Welcome to MPG!

The Microprocessor Group -- or MPG as it became popularly called -- was started in 2001 while I was on internship. I was dying to get some hands-on, practical engineering experience and to that point my undergrad course curriculum provided very little material of that nature. Thanks to a fellow IEEE Student Branch Member, Sean Hum, I started learning embedded systems using a little PIC16F88 microprocessor from Microchip Technologies. I knew enough to get it up and running and managed to build the classic "Hello world!" of the embedded system: the blinking LED. For whatever reason, I was documenting what I was learning and decided to share that with others. And so became MPG. As I know now, working in embedded systems is really quite simple, though as with most things, the getting started part is almost impossible if you don't have good resources to reference (and knowledge on where to find those resources). MPG solves this problem.

Since those internship days, I've run MPG every year at the University of Calgary. The course is targeted to second-year electrical, computer and software engineering students. MPG is extracurricular, and students must choose to give-up their time to attend the lectures. In return, I do this entirely free-of-charge despite the hundreds of hours it takes to create, maintain and deliver the material in the course. I do it because I love teaching, and I want to share the fun that I have on a day-to-day basis working with embedded systems with students that have similar interests (even though many of them don't know it, yet!). I've recently upgraded the course to use a new processor: an ARM7-based device from NXP Semiconductors. As a result, all of the material on this website -- including the website itself -- is new and being developed. I don't promise perfection, but I do strive for quality. I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labour, and I always welcome your comments and feed back. Enjoy!