When Professor Kendall Farnham agreed to show within the on-line Master of Engineering in Computer Engineering at Dartmouth, she knew it wouldn’t be straightforward.

“How can we facilitate studying with desktop {hardware} once I can’t look over your shoulder and inform you that you simply plugged one thing in backwards and that’s why it’s smoking?” she laughs.

However for Farnham, the problem wasn’t a deterrent, it was a chance. Her mission: Make the net expertise for {hardware} as compelling and hands-on because the in-person model. It’s the form of artistic, decided power that defines each this system and her philosophy of engineering schooling.

From Software program to {Hardware}, and Again Once more

Farnham’s path again to Dartmouth (the place she earned her undergraduate engineering diploma) was something however typical. She began in software program gross sales at SAP however shortly realized she was on the improper monitor. “Gross sales was not for me,” she says. So she pivoted to software program engineering regardless of not having a proper software program background. “I feel like a pc,” she says, merely.

After three and a half years as a software program engineer, a fateful recruitment journey to Dartmouth pivoted her path totally. A dialog with engineering professor Petra Bonfert-Taylor sparked the thought of graduate college. “She instructed me, ‘You’re getting form of outdated,’” Farnham jokes. “I didn’t notice I used to be an historical fossil at 26, nevertheless it was actually life-changing.”

She returned for a PhD, earned a NASA fellowship, and constructed a medical system on an FPGA (field-programmable gate array). And when she realized Dartmouth didn’t provide graduate-level FPGA programs? She constructed one. “I instructed my advisor that such a course was lacking, and so they stated, ‘Nice, go train it.’” 

That mindset and private motto, “Study it, train it, break it, repair it,” has come to outline her instructing model.

Educating {Hardware} On-line: Breaking and Constructing, Collectively

Having simply defended her PhD in February 2024, Farnham was keen to leap into the brand new problem of academia, a path she by no means thought she’d take. Nonetheless, when instructed that the course could be taught on-line, she had an preliminary second of panic. She thought: “That’s not possible. {Hardware} is so arduous! How are we going to do that on-line?”

She was decided to determine easy methods to convey the hands-on features of in-person studying to an internet setting. Her method to on-line instructing grew to become deeply rooted in trial, error, and collaboration. “My instructing model is: train 20 to half-hour, then do it. And when you do it and fail, you’ll study.” So, bringing that by way of in an internet setting was her mission.

Farnham understands that not everybody learns the identical means and is captivated with ensuring her instructing strategies are partaking and clear. She information movies displaying not simply the what, however the why and how: 

“I say to myself, that is how I take into consideration the issue, that is the logical circulate. Your circulate may look completely different, however right here’s my methodology.” 

Collaboration in an On-line Setting

So, how do you convey that iterative, hands-on power to an internet setting?

“I used Slack to fake we’re in a pc lab,” she explains. “Screenshots, threads, and questions all labored very well. Nothing is a silly query, and the scholars assist one another out loads.”

Regardless of being formally asynchronous, every on-line Dartmouth course additionally makes some extent of getting two non-compulsory synchronous classes every week. For Farnham’s FPGA course, these had been extensively well-liked.

For the {hardware} programs within the curriculum, Dartmouth additionally ships bodily kits to every scholar’s residence, in order that the training could be really hands-on.

In her instruction, Farnham combines documentation, hardware-cam demos, whiteboard explanations, and even efforts to gamify a few of the content material. “Mainly, I take into consideration how I can provide you this info in each potential means. No matter clicks for you, clicks.”

Having been a latest scholar herself, she can also be immensely meticulous about the kind of materials she gives to her college students.

“I’ll report an educational video and at all times watch it again. If I’m bored watching it, I’ll re-record it and attempt to discover methods to make it extra attention-grabbing. If I don’t wish to watch it, why would you wish to?”

The Dartmouth Distinction: Studying to Study

What makes Dartmouth’s on-line MEng in Laptop Engineering so highly effective, Farnham says, isn’t simply the content material. It’s the mindset.

“The reality is, tech is altering so shortly. What you study at this time because the gold normal won’t be the usual in 12 months. We train you easy methods to study, and easy methods to continue learning.”

From hands-on FPGAs to the ideas of machine imaginative and prescient, this system’s tasks tie on to real-world trade challenges. “Within the FPGA course, we’ve had learners apply their venture on to their job. That’s the aim: make it tangible.” The coursework is designed to have use instances throughout a large number of industries. 

Now embarking on her new machine imaginative and prescient course, she takes college students by way of weekly case research throughout fields like underwater robotics, agriculture, and aerospace. “The Mars Rover was constructed on an FPGA. You begin with a digital camera and ask: How do you talk the info? What are the mechanical challenges? You’ll be able to plug this into any trade.” 

Her aim is for every scholar to be an efficient learner and communicator. “You generally is a actually good engineer, however when you can’t talk your design, you may as properly not be an engineer. Engineering impacts every little thing; you can not work in a silo.”

Recommendation for Future Engineers: Be Curious. Take Dangers.

Farnham by no means anticipated to grow to be a professor. “I wanted a change at work and wished to broaden into {hardware}. I do know tons of people that have completely pivoted their careers as a result of they realized one thing new, and that’s what I did,” she says. However now she’s a Dartmouth “lifer” and captivated with increasing entry to engineering schooling.

“If you happen to’re inquisitive about what else is on the market past your instant bubble, go discover,” she says. “If you happen to’re excited about grad college and undecided why, however one thing’s pulling you, strive it. What do you need to lose?”

Her recommendation? Be open. Keep adaptable. “Planning is sweet, however don’t tie your self to the plan. You may study one thing new and pivot. That’s what engineering is. It’s downside fixing, rethinking, and iterating. Identical to life.”

Able to take the subsequent step? 

If you happen to’re curious, bold, and keen to grasp how issues work and easy methods to make them higher by way of clever techniques, Dartmouth’s online Master of Engineering in Computer Engineering may be the next step. With professors like Kendall Farnham main the way in which, you received’t simply study {hardware}. You’ll learn to study, suppose, and talk, 100% on-line, hands-on, and head-first into the longer term.