Summary:

During the intensive four-week USC Discover Engineering summer program, we engaged in a series of hands-on, multi-disciplinary engineering challenges designed to mirror real-world industry practices. We kicked off Week 1 by focusing on structural and mechanical engineering, where we designed, prototyped, and tested bridges and windmills under strict constraints to optimize structural load-bearing capacity and aerodynamic efficiency. In Week 2, the focus shifted to electrical and biomedical engineering; we designed a complex logic gate circuit to trigger mutually exclusive indicator lights based on switch combinations—displaying green for no switches, yellow for one, red for two, and sounding an alarm for three active switches—while also analyzing neural signals using a SpikeBox brainwave detector, passing a comprehensive exam on AND/OR logic gates, and touring the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant to study civil water infrastructure. Week 3 was a deep dive into robotics and software development, during which we built, programmed, and iteratively optimized five distinct robotic platforms—specifically the Zumi, an Arduino line-following robot, an Arduino Tamiya robot, a JD Humanoid robot, and a VEX IQ robot—which required extensive pseudocode, "vibe coding," and a final exam testing our knowledge of these systems. To complement our robotics curriculum, we also took a field trip to an Apple Store to explore their proprietary coding software and development environment. Finally, Week 4 introduced us to aerospace engineering, where we designed foam gliders, experimented with aerodynamic paper airplane variations, and built water bottle rockets, all leading up to our main capstone project focused on the design, assembly, and flight analysis of a high-performance model rocket.