My name is Angelina, and I am a freshman in engineering this year. For fun, I like to game, bake, program, and play tennis. My family consists of my mom, my dad, my older sister, my grandparents, and my cousin, who is temporarily living here. I think I learn best in an environment that incorporates both hands-on learning (learning from experience) and auditory learning. As for instructors, I would prefer any teacher that can give constructive criticism and offer help when necessary. I am pretty motivated naturally, but I find myself more and more engaged whenever I see a significant improvement in my skill level (seeing a drastic change from the start of the year to the end of the year for example). I think seeing that improvement makes me more likely to go above and beyond, and that is the main reason why I joined this class. I want to be able to extend my skillset and generally gain more experience in the engineering field. I look forward to the final project and learning new applications such as Fusion 360.
I am proud of my 8th grade neopixel acrylic sign because it was the first total cumulative project that incorporated different skills such as 3D printing, digital design, laser cutting, programming, soldering, and vinyl cutting. The goal of this project was to create a light-up sign using our design schematics and ideas. To start, I sketched out my acrylic design in my drawing app and traced a bitmap in CorelDraw. After laser cutting both the test cut (on cardboard) and the final (on 1/4” acrylic), I began working on my LED circuit by soldering three wires onto the neopixel’s respective tapes. I then stripped the other end of the wire and soldered that onto the 3V, GND, 19 pins of my pico board. Next, I designed my 2.5” x 6” box in Corel Draw, adding tabs to the sides as well as a 2.5” x .25” opening for my acrylic to slide through. One of the main issues I had during this was adjusting the length of the tabs from test cut to final. Since the cardboard I used was roughly 1/16” thicker than the acrylic, there were overhangs whenever two of the pieces met. I fixed this issue by measuring the thickness of the acrylic with a caliper and changing the lengths to accommodate that. Once resolved, I 3D-printed a stand with an opening for the neopixel strip to slide through. Lastly, I traced/cut a vinyl design in Silhouette studio and transferred it to the side of my box.