Applying Engineering methodology to create an audio amplifier
The goal of the Hardware Accelerator was to take students that already had a technical background (such as Physics or Computer Science) and teach them the work flows used in a professional engineering environment. The class was meant to take recent graduates or people looking to change fields and to condense one years worth of entry level engineering experience into three months. This involved understanding how deadlines are met and scheduled, how to work in a team, meticulous and clear documentation, accountability and testing.
The course project was to create a relatively simple audio amplifier, and take it from the idea/conceptual stage to final production. For more detail on this, refer to “Hardware Accelerator Summary” below. The board was designed in Eagle, manufactured on an OtherMill, and also assembled and tested by hand.