Amethyst first use at Mechatronics and Laser Technologies tutorials in 2023/24

The GEMS Amethyst, a compact microcontroller development board, was successfully introduced for the first time during the Mechatronics and Laser Technologies course in the 2023/24 academic year.

As part of the course, students recreated the board’s design using KiCAD and assembled their own units by hand-soldering all components. They then programmed the boards using the Arduino environment, showcasing their creativity through projects that leveraged features like the light sensor, RGB LED, and WiFi connectivity.

By the end of the course, all 98 students had built their own GEMS Amethyst boards—tools they can now continue using at home or in class to explore programming and mechatronic application development.