Acknowledgments

This book could not have been written without the endearing support, encouragement, and thoughtful intuition of my wife, Susan, my partner and best friend, thank you for all of your help. And to my daughter, Kori, who provided caring moral support for her Dad throughout this process. I must also acknowledge and thank my father, Arvin, who helped me out of a few binds and maybe even contributed to a few. I am also sincerely grateful for my friends and colleagues at Metropolitan State who have given me a home to grow as a professor and for encouraging me at the beginning of this project.

Many thanks and gratitude to Paul Badger for batting around ideas for this book early on; to David Mellis for answering all those stupid e-mails; and to Tom Igoe for the thoughtful and insightful dialog that we shared. This book is also hugely indebted to the active and generous community of makers who have made the Arduino platform what it is and who have freely shared so much of their hard work. I have taken inspiration and borrowed from many great sources and thank you all.

I, of course, need to thank the publisher, Apress, and acknowledge the amazing editorial team whose tireless work made this book what it is. This includes Frank Pohlmann for giving me this opportunity out of the blue, Jessica Belanger for keeping me on track, and James Markham for constantly putting me on my head. Thanks also to the technical reviewer, Ryan Owens, for his insight and feedback.

I must also thank my very creative and talented students who cut their professor a little slack when this project began and who give me new reasons every day to continue to do what I do.