Together with my colleague Afework Tademe (electronics) I organized a one-day Arduino workshop, in order to help colleagues get started with building their own low-cost sensor systems. Five colleagues got a crash-course in microprocessors, sensors and electronics. As part of the program, participants built themselves working systems of relative humidity and temperature sensors, LEDs and real-time clocks. Hopefully we will see a variety of locally developed low-cost sensor systems!
Background
Last June, I presented my work at the international symposium of my institute. That raised the question on whether the same principle (buying microelectronics and locally constructing sensor systems) could be used for the field of water- and soil studies. Over the summer I was able to bring to Ethiopia cheap soil moisture, water level and water temperature sensors. The one-day Arduino workshop on building sensor systems is meant to motivate colleagues to start building their own low-cost instruments.
Below you can see the slides used during the workshop.