Home > Speakers >

Don Wilcher

Don Wilcher is an Electrical Engineer, Technical Education Researcher, Instructor, Maker and Book Author. Currently, Don is Director of Manufacturing and Technology at Jefferson State Community and a Fulltime Instructor. He has an Associate of Science in Electrical-Electronics Technology, Bachelor of Electrical Engineering Technology, and Master of Science in Education, Innovation and Technology. He is currently an Education Doctoral Student studying Personalized Learning and Competency Based Instruction. He researches Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence applications and their impact on Personalized Learning, Competency Based Models curriculum and instructional development in the fields of Mechatronics, Automation, IoT, Electronics, and Industrial Maintenance Technologies.

OpenPLC: A Unique Approach to Programming Microchip Atmega328 microcontrollers

Status: Available Now

The traditional approach to programming a microcontroller has been with high-level languages like C or C++. Programmer Tools like compilers are used to take the high-level language code and disassemble it to a machine code format. A no-code approach can now be used to program a microcontroller using a ladder diagram programming language. In this talk, an open-source ladder diagram programming platform called OpenPLC will be discussed. OpenPLC is based on the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61131-1 Functional Programming Languages standard. Participants will learn the basics of a programmable logic controller ladder diagram and how to implement control function tasks using the OpenPLC Editor. The OpenPLC Runtime environment for programming and monitoring the control functions embedded on the microcontroller will be presented in the talk discussion. The Arduino Uno -Microchip ATMega328 based platform will be the development tool for implementing specific OpenPLC control function tasks.

Go to Session

MicroTalks Session #1

Status: Available Now

In this MicroTalks Session:

#1: Edge Computing: The future of embedded systems
Speaker: Himanshu Savargaonkar

#2: Detecting Oral Tongue Lesions using Embedded Machine Learning for Early Diagnosis of Oral Cavity Cancer
speaker: Dr. Mohammed Zubair Shamim

#3: An overview of Bluetooth MESH
Speaker: Clayton Pannell 

#4: Enabling Rapid Prototype for Physical Interaction Design Using A M5Stack Core
speaker: Don Wilcher

Go to Session

Prototyping Industrial Control Concept Applications Using MicroPython and the BBC micro:bit.

Status: Available Now

Automation is being impacted by smaller more efficient programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and programmable automation controllers. With such controllers, mechanical based systems, like conveyors, transfer stations, hydraulic, and pneumatic machines are able to operate at higher efficiency and quality performance. Therefore, how can innovative industrial controllers be implemented to ensure manufacturing processing and methods can be adjusted properly with reliability and accuracy? In this virtual talk, industrial control application concepts using MicroPython and the BBC micro:bit will be explored. The big ideas to be learned in this talk are prototyping methods in the development and validating sensing, detection, and control applications using MicroPython and the BBC micro:bit.

Go to Session

Live Q&A - Prototyping Industrial Control Concept Applications Using MicroPython and the BBC micro:bit.

Status: Available Now

Live Q&A with Don Wilcher for the talk titled Prototyping Industrial Control Concept Applications Using MicroPython and the BBC micro:bit.

Go to Session