Microchip Technology Inc. reports it is expanding opportunities for innovation and making emergency technology more available to engineers with its new user-friendly development kit for embedding processing and computing acceleration. The company says the kit enables rapid testing of application concepts, developing firmware applications, programming, and a debugging user code. Steve Osburn, a Fulton Schools assistant teaching professor in computer science and related areas, says students are already using the new technology to get valuable hands-on experience in developing solutions to real-world engineering challenges.