We live surrounded by electronic devices. We are so accustomed to the relentless pace of technology that it feels normal to expect a thinner, lighter, and faster phone or computer every year. But what is actually happening inside them? You plug them into a socket and everything just works: the screen lights up, the camera captures images, you press a key and a letter appears. In reality, we are interacting with dozens of sensors and actuators — we just don’t realize it anymore. You’ve probably heard of electronic circuits, but what are they really?
“Think of a small city connected by roads: seen from above, a circuit looks like a map, with paths that cross and divide. The destinations are the components: a LED that lights up when current flows through it, a push button acting as a drawbridge that connects two roads when pressed. Traveling along these roads are electrons — tiny, charged particles that push one another, bringing the circuit to life. But beware: if we let too many pass through a road at once, we risk overheating and burning the component, closing the path forever. This happens, for instance, when electrons find a shortcut that bypasses the component and they all rush there: that’s the famous short circuit, like a crash blocking traffic across the whole city. Inside every device, interactions like these are happening all the time. The world of electronics is vast and the components are endless, but I bet more than a few names sound familiar: display, resistor, sensor, potentiometer, transistor. And even if you don’t recognize them by name, you’ve already interacted with them anyway! To start exploring this universe, at the Lucrezia Tangorra Foundation we offer Arduino Start, an introductory course in electronics and programming.
In every lesson, we introduce new components, wire them up, and program them using Arduino — a platform born in Italy and world-renowned for its compactness and versatility, found in smart homes, 3D printers, and even small robots. Over five sessions, we will turn on lightbulbs, read sensors, and make a motor move. Participants will build their very first circuits and learn to solve problems with both their minds and hands.
