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Thoughts on starting a University electronics club

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aonomus

Tue Sept 16 2008, 01:04PM

Registered Member #1497 Joined: Thu May 22 2008, 05:24AM
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 801

I have been discussing with 2 other friends of mine whether or not to start an on-campus electronics club where most clubs are either ethnic/religious or academic help/special interest groups, and since my campus does not have any engineering/electronics courses whatsoever, general electronics would lie out of the domain of academia (for the most part at least).

The real problems I have with starting this club are twofold:
1. What to do - teach general electronics? guest speakers? general teaching sessions on various concepts/skills? assisting people with individual projects?

2. Potential legal/political problems (the real big problem) - The campus I am at has a high percentage of ethnicities subject to racial profiling, and in the post 9/11 world me and my friends who would help me start this could be held accountable for any variety of reasons. Granted a 555 + a few 4017 could become a crude timing device, what should/would my policy on refusing people from the club or rejecting projects without being biased against certain ethnicities?

If I can figure out a reasonable solution to #2, #1 will be worth thinking about in depth, any thoughts from 4hv?

Chris Russell

Tue Sept 16 2008, 02:18PM

... not Russel!
Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Jan 26 2006, 12:18AM
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Posts: 1052

An electronics club sounds like a great idea. For number one, all of the above. You could have people pitch in and do a bulk buy for parts, and build kits as a group. Guest speakers who use electronics in their work or daily lives would be a great way to showcase the practical applications of electronics knowledge. You could also let people demonstrate their favorite projects to the group.

As for number two, hmm. Due to certain past events involving the use of timers, you may want to be careful when allowing certain kinds of people into your club. You wouldn't want any trouble.

Seriously, though, just put the terrorism issue completely aside. If someone wants to learn, they ought to be free to join. If a project is useful, it ought to be allowed. I would probably shy away from something like a "prank bomb" project, but there's certainly no need to avoid the use of timers. Last time I checked, terrorists had moved several rungs up the ladder, to bombs remotely triggered by cell phones. I have never heard of anyone anywhere being held accountable for terrorist acts for teaching basic electronics. The world isn't that insane... yet. A good, positive club might just help stem the tide of people who think blinking lights mean bombs.

If there's any question at all, I'll bet your campus has a lawyer you can chat with. Most campuses have a place where students can seek free legal counsel. A good lawyer could explain what, exactly, your legal liability is in this case.

Steve Conner

Tue Sept 16 2008, 03:21PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

You guys are ruining the image of electronics. It would be hard to make its nerdy pocket-protector image any worse, but somehow you managed it by accusing EE students of being terrorists.

You need to stop thinking bombs and start thinking 48" plasma HDTVs and IPhones. Where do you think those come from? Once all the EEs are in Guantanamo Bay, where will the next Nvidia graphics card come from?

Backyard Skunkworks

Tue Sept 16 2008, 04:44PM

Registered Member #1262 Joined: Fri Jan 25 2008, 05:22AM
Location: Maryland, USA
Posts: 451

So long as your club isn't buying nitric acid for PCB etching, or making radar jamming systems, everything will be fine.

Bored Chemist

Tue Sept 16 2008, 04:58PM

Registered Member #193 Joined: Fri Feb 17 2006, 07:04AM
Location: sheffield
Posts: 1022

I can't think of a much better way of getting into trouble on most campusses than saying to someone "You shouldn't do that project because you are not white".
Start a trend- ignore people's colour, creed and whatever. If everyone follows your lead then you have saved the world; if not at least you can say you tried.

aonomus

Tue Sept 16 2008, 05:35PM

Registered Member #1497 Joined: Thu May 22 2008, 05:24AM
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 801

Chris hit the nail on the head for me, everyone else just seems to like pitching in their $0.02 cause of my worries. I'm not trying to ruin any image of EE, I'm just covering my ass, much the same way all of 4hv doesn't take kindly to silly requests about pyro in the chem section, or EMPs and other devices in electronics section. I'll go talk to the student council and see what they think, and ask about legal council for both the clubs and university's liability.

As for the thought of the club being positive, I'm all for it. This campus needs some fresh air, every club is non-hobby oriented, someone even started a Harry Potter club...

And as for the kit idea, my thought would be practical yet safe kits (ie: non-AC which rules out alot of lighting/home automation kits and even the simple clapper) are hard to choose... perhaps teach people to breadboard first? I might be fairly biased in terms of the kit thing since I've seen how cheap it is to home-etch PCBs and make a circuit, so I'm still a little lost as to what kits to consider.

And sorry if I've struck a nerve, I'm just nervous as heck about the idea in general being an introvert.

...

Tue Sept 16 2008, 06:26PM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

If you are looking for easy stuff to make sans mains, you can always play with logic chips. It would probably be a decent project for the term to wirewrap up a clock based on a 32khz crystals and a bunch of dividers/display drivers.

Or a simple am transmitter or crystal radio (heck, you might even be able to make a crystal radio tuned to the transmitter, but you would need a fair bit of power in the transmitter to get that working).

Or you can try for microprocessors. Not sure if that is what you guys are looking for but there is endless stuff to do with them

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Tue Sept 16 2008, 06:27PM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

See if your college has an IEEE branch already. These guys are heavily involved with the campus in all kinds of electronics projects.

If there isn't an IEEE chapter, then start one. You'll get all kinds of support and help from the IEEE community since the infrastructure is already there! Pretty cool huh, all you gotta do is start the chapter and you already have industry support!

The IEEE at CSULB was helping design the uC boards for the uC classes, micro mouse events, all those kinds of things. I thought it was pretty cool but I never really had the time to get involved with them, should have.

But anyway, IEEE has enough political clout that you shouldn't have much of a problem unless the college doesn't have a room to spare.

Chris Russell

Tue Sept 16 2008, 07:15PM

... not Russel!
Registered Member #1 Joined: Thu Jan 26 2006, 12:18AM
Location: Tempe, Arizona
Posts: 1052

Dr. Meh wrote ...

You guys are ruining the image of electronics. It would be hard to make its nerdy pocket-protector image any worse, but somehow you managed it by accusing EE students of being terrorists.

You need to stop thinking bombs and start thinking 48" plasma HDTVs and IPhones. Where do you think those come from? Once all the EEs are in Guantanamo Bay, where will the next Nvidia graphics card come from?

I think aonomus is being a little overly cautious, but if he's going to found a club, I don't think anyone should begrudge him a little protection. I had to read his opening post a few times, since my immediate reaction was a bit harsh, before I saw what he was getting at. He's trying to find a way to keep things safe and fun *without* introducing accusations or racism, terrorism, or the like. Wanting to know where to draw the line is a fair question. Obviously a 555 timer is okay, but something like this is not. The right place to draw the line is somewhere in between.

Liability is an important thing to consider these days, not just for acts of terrorism, but for people who might unwittingly shock themselves, or get a nasty soldering iron burn. It would be nice to know just exactly where he stands, rather than hoping nothing happens.

In my mind, the future image of electronics relies on some responsible people taking the forefront, and making sure that people understand that electronics is a fun, safe, and important hobby. While we'd all like to ignore the panicky, silly public, continuing to do so will only result in hobby electronics being destroyed in a similar manner to home chemistry.

aonomus

Wed Sept 17 2008, 02:12AM

Registered Member #1497 Joined: Thu May 22 2008, 05:24AM
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 801

Thanks for that Chris, as for the liability, soldering iron burns, electric shocks, and even simple cuts/scratches/punctures (from IC leads >_<) are semi-common for the inexperienced. All of my chem and bio lab courses have a safety video and disclaimer form that needs to be signed. All club activities that are deemed potentially dangerous (eg: off-campus trip paintballing) also have disclaimers. I would likely need to go to due dillagence for student safety (safety/disclaimer/first aid).

As for things to do, simple crystal/divider based clocks, LED effects, radio receivers, maybe even more complex things like uC powered stuff might be a possibility (uC might be a bit far off, especially since I myself have little experience with uC's, only analog/logic and minimal uC stuff).

The main goals of the thread were to give me a little more insight into the legal liabilities, and quite simply 'what to do'. In regards to the IEEE thing, my university is split into 3 campuses across the greater Toronto area, the main campus being the largest with all the engineering stuff, but in my case there is no IEEE branch at my campus, and from the looks of what the group at the main campus does (ie: actual academic applications, grad talks, seminars, etc) it'd be way over my head to even think about going near IEEE.

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