SAN DIEGO – In September, Altium launched Upverter Education, a free distance learning initiative to support STEM educators. The initiative provides curriculum and resources to guide users through the design, prototyping and manufacturing of electronics engineering, concluding with the delivery of students’ hardware designs. Teachers can use the materials to supplement their existing lesson plans, either as standalone units or as a full four- to six-week educational program.

The program centers around Altium’s Upverter, a free web-based PCB design tool.

“Upverter Education has the opportunity to help high school STEM teachers transition into the virtual classroom,” said Rea Callender, executive director of Upverter Education. “Our goal is to support the next generation of electronics designers of all economic levels by giving them access to free curriculum and professional tools today to prepare them for their innovative careers in the future.”

Since the launch, the Upverter Education team has formed partnerships with schools around the country and collaborations with leaders in engineering education, including the American Society for Engineering Education, TRYEngineering, First Robotics, and NASA’s Robotics Alliance Project.

Schools within Elk Grove Unified, CA, have adopted the Upverter Education program, as well as the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, a two-year public residential high school in Durham, NC.

“Currently with Covid-19, most of our students are spread throughout the state, rather than living on campus,” said Marshall Massengill, robotics mentor and alumnus of NCSSM. “Upverter’s collaborative nature is helping transform the team and keep on working, just as we would normally in the lab.”

The Upverter Teachers Guide provides step by step instructions for teachers to launch the program.

“This is perfect for my class already. It allows the kids to look at virtual circuits before they create physical ones, and you can have multiple people working on one circuit together,” said Michael Rosales, engineering and science teacher at Elk Grove Unified Florin High School.

Educators are using the program to teach robotics, engineering, digital electronics design, principles of engineering and STEM intro classes.

The Upverter Education team is also supporting high school students working on proposals for NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative program, extending the use of Upverter for small satellite payloads.

For an overview of the Upverter Education distance learning program, register for a Feb. 27 webinar here: https://centerx.gseis.ucla.edu/event/free-online-engineering-resources-webinar/.  

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