LED programming with IceCube

Light-emitting diodes, or LEDs produce light when electrons inside semiconductors drop from a higher to lower energy level.  The color produced is determined by the emitted light energy which is directly related to the energy gap.

IceCube embeds sensors (digital optical modules or DOMs) in the ice to record the light produced by passing particles.  Each one of these sensors has 12 blue LEDs used for calibration purposes.

LED programming activities allow learns to use basic programming commands to control the color, duration, and intensity of red, green, and blue LED modulesusing Arduino Uno microcontrollers.  The activity introduces the concept of computer control of real devices, demonstrates how LEDs work, and how they are used in IceCube detector.