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CEC Semester Twenty Eight 2025

Getting Started in Tiny ML with Arduino

Dr. Don Wilcher -
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alabama - Birmingham
December 15,
2025
What Is Tiny Machine Learning
In this first-day webinar session, participants will be introduced to Tiny Machine Learning (TinyML). This introductory session will present the characteristics of TinyML, its applications, common frameworks, and tools. This lecture will discuss the Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense board’s features. Further TinyML terminology will be explained in the presentation.
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Webinar
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December 16,
2025
Build Train a TinyML Model for Arduino in TensorFlow
On the second day of the webinar course, CEC participants will learn the three-step workflow to build/train a TinyML model for the Arduino. The three-step workflow will be introduced through the validation of a sine wave. Google Colaboratory (Colab) is one of the development tools used to train the model. Google Colab will be explained through a practical demonstration. Lastly, the Keras library will be discussed, explaining the neural network training and test datasets for the sinewave validation lab exercise.
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December 17,
2025
The Magic Wand-Gesture Recognition
On the third day, the Gesture Recognition Model using a neural network will be presented. The CEC participants will learn to build a neural network for the purpose of hand gesture recognition. The hand gesture data collection process and using Keras to train a neural network will be discussed in implemented in this webinar session. The deployment approach of a neural network using TensorFlow Lite (TFLite) will be learned by the participants in this session. The hands-on project for this session will be to build and test the Magic Wand with the trained hand gesture neural network recognition models.
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December 18,
2025
Build a Classification Model Fruit to Emoji Project
CEC participants will learn to build a TinyML Classification model to recognize fruit. A small neural network will be built to recognize the fruit being presented. TensorFlow and Keras will be discussed as the primary ML tools to build and train a small image classification model. CEC participants will learn to deploy the image classification model on the Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense board for final validation.
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December 19,
2025
Micro Speech Key Word Recognition Project
On the final day of the webinar series, a keyword spotting recognition device using TinyML will be presented. Digital Signal Processing will be explained in the session. The keywords of yes and no will be recognized by the Micro-Speech device using the onboard LEDs and the Arduino IDE Serial Monitor. System Workflow will allow the participants to understand the Micro-Speech development process using the Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense board as the hardware detection device. CEC participants will learn to train a small neural network using Keras.
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Webinar
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Instructor
Dr. Don Wilcher
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alabama - Birmingham

Dr. Don Wilcher, an Electrical Engineer, is an Associate Certified Electronics Technician (CETa), a Technical Education Researcher, Instructor, Maker, Emerging Technology Lecturer, Electronics Project writer, and Book Author. His Learn Electronics with Arduino book, published by Apress, has been cited 80 times in academic journals and referenced on patents.

He is the Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Alabama - Birmingham. His research interest is Embedded Controls, Robotics Education, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence applications and their impact on Personalized Learning, Competency-Based Models curriculum, and instructional development in Mechatronics, Automation, IoT, Electronics, Robotics, and Industrial Maintenance Technologies. He is also the Founder and owner of MaDon Research LLC, an instructional technology consulting, technical training, and electronics project writing company serving Electronics Marketing Media, Technical and Engineering Education companies.