TECHX LAB

A new feature of the TechX Lab is hosting workshops presented by our student workers. These workshops are designed to provide unique experiences that a normal classroom setting can’t provide. The plan is to have four workshops each quarter covering a variety of tech-related topics.

This quarter’s workshops were:

• Fundamentals of Computer Hardware in 2020
  • This workshop focused on what to consider for constructing a PC in 2020 and what parts are essential and recommended. It also provided information regarding the function of necessary components of a computer.
• Implementing MQTT to Collect Data
  • This workshop was about using the MQTT protocol to transfer data from one device to another. It outlined the relationship between MQTT and Internet of Things and how they relate. There was also a demonstration of the MQTT protocol using two Raspberry Pis and an LED.
• Augmented Reality with Unity
  • This workshop covered the fundamental ideas that surrounds augmented reality – bringing digital objects and environments into the real world. Through an activity, students saw how to implement this idea in Unity, a virtual reality platform capable of creating augmented reality apps. In this activity, students were able to project a digital object whenever an image target was in the camera’s line of sight.
• The Versatility of Excel (and Sheets)
  • This workshop focused on showing off many unique ways to utilize Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Students were shown several examples ranging from simple tables to spreadsheets with a large amount of data. The goal of this workshop was to show off Excel’s and Sheet’s many unique functions that can be used to improve daily tasks.

Across all four workshops, 25 people attended with 20 of these people being unique attendees. This is the TechX Lab’s first set of workshops and we’re happy to see that there was a positive response. We’re also pleased to announce that we plan to host another four workshops for the Winter Quarter. Details about these upcoming workshops will be posted in the coming weeks on the Workshops page.