As my first week of my SEED Internship comes to a close, I am only more excited to get to apply what I’ve learned to projects for the rest of the summer. Throughout this week, my peers and I have learned to use lots of big machines and some really useful computer programs. The week was dubbed “Boot Camp”, but it’s felt more like a summer camp because we’ve gotten to make fun designs and take home our souvenirs. Here’s a breakdown of what we’ve done so far:
Monday
I was nervous but really excited to start my internship. I reminded myself that I knew a few of the other interns and that there was nothing to worry about. As soon as I got to the OEDK, there was so much to do that I didn’t have time to be nervous anymore!
The day started with meeting all of the exchange students from Malawi. They all seem really nice—I’m really excited to get to work with them. We gave them a tour of the OEDK (Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen), the building that we’ll be working in all summer. After lunch, we met with Dr. Wettergreen, the professor who is leading the boot camp portion of the internship. We split up into groups of two and got to completely take apart old machines. My partner, James, and I picked a microwave, but other teams picked a hard drive, a fax machine, and a slushie machine. I forgot to take a picture of the microwave before we started destroying it, but this is what it looked like about 15 minutes in, when most of the parts are still in their place:
A couple of hours later, it looked more like this:
I was surprised by how flimsy a lot of the parts were—some of the metal casings would bend at the slightest amount of pressure. We learned that the way they are attached when the microwave is put together gives the user a sense of durability, even though the individual parts were sometimes weak.
I was a little jealous of the group that took apart the fax machine because they got a really neat surprise. The machine had saved all of the faxes it had ever sent and we could read them! It had hundreds and hundreds of messages you could read. After finding love letters and bank notes, we felt like we were breaching someone’s privacy and stopped reading, but still—that’s amazing! It had hundreds and hundreds of messages you could read.
Tuesday
Today we learned how to use Adobe Illustrator and how to use a laser cutter, a machine that can cut many materials intricately using a very precise and powerful laser. I really enjoyed learning this because my design team from last year, Tweety’s Crib ( http://news.rice.edu/2015/05/11/a-crib-for-tweety/ ), had used the laser cutter a few times but because of the way we split up responsibilities, other members of the team always handled it. After watching several demonstrations of the laser cutter, we each got to design our own object to laser cut. Being a typical Southern girl, I decided to make something monogrammed. More on that tomorrow!
Wednesday
Firstly, we had a workshop with an Electrical Engineering professor here at Rice, Dr. Larry Ciscon. He taught us how to use a PCB Mill (Printed Circuit Board Mill). I was glad that he gave us a circuit to print because I can only understand the simplest of circuits. Apparently, what we printed was part of an arduino—how awesome is that?? Even though I didn’t understand all of the electronics, I understood the printing process which I think will be helpful during some of the projects this summer.
Next, we went back to the laser cutter to print our designs. My monogrammed keychain turned out perfectly! After that, we got to use the plasma cutter, which is similar to the laser cutter except it uses plasma instead of a laser to cut metal.
At the end of the day, I had three souvenirs:
Thursday
In the morning, we finished up laser cutting and then shifted focus to various finishing methods. We filed, sanded, and painted our plasma cut objects before sanding and staining some wooden laser cut objects. It was interesting to see how much work goes into products even after the design and manufacturing. Most of the techniques are time-consuming, but they were rewarding because we got to turn burnt or rough material into something really pretty. While we were finishing, we got to have some cultural exchange with the students from Malawi. We learned how to greet someone in Chichewa (“Muli Bwanji!”) and they learned that, unfortunately, the rodeo is not a year-long event (no matter how much I wish it were).
Friday
Friday, we learned TinkerCAD, a simple online CAD (Computer Aided Design) program that can export files to 3D printers. After that, we had a meeting during which we discussed the 8 projects we will be working on this summer, including a mechanical breast pump, an APGAR scoring device, and a pediatric incubator. I’m really excited about all of the projects because they all can have a direct positive impact on people across the world and some can even save lives!