E47 FoundationE47 FOUNDATION
Electronics & Embedded Systems
COURSE 02 · ONE-MONTH MODULE

Electronics & embedded systems — making the part do something

One month of circuits, microcontrollers, and sensors — the course where a printed housing becomes a device that senses, decides, and acts.

1 monthArduino / ESP32KiCadSoldering
PROGRAM DETAILS

What thismonthcovers.

The second course bridges mechanical and software. Students learn DC circuit fundamentals, breadboard prototyping, microcontroller programming, sensor and actuator interfacing, and basic PCB design — then build a working, battery-powered, sensor-driven device.

1 month (~20 sessions) — typically a student's second module

DURATION

Evening bench labs + weekend build sessions, ~15 students per section

FORMAT

CAD course, or equivalent comfort with technical tools; school-level maths

PREREQUISITES

A battery-powered device that reads a sensor and drives an output, in a printed enclosure

DELIVERABLE

Bench-skills check, a working breadboard demo, a KiCad schematic, and a final boxed device

ASSESSMENT

Component kit, shared bench instruments, soldering-station time, laptop

PROVIDED

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

By month'send, astudent can…

  1. CLO1Analyse a DC circuit with Ohm's and Kirchhoff's laws and predict currents, voltages, and power before building it.
  2. CLO2Prototype reliably on a breadboard, and use a multimeter and bench supply to bring up and debug a board.
  3. CLO3Program an Arduino / ESP32 microcontroller in C/C++: digital and analog I/O, timing, interrupts, and serial.
  4. CLO4Interface common sensors and actuators — read a sensor over I²C or analog, drive a motor or load through a proper driver.
  5. CLO5Draw a schematic and lay out a simple two-layer PCB in KiCad, with sane footprints and power routing.
  6. CLO6Solder through-hole and basic SMD joints cleanly, and inspect and rework a bad joint.
PROGRAM LEARNING OUTCOMES

Advancingthe wholepathway.

A graduate of E47’s three-month engineering pathway can do all six of the outcomes below. This one-month module carries the highlighted ones.

PLO1LATER
Design & model
Produce a dimensioned, analysis-backed engineering model of a part or assembly using industry-standard CAD.
PLO2ADVANCED HERE
Build & integrate
Assemble, wire, and program a working electro-mechanical system from a written specification.
PLO3ADVANCED HERE
Iterate
Run a disciplined design → build → test → improve loop, using data from each test to justify the next change.
PLO4ADVANCED HERE
Compute with modern tools
Use AI and computational tools the way practising engineers do — to draft, debug, analyse, and accelerate real work.
PLO5LATER
Communicate & ship
Present technical work to a non-specialist audience and hand over a tangible, demonstrable output.
PLO6ADVANCED HERE
Engineer for the valley
Make design choices that meet global standards while staying low-waste, locally sourced, and locally repairable.
HOW IT FITS E47's VISION

Where thiscoursesits.

This is the course where E47's 'tangible output' rule bites hardest — nothing works until the wiring, the code, and the enclosure all agree. Students learn to debug systematically instead of guessing.

It sits in the middle of the pathway by design: it consumes the CAD skills from Month 1 (every project is enclosed in a printed housing) and it feeds the mechatronic capstone, which is essentially this course at a larger scale.

Embedded skills are the ones that convert to local income fastest — repairing and building electronics is a service Hunza needs and will pay for. That is Elevate and Empower in practice.

Five-course pathway

Each course is one month. A student’s journey with E47 is 3 months — three one-month modules that hand off to each other and finish on the mechatronic capstone.

SOFTWARE & TOOLS

Tools thestudentwill use.

Arduino IDE / PlatformIO (VS Code)

Embedded C/C++ development

ESP32 & Arduino-class boards

The microcontrollers every project runs on

KiCad

Schematic capture and two-layer PCB layout

Multimeter, bench supply, shared oscilloscope

Bringing up and debugging hardware

Soldering station + sensor/actuator kit

Assembly and prototyping
COST TO TEACH ONE STUDENT

One student,onemonth.

Planning estimate in USD for Cohort 1 in Hunza, covering this one-month module for a single student on the free track.

Instructor + teaching-assistant time (per-student share)$34
Components & consumables (MCUs, sensors, breadboards, wire, solder)$28
Bench-instrument & tool depreciation (per-student share)$12
Laptop depreciation$10
Space, power, internet$18
Assessment & device demo$7
Total — per student, 1 month$109
THE 3-MONTH JOURNEY
$109
this module, 1 month
~$350
blended full journey, 3 months

About $109 of a roughly $350 blended three-month cost per student, across a three-module journey.

KEEP GOING
GET INVOLVED

Fund a student through the Electronics month.

Sponsoring this module covers instructor time, materials, software and equipment for one student — about $109 for the month.