Introducing Embedded Design Concepts to Freshmen and Sophomore Engineering Students with LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT

With the world around us becoming increasingly embedded, as scientists and educators, it is our obligation to create excitement about this field early in education. While embedded platforms are an attractive option for this purpose, most freshmen and sophomore engineering students are not equipped with the skills to learn and use the complex tools that are needed to program these platforms. What are necessary are simple, intuitive environments the enable freshmen and sophomore students to experiment with creativity and apply basic engineering concepts. One of the novel tools available is the LEGO Mindstorms NXT that was recently introduced. In this paper, we will examine in depth, the architecture of the LEGO Mindstorms NXT and why it is a capable embedded platform and the graphical software that makes it simple and intuitive to program the LEGO Mindstorms NXT.