Just as its name suggests, MicroPython is a compact version of the popular programming language that was designed to work hand-in-hand with microcontrollers.

For beginners learning to program Arduinos, a web-based, fully networked developer environment called Codebender could drastically reduce the learning curve.

When students at Cornell University wanted to play Human Tetris (and ace a final project to boot), they taught a 20Mhz, 8-bit microcontroller how to follow their moves.