Are you ready to take your F Prime skills to the next level? Already familiar with the basics of F Prime and want to dive deeper into advanced features like state machines, radios, and system design? Come to the F Prime Advanced Workshop hosted at the University of Michigan!
Registration is now closed, and admitted people communicated with. If you have any questions, please email daniilv [AT] umich [DOT] edu.
What
F Prime is a software ecosystem enabling the rapid development and deployment of embedded systems for spaceflight applications. It has been used on a handful of NASA and non-NASA missions, like the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, Lunar Flashlight, and many more. Learn more here.
NASA's JPL will be sending out developers on the F Prime software to host a workshop at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor campus. This advanced workshop builds on the fundamentals and gives students the opportunity to work hands-on with more complex aspects of the framework.
Workshops will take up the biggest part of each day, and will be instructor-supported but self-guided. You’ll work directly with provided hardware while leveraging the expertise of F Prime developers from JPL.
After the workshops, a period of time will be allotted for "Office Hours," when you can ask questions, provide feedback, and talk with the F Prime developers from JPL.
Prerequisites
Attendees should already have a solid grasp of F Prime fundamentals: FPP, component implementation, and topologies. You should be comfortable completing the LED tutorial without assistance while understanding each concept.
The concepts covered in this advanced workshop will include:
- Interfacing with hardware (i.e., an IMU and an XBee radio)
- FPP state machines
- Communications implementation (radios)
- Systems and topology design and implementation
- and more!
Who
The following people from JPL will be hosting the workshop:
Michael Starch is a Flight Software Engineer at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA and is also the Cognizant Engineer of F Prime. He graduated with a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan.
Thomas Boyer-Chammard is a Software Systems Engineer and the Deputy Cognizant Engineer of F Prime at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, CA. He graduated with a Master's in engineering with a focus in Computer Science and Embedded Systems from the University of Lille in France.
When
- Dates: September 17th - 18th, 2025
- Workshop: 9:00am - 1:00pm EDT
- "Office Hours": 3:00pm - 6:00pm EDT
Where
The workshop will take place on University of Michigan's campus in Ann Arbor Michigan. The location for it is:
Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Building (FXB)
1320 Beal Ave
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
More information as to the specific room(s) in which the event will take place will be sent out closer to the date.
Parking
Parking is available on North Campus for visitors in lot NC26, also known as the "Naval Architecture Lot", located at 2500 Hayward Street. This is a paid lot, at an hourly rate of $2.20. You can pay for this parking at the pay station on site. The lot is about a 2 minute walk with the FXB building.
Should you want to explore the downtown-Ann Arbor/Central Campus area, there are many parking structures (i.e., Forest Street Lot, Maynard Structure) that offer parking for $1.20/hr. You can then take the Commuter North bus route from the Central Campus Transit Center - Chemistry side (near 1100 North University). The bus will stop directly in front of the FXB.
Contact
Should you have any questions about this event, please email daniilv [at] umich [dot] edu.