On December 9, 2016, at 2:00 PM, students from Class 1 of the 15th Industrial Design major, led by Teacher Liu Jun, conducted the course review for “Electronics and Electrical Technology” in the corridor on the 4th floor of the specialized teaching building. Following the principle of “fairness, justice, and openness“, they evaluated the performance of each group’s Arduino Uno cars.

This evaluation was conducted from three aspects: obstacle avoidance (not hitting the edges within the specified range for 30 seconds), line following (number of laps within 2 minutes on the specified track), and straight running (time taken to cover the same distance). Since the evaluation requirements were announced, each group began to prepare intensively for this assessment. They purchased car components online, assembled them, input the program code into the Arduino, debugged and modified it, and finally adjusted the cars. What seemed like a simple process actually involved serious thinking and persistent debugging from each group member. The 4th floor of the specialized teaching building was filled with the mechanical sounds of the cars running, students discussing, and cheers of encouragement.

Some groups’ cars deviated from the specified track during the line following challenge. Upon discovering the issue, the respective groups immediately debugged their cars; in the obstacle avoidance area, some cars responded quickly and completed the task excellently within the specified time, while others rushed forward headfirst into the “south wall”. During the cars’ movement, students were nervously praying that their cars wouldn’t encounter any unexpected issues.

In the end, each group’s car successfully completed its task within three debugging opportunities. Although the “Electronics and Electrical Technology” course lasted only two weeks, students gradually entered the field of “electronics”, which is closely related to industrial design, through their diligent study and research. The car evaluation was just a summary of the course; students will continue their never-ending exploration and practice.

Text: Chen Simin

Images: Li Jinghui

Layout: Wu Lingfang

Fuzhou University Academy of Fine Arts Industrial Design