Final Project

Throughout this class, we’ve explored themes like mindset and belonging. Something that stuck with me is how often we doubt ourselves and our capabilities.

I’ve found that saying affirmations in the mirror every morning helps me start my day more grounded and positive. That experience inspired my final project: the Affirmation Mirror.

The mirror detects when someone approaches using a distance sensor. As they step in front of it, lo-fi music begins to play, and colourful LEDs softly light up around the back of the mirror, creating a calming atmosphere.

Then, when the user knocks twice on the mirror, a series of affirmations light up one by one, encouraging them to read along and take a moment of mindfulness before moving on with their day.

I hope to make something small but impactful a daily reminder that you are enough.

Materials

• A reflective acrylic sheet 

• A mini speaker module

• Vinyl cutter 

• Vinyl sheets 

• LED lights 

• Distance sensor 

• CPX *2 

• Wood

Reflection 1

When I started this project, I expected my journey to be much easier than it was. My original plan was to have a mirror that, when the user is 15 cm away from it, lofi calming music starts to play, and when the user knocks on the bottom, lights turn on one by one, revealing the affirmations printed on the mirror. Having pitched the idea to the class, I was confident that I would get good feedback, but I was slightly discouraged to hear that one of my mentors mentioned that I talk too fast and was not as clear when presenting. This was reflected in my feedback. I took it to heart, but I needed to hear that this problem was as noticeable as it was in order to work on improving my speech and communication.

My next complication was mindset. I knew that I could code the project, but I also knew I wasn’t as creative and would struggle with the design. Because of this mindset, I set very low expectations for the design and high expectations for the code. Once I began to plan out my materials, I ended up not doing much research to understand what would work best for the design I wanted to accomplish, and I struggled a lot with using the material I had to complete my project.

During the design process, I was stuck between laser cutting the affirmations on the mirror or vinyl cutting letters to attach to the mirror. I chose vinyl cutting because I assumed it would be the easier option. In conversing with the Fimbel staff and going through the vinyl cutting process, I learned that laser cutting is actually similar. However, my incorrect preconceptions prevented me from trying something I wanted to because I assumed it was harder.

My biggest challenge throughout this process was placing the LED lights on the mirror. Because I didn't think through my materials as much, I ended up with a smaller mirror surface than I would have liked, and I didn't have enough LEDs to work with. My LED also needed to be cut so that it could be placed under each of the words, so I needed to cut the full strip into three different strips. However, this meant that I needed to solder wires into the three connections of each strip. The space was too small, so I could not use alligator clips without causing a short circuit, and soldering onto the copper was hard to do. Even with help from the Fimbel employees, we realized that it was not something I could manage. So I practiced cognitive flexibility and decided to use conductive fabric and sew on small lights. However, I realized I didn’t have enough time to do that and decided to use fairy lights instead.

When it came to the presentation, I felt a low sense of belonging. I felt that everyone else had more creative and more beautiful projects than mine, and I didn’t feel confident. However, I decided to focus more on my wins and the things I was able to learn from the process. I worked on a woodshop project and built a stand for the mirror. I learned how to laser cut, and I learned new software in the process of making the music work for the project. Overall, I am proud of my performance and how I was able to make things work in the end.

Reflection 2

One thing I recognize about this project and other areas of my life is my lack of time management and hesitation to ask for help when needed. Every time I do a project or assignment throughout my college career, I rely on the belief that I do not need all the allocated time to finish a project and that working last minute will somehow produce better results. I convinced myself that I work better under pressure. I never challenged this system because it always worked for me until it didn’t.

As the difficulty level of my courses increased, I realized I could not rely on this strategy anymore. In my junior year, I struggled a lot with managing my time and completing assignments on time. I found myself feeling very stressed and anxious because of my inability to work ahead. I did not perform as well that semester, and it took a toll on me. I tried to improve, but it took a lot of trial and error to figure out what study and time management methods worked best for me. This is when I learned that I needed to seek help more often. Going to office hours and TA hours gave me a space to stay on track and ask questions at the right time. I began to improve, but because of that progress, I started to slack on the principles I had taught myself.

During this project, I thought that since it was a 100-level CS class and I was a senior CS major, I could easily handle it. I started the project early, and the in-class work time really helped me make progress early on. However, because I thought I had already done so much in class, I put off doing more outside of class. I knew I had all my materials a week before the deadline, and all I had to do was assemble everything. I did not work over the weekend because I assumed I would be fine and planned to work all day Monday to finish. But I got sick and was out the entire day.That left me with only Tuesday to put everything together. While assembling, I realized there were so many problems I had not accounted for. The music was no longer working, the LED strips could not be placed the way I had hoped, and it was difficult to add all the components to the back of the mirror without them being visible, since it was a two-way mirror. If I had started assembly earlier, I would have noticed these issues and had time to fix them properly. I have learned that I should finish what I start when I start it. There is no reward for waiting, but there can definitely be a cost. I plan to carry this lesson with me after graduation. I want to make it a habit to complete what I am given when I receive it instead of waiting for a deadline to begin testing or finalizing.

What lessons will you take away from this class?

My biggest lesson from this class is to pivot! In many of the projects I started, I had all these grand ideas to make complex and creative work; however, in some cases, the difficulty seemed to be not in the scope of this class. I spent a lot of time and energy trying to execute these big ideas and ended up with work I wasn't as proud of. In my final project, I had to pivot and try new things, which made the process much more enjoyable, and I was happy with the outcome.