Engineering Academy Classes

I developed my 3D modeling skills to become a certified user for the Autodesk Inventor Professional software, learned the design process to generate successful projects, and developed the mindset to be able to push through the many challenges that I faced during those projects.  During the end of the year, me and a group of three other students developed PowerLights a self powered bike safety system which was voted by my class to be featured at the Entrepreneurship fair to be inspected by industry professionals. 

I learned many of the skills needed to understand the core concepts of broad engineering fields, creating projects that involve mechanical, electrical, environmental, robotics, aerospace, civil, and computer science engineering.  I created the most efficient mechanical winch system in the class, solar and hydrogen-powered cars, and PowerFetch, an autonomous ball fetching robot which took more than 50 hours to build and code.  Living in an age of rapid development and innovation, this course inspired me to use my strengths in building mechanical systems to better the quality of life for future generations. 

During my Junior year, I learned the manufacturing process and how to use industrial grade additive and deductive manufacturing machines such as laser cutters, 3D printers, and my favorite, the CNC milling machine.  I utilized these machines to make the components to create various projects such as a personal business card, a wooden rectangular prism design, a personalized storage box, a fully functioning remote controlled sea vessel, and a submarine which incorporated all manufacturing machines.  For my entrepreneurship project, I developed the CompostElectricityGenerator, a method to convert the heat generated from compost waste into electrical energy by utilizing thermoelectric modules.  The project qualified for the Entrepreneurship Fair and after hours of presentations, received the Green Energy special award for it’s potential to aid farmers and suburban families on their electric bill.  This was one of my favorite classes due to the fact that it combined all of the knowledge that I accumulated over the past years to physically create various products. 

As much as I am interested in the way that physical machines operate, I have always been curious by how my computer had the ability to process 1’s and 0’s to run applications like Autodesk Inventor Professional and search engines like Google.  With digital electronics, I have begun to understand the fundamentals of how high and low signals can be processed by logic gates to carry out desired tasks and have even created some of my own.  So far, I have created my own rock paper scissors game and most recently, a game that randomly generates a code that the player needs to solve using arcade inspired user inputs like buttons and switches.  Later, I developed ShowerSmart, an interactive device that measures records and displays the amount of water consumed by various household appliances, the shower being one of them. The system is self powering and transmits analytics via Bluetooth to a mobile app so that the user can make adjustments to their water consumption habits. Although this is probably one of the most challenging classes I have taken thus far in my high school career, it is certainly one of the most rewarding classes because I get to expand my understanding of a field that I previously knew very little about.