ThermalRunaway
New Member
One thing I can't help having noticed while using this forum is the sheer amount of posts we get from people who need to do some kind of project. The projects they normally talk about are usually part of some final year assignment that they've been given and, by the time they come to this forum, there's normally only 3-months or so left to do it in. Normally people have not even started development at this point and are still stuck on the "what can I do for a project" stage.
At this point these people are already quite agitated, probably having realized that unless they come up with something within the last 3 months they're going to end up failing whatever course they're doing. So they post a rather vauge description of what they want to do in the projects section of this site and then request that someone provide them with all the schematics, documentation and microcontroller software to complete the task they require.
Perhaps this kind of activity goes in phases so that we're more likely to see these kinds of posts at this time of year due to the fact that it's end of term for most universities and colleges, but it got me wondering as to what we can do to help these people. It's fairly obvious that given a 3 month time-frame and some vauge piece of information it's rare that anyone here can (or is willing to) come up with schematics, documentation and software to fit the bill, so usually a few of us will post some light suggestions and then leave the poor student to sort it out for him or herself.
I was wondering whether the site could partner up with some kind of projects website in order to offer better suggestions to these kinds of posters. For example, if we could find a few decent websites that host a number of electronics related projects covering a wide field of subjects, and obtain permission from them to link to the projects from here, perhaps Electro Tech could provide a projects listing page. Students with these kinds of questions could then be directed to this page and choose a suitable project to follow.
Just a suggestion - don't know whether anyone else will think it's a good one.
Brian
At this point these people are already quite agitated, probably having realized that unless they come up with something within the last 3 months they're going to end up failing whatever course they're doing. So they post a rather vauge description of what they want to do in the projects section of this site and then request that someone provide them with all the schematics, documentation and microcontroller software to complete the task they require.
Perhaps this kind of activity goes in phases so that we're more likely to see these kinds of posts at this time of year due to the fact that it's end of term for most universities and colleges, but it got me wondering as to what we can do to help these people. It's fairly obvious that given a 3 month time-frame and some vauge piece of information it's rare that anyone here can (or is willing to) come up with schematics, documentation and software to fit the bill, so usually a few of us will post some light suggestions and then leave the poor student to sort it out for him or herself.
I was wondering whether the site could partner up with some kind of projects website in order to offer better suggestions to these kinds of posters. For example, if we could find a few decent websites that host a number of electronics related projects covering a wide field of subjects, and obtain permission from them to link to the projects from here, perhaps Electro Tech could provide a projects listing page. Students with these kinds of questions could then be directed to this page and choose a suitable project to follow.
Just a suggestion - don't know whether anyone else will think it's a good one.
Brian