Oscilloscopes to go
Things you can find in a library: books, academic journals, audio recordings, databases, free internet.
Oh, and don’t forget oscilloscopes, multi-meters, waveform generators, and power supplies.
Students can sign out these specialized engineering devices from an equipment library created by the electrical and computer engineering department and keep them at home for up to 30 days at a time. The equipment collection, housed in the main Daley Library, addresses a need heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Students have told me they want to work on their electronics projects in their homes,” said Associate Professor Alan Feinerman, who pioneered the library concept. Feinerman knew that students were trying to borrow these pieces of technology from the UIC MakerSpace, which could not offer spares to lend.
While the equipment library was in place during the prior academic year, it became even more important during the pandemic as fewer students chose to work on campus, Feinerman said. He hopes to add more equipment for loan, such as the Analog Discovery 2 kits used in the popular ECE 225 and ECE 340 courses.