News

July 31, 2017 - The Fall 2017 course page is now under construction. Prof. Bryce, Prof. Marshall, and Prof. Clark will be instructing the Fall 2017 offering of E11. There will be four sections of 10 students each. We will update the course site over the next few weeks.

July 6, 2015 - Welcome, the Fall 2015 course page is now under construction. Prof. Duron and Prof. Clark will be instructing the Fall 2015 offering of E11. We will update the course site over the next few weeks.

August 25, 2013 - Welcome, the Fall 2013 course page is up and running. The lecture and lab materials are slightly out of date, but feel free to browse!

Course Description

Autonomous Vehicles is a hands-on interdisciplinary introduction to mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering, computer science, design, systems, and controls. The course has a variety of objectives including 1) Give students a taste of what engineers and computer scientist do to help make informed decisions about majors, 2) Provide practical technical skills relevant to subsequent projects including Machine shop, 3D CAD and printing, Soldering, C programming, Sensors and actuators, Analog and digital interfacing, Modeling, and Embedded control systems, 4) Wet students' appetite to learn more advanced topics, 5) Develop design > build > test > debug skills, 5) Develop teamwork, presentation, and technical writing skills, and 6) Just plain fun! By the end of this course, you and your teammate will have built your own autonomous vehicle and programmed it to play Capture the Flag.

About the Instructors

Dr. Christopher Clark is Professor at Harvey Mudd College. His research and teaching interests include autonomous systems, mobile robots, multi-robot systems, and underwater robotics. Much of his recent work includes deploying underwater robots on international field expeditions to aid scientists from other fields. For more details, visit the LAIR (Lab for Autonomous and Intelligent Robotics).

Dr. Brian Bryce is an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Harvey Mudd College. His background is in applied physics and electrical engineering. He is an expert in semiconductor devices and their fabrication. His open device engineering (ODE) lab creates new semiconductor devices as well as open scientific instrumentation. At Harvey Mudd he advises capstone clinic teams and teaches courses on analog and digital electronics, semiconductor devices, and experimental engineering.

Dr. Jason Marshall is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Harvey Mudd College and a Senior Postdoctoral Scholar at the California Institute of Technology. His research and teaching interests include solid mechanics, geotechnical engineering, discrete element methods, finite element analysis, and high performance computing techniques. His current research includes collaborations with JPL scientists on the upcoming InSight mission, development of granular material simulation software, and the analysis of 3D metal printed wicks for thermal space applications.