Summary
Week 3 at SEED was all about deep focus, hands-on prototyping, and exploring new tech from PCB milling to injection molding. Also enjoying Houston’s warm summer rains and the recreational center at Rice university
Welcome back to my blog!
My name is Abraham Mwaura Ngugi, a final-year biomedical engineering student at Kenyatta University pursuing biomedical engineering. My Experience at the Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen as a SEED intern has been nothing short of surreal, and I’m sure you’d want to check out my previous weeks’ blog: Week 1 and Week 2
Week 3 of the SEED internship at Rice360 was what I’d call a lock-in week—deep focus, full steam ahead, and no shortage of prototyping energy!
Design Reviews
We kicked things off with comprehensive 2-day design reviews for each of my two projects. For both, we presented:
Goal & Design Clarity: Refined project goals, updated design criteria, and tightened constraints. Concept Development: Shared sketches, CAD models, and our rationale behind each proposed solution.
Function Mapping: Broke down components using flow diagrams and step-by-step logic maps.
Prototyping Progress: Built low-fidelity models for new concepts and refined high-fidelity parts from earlier work.
Timeline & Milestones: Outlined key sourcing dates, daily deliverables, and upcoming deadlines to stay on track.
Train to Build – OEDK Fabman Access System
The Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen has a brilliant self-paced training system. Every piece of equipment is tied to your Fabman account, so if you haven’t completed the online training and passed the test, the machine simply won’t unlock.
A Trip to the Machining Shop
On one sunny afternoon, I had the chance to explore the Rice Machine Shop with Karl (lab assistant + guru of all things fabrication). We toured:
- Lathes & Mills
- Band Saw & Plasma Cutter
- 3D CNC Mill
- Drill Presses
- Grinders and other post-processing tools
Technologies I Tinkered With
PCB CNC Milling – A clever way to prototype circuit boards. I got curious and stopped by another SEED team using the machine… and ended up learning quite a bit.

Injection Molding – As part of our newborn care project, we utilized our in-house molding setup to explore high-fidelity prototyping options.
Weekend Vibes: Rain, Heat & the Rec Center
Houston weather showed us its dramatic side this weekend with some classic summer rains—you know, the kind where it’s raining but still weirdly hot. That gave me the perfect excuse to spend some quality time indoors at the Rec Center working out. I have this 7-day full-body workout routine from YouTube that, combined with the meals that we are getting from the server, I want to see whether I can gain some muscle mass.
It’s amazing how much can happen in a week when you’re surrounded by smart people, great tools, and a common goal. Already looking forward to what Week 4 will bring!
Special thanks to my Sponsor, Mrs. Koehl, through the Rice360 Global Health Institute, for this opportunity.