,听an award-winning startup education technology company founded听by two ATLAS Creative Technology听&听Design master's students Ruhan Yang and Cody Candler, both members of the ACME Lab, and a core team of six other students, including Ryan Good (TAM 鈥18) and Joia Reeder (TAM 鈥20), offers colorful hardware and curriculum focused on teaching students as young as six about electricity and electrical circuits. With fun, tiered groupings of lessons, some of which involve storytelling, children progressively expand their understanding of electrical concepts.听
EdBoard is inspired by a 鈥渂readboard,鈥 a device widely used in electronics for teaching, experimenting and testing circuit design. Made of opaque, monochromatic plastic and covered with hundreds of tiny holes, breadboards require fine motor skills and some knowledge of the embedded wiring in order to use them.听In contrast, EdBoards are made from听transparent acrylic with clearly visible iron rods running the length and width of the board. Kits include听colorful components equipped with magnetic posts and illustrated circuit diagrams that slide under boards, mapping out circuits and setting up problems.听
Preliminary studies indicate that novice students are able to comprehend certain electrical engineering concepts more quickly when using EdBoards than with standard breadboards.
Of Note:
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EdBoard started a听 on July 21, 2020.
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EdBoard won fourth place at CU Boulder's New Venture Challenge this year, coming away with $12,500, after giving one of the most polished presentations of the evening. As NVC12 wrapped up Zayo听Chairman and CEO听Dan Caruso announced he wanted to place an order for $5,000听of EdBoard鈥檚 products. The team initially reached the NVC hardware finals in the 2019 NVC Championships.
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The team also won听third place and $1,000 in the 2020 CU Boulder鈥檚 NVC Women's Entrepreneurship Prize.听
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EdBoard received听$8,275听from Catalyze CU, a summer accelerator that offers equity-free funding.
听听 ACME Lab
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Publications
- Ruhan Yang,听Cody Candler,听and听Ellen Yi-Luen Do.听2020. EdBoard: An Educational Breadboard, (to appear) In听Proceedings of the Interaction Design and Children Conference 2020听(IDC'20).听DOI:听听(London, England (virtual)鈥揓une 17-24, 2020).
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