

As a studying Electrical Engineer, what project should I do during winter break? - sepetoner

I am currently studying Electrical Engineering.  Everything I am learning is extremely interesting to me.  Winter break is coming up, and I want to make use of the month I have off.<p>- I am pretty good with Java and C++.  Not great, but good.  Should I try to elaborate on one of those for a month?<p>- I am currently in a microcontrollers class, and loving it.  We are using Assembly to program the PIC18.  I would love to make something awesome with a microcontroller, but am not sure I have enough knowledge at this point to do so.  Would this be something I should look into?<p>- I have always been interested in hacking.  Would it be worth spending a month just reading/learning different things about hacking?  What languages should I look at?  What should I read?  What should I do to learn?<p>Programming, microcontrollers, and hacking are probably my best options at this point.  What do you guys recommend?  Why?  Which is the most fun to you?
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johnmurch
1\. Pickup an arduino and build something - maybe a r/c truck with some IR
sensors and servos that scan for an "autonomous" powered car

2\. If you can get your hands on a raspberry pi - I would highly recommend
building something with it that is platform based. e.g.
[http://hackaday.com/2012/08/29/party-photo-printer-built-
aro...](http://hackaday.com/2012/08/29/party-photo-printer-built-around-a-
raspberry-pi/)

Either way focus on 1 project and get it built from start to finish. Even if
it sucks, focus on completion - just my $0.02

:)

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sepetoner
This is exactly what I was looking for. I have heard of both arduino, and
raspberry pi, but I believe this is where my knowledge is lacking. What are
their capabilities? Obviously I will look into them now, but what can they do?
All I have done in my microcontrollers class is make an LED screen say
different things, and move wheels forward and backward. Is this what these two
do?

