Altium LLC - Best Virtual Learning Solution

Company: Altium LLC, La Jolla, CA
Company Description: Altium LLC is accelerating the pace of innovation through electronics. For over 30 years, Altium has been delivering software that maximizes the productivity of PCB designers and electrical engineers. From individual inventors to multinational corporations, more PCB designers and engineers choose Altium software to design and realize electronics-based products.
Nomination Category: New Product & Service Categories - Education
Nomination Sub Category: Virtual Learning Solution

Nomination Title: Altium's Upverter Education

The Upverter Education program was officially launched by Altium on September 01, 2020.

Upverter Education is addressing an important societal need by empowering STEM educators teaching engineering, electronics design, and robotics with free classroom resources. The program is structured around a web-based electronics design tool called Upverter, originally incubated via Y Combinator’s startup program in 2011 and acquired by Altium in 2017.

Upverter Education has been instrumental during Covid-19 in helping high school teachers transition quickly into the virtual classroom. The included courses are free, engaging and integrated with Upverter, a fully functional electronics design tool that allows for seamless collaboration with students, with no downloads or installations. Educators and their students simply sign up and get started in their browser.

The remote learning features of the Upverter tool and interactive courses fit perfectly with educators’ goals to introduce and guide students through electronics design and their exploration of technology and engineering. Cohesive lesson plans make it easy for instructors to implement Upverter Education into their virtual classrooms.

The Upverter Education Program includes:
-A Teacher's Guide for step-by-step classroom integration
-Progressive courses that take students through the electronic design process, from the fundamentals to designing their own hardware
-Access to Upverter, an easy-to-use, collaborative, web-based tool for designing electronics
-A library of example projects and videos for inspiration and instruction

The Upverter Education team worked with educators and students to design a curriculum that is complete, structured, and intuitive. The program gives educators the flexibility to pick and choose modular assignments to support other coursework, or to follow the full, guided six-week course in its entirety.

Within each module, students learn the science and principles behind design decisions, and then execute the principles first hand, by operating within the tool itself with peer collaborators.

Each course culminates in a final review, a brief quiz, and a certificate upon completion, building a solid foundation for the engineers of tomorrow.

Since its introduction in September 2020, the free Upverter Education program has been adopted across the globe, currently in use by educators and students in over 42 countries.

The Upverter Education team has also formed strategic partnerships and collaborations with leaders in engineering education, including Project Lead the Way, First Robotics, Google Classroom, TRYEngineering, NASA’s Robotics Alliance Project, and the UCLA Science Project.

https://www.pltw.org/
https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/blog/2021-virtual-kit-2021
https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/blog/2021-virtual-kit-2021
https://tryengineering.org/news/upverter-education-free-online-engineering-resources/
https://tryengineering.org/news/upverter-education-free-online-engineering-resources/"
https://robotics.nasa.gov/
https://centerx.gseis.ucla.edu/science-project/

Teacher Testimonials

“This is perfect for my Principles of Engineering class—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.”Michael Rosales, Principles of Engineering Teacher -Florin High School, Elk Grove Unified,Elk Grove, CA

“The Upverter Education program is a great way to engage students and open their eyes to the field of electronics design. We will be submitting a proposal to NASA for a Cubesat design and the Upverter tool is a perfect way for the students to build and present their idea.” Ken Lesley, Director of Engineering Academy - McKinley Technology High School, Washington, D.C.

“Currently with Covid-19, most of our students are spread throughout the state. Upverter’s collaborative nature is helping transform the team and keep on working, just as we would normally in the lab.”Marshall Massengill, Robotics Mentor and alumnus of North Carolina School of Science and Math (NCSSM), Durham, North Carolina

For video testimonials from educators and students participating in the Upverter Education initiative, please visit: https://youtu.be/cJu0Qopwk2M