Microprocessor Technology and Instrumentation

Tired of having to always explain to people what I study in campus,I decided to take my readers through a journey of the course and what it entails. You'll all agree with me I am a very transparent person.

Enough times I have gotten irritated when introducing myself and everyone begs my pardon at the mention of this course. Different people have got varied perceptions when it comes to the subject.To some,it appears as if this is a course involving chemistry while to others,it is a field involving study of microscopic creatures in biology.TOTALLY wrong.It is a purely physical course,nothing biological or chemical about it.

It is a rather very interesting field though quite new in Kenya, you can actually tell from the fact that it is not very popular.We'll look at a few definitions here to ground ourselves more on the subject.The microprocessor is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and provides results as output.

In fact it is just the integration of a whole CPU(central processing unit) on a single chip.This reduces effectively the cost of processing power.

Instrumentation on the other hand from the Oxford English dictionary, refers to the design, construction and provision of instruments for measurement,control, etc; the state of being equipped with or controlled by such instruments collectively.

The subject therefor revolves around fundamental laws of physics such as thermodynamics, quantum electronics and solid state physics. All these are combined with computing knowledge to solve real life solutions. Knowledge applied from computing involves hardware and software programming. There is also the mathematical aspect of it that involves signals and control systems.This is basically where signal processing is carried out.

Once a student completes his/her second year, they're allowed to specialize in a field of their choice. One can specialize in one of five major areas.These include: Telecommunications,Industrial Electronics, computing(Embedded systems), Biomedical and Radiometric Instrumentation and Applied Physics

I am personally in the Telecommunications  field and I must say despite a lot of course work and projects, it is a fascinating field. It entails learning basic communication protocols and standards lately in the communication industry as well as methods of signal processing, analysis and signal recovery .

I am currently working on a communication platform whereby I intend to solve real life problems and also invent effective applications of Wireless LAN Technologies,Blue-tooth and zigbee.For more updates on the projects I'll be undertaking keep checking my blog.I'll also update you on other people's amazing projects in line with the subject. Now you know what I study.