIY serial monitor marquee and an audio alarm continuity tester.

While you will have to register to get the full benefit of the ongoing classes, these two sessions should be enough to get your feet wet. By registering on Design News for the current classes, you open up the interactive component of the CEC: being able to ask questions of the presenter, discuss with other students, and download additional learning materials. In addition to these benefits, you may also be able to qualify for IEEE Professional Development Hours – more information about that is on the Design News website (the YouTube/recorded versions do not qualify for these benefits).

Let us know what you think of the CEC classes in the comments. Are there specific topics you would like to see covered?