Hey there, and welcome back to my blog! If you’re new here or need a quick refresher, you can catch up on my earlier updates. This summer, I’m diving into two really exciting projects: one’s a smart egg prototype supporting conservation efforts for the Attwater Prairie Chicken, and the other a vertical inspection camera system to monitor microgreens in an indoor hydroponic farm. Both projects are fast-paced and hands-on, full of creative problem-solving and constant learning.

Last week (Week 4) was all about iteration and small breakthroughs: we finally milled our first custom PCB on the Carvera machine, redesigned the traces to avoid short circuits, and polished new 3D-printed egg shells to better house the electronics. For the camera system, we added preset camera movements, swapped from the Pi 4B to a lighter Pi Zero, and switched from Arduino to an ESP32 for better integration, all while testing Bluetooth data flow to Firebase and planning ahead for scaling up.

This week was all about iteration, integration, and real-world checks as both our camera inspection system and smart egg prototype took important steps forward. We refined designs, tackled hardware and software challenges, and made sure what we’re building truly fits the needs of the people and environments it’s meant for

Whether you’re here for the engineering details, design hurdles, or the occasional behind-the-scenes moments, I’m excited to share what came next. So, let’s jump right in!

Egg Progress

On Monday, we got a response email from Ric (our client) confirming his visit to the Design Kitchen. We showed him our recent progress, and he raised an important question about how we plan to power the substation: he suggested either a battery or solar power, definitely no cables running across the field. He also preferred the egg to be polished to level 3, so it better mimics the real Attwater Prairie Chicken egg. We told him we’d get back to confirm when we’d be available to present, ideally before the final project showcase. With the progress we had made so far, we proposed doing a field test on Wednesday, which motivated the whole team to move faster on individual tasks. Beyond just Firebase data streaming, we also improved the website’s UI so it now shows the most recent state of each egg and displays more detailed graphs when clicked.

Ahead of the field test, we debugged issues with the boards, and managed to get one fully finished, with two more in progress. We faced some blockers, like one Nicla sensor behaving as if it were two separate eggs when sending data to Firebase. We also planned website upgrades: integrating the user manual directly into the site, adding a feature to show the egg’s recent movement as well as its latest state, and making the data table downloadable as a CSV. Plus, we worked on making the site less laggy when viewing a larger range of data. By Tuesday, we only had three out of the six eggs fully ready, so we quickly made more level 3 gloss eggs to bring for testing.

Dr. Holmes also suggested I research battery options for the Raspberry Pi substation. I calculated its power consumption and drafted a document estimating the battery capacity we’d need to keep it running over the full 28 days of egg monitoring. After the Wednesday field test, using normal chickens who sat on the eggs, we collected data we could review later, and we also measured the Bluetooth range to understand how close the egg and substation need to be for reliable data transfer.

Ric also mentioned he would like us to prepare a formal presentation for his team soon, so we’re coordinating to schedule that before the final project showcase.

 

 

Inspection Camera Prototype

For a quick reminder, our camera system combines custom hardware and modern web tech to deliver a remote-controlled live streaming experience. The mechanical setup centers on an aluminum extrusion rail that guides vertical movement via a stepper motor and belt, while a panning servo motor and lazy susan base deliver smooth 360-degree horizontal rotation. The camera mount carries a Raspberry Pi and camera module, moving precisely with limit switches and a belt tensioner ensuring reliable operation.

On the software side, the Raspberry Pi streams video in real time using WebRTC, establishing low-latency peer-to-peer connections through a Cloudflare Worker signaling server. Firebase and Fire store secure authentication and data management, while TURN/STUN servers keep connections strong through network obstacles. This architecture lets our clients watch the live stream and control the camera’s position seamlessly via a web interface.

This week, we made solid progress integrating these parts. We ordered new belts, servo motors, mounting brackets, and a camera with an IR filter toggle. We improved the streaming software by building a Python web server to start and stop the stream on demand, saving power and bandwidth. We refined camera presets for automatic movement between plant trays, swapped the bulky Raspberry Pi 4B for a lighter Pi Zero, and started testing wireless charging options for the camera.

Midweek, we visited Navid’s EARTI office to check if our build aligns with the real-world setup. Seeing the space firsthand was invaluable, and Navid’s feedback helped us confirm we’re on track. Plus, Navid treated us to lunch at Pavon Restaurant, where I enjoyed Nutella toast and a banana cream latte, a delicious break amid the hard work.

2nd Medium-Fidelity Prototype of Earti’s Inspection Camera

 

Beyond the OEDK Life, Food, and Culture

Of course, it wasn’t all work this week. We took a break for some essential shopping at Target and spent a fascinating afternoon at the Contemporary Art Museum, exploring exhibitions that reflected on consumer culture and showcased creative works by teenagers. We also visited the Houston museum of natural science briefly. I also got to unwind outdoors at Houston’s Hippie Hill, soaking in the vibe and recharging a bit.

On the home front, back at martel, I channeled some energy into cooking, experimenting with flavors and dishes from back home. I whipped up a spicy ramen with sardine sauce for a twist, and made Moi Moi with custard, a traditional Nigerian dish often enjoyed on Saturday mornings. To round out the week, I cooked yam and beans porridge, a comforting classic that really hits the spot.

These moments of pause and creativity helped balance the intense project work and reminded me why having a well-rounded week is just as important as hitting technical milestones.

Sumptuous meals i made over the weekend

Pictures from the contemporary art and hippie’s hilltop

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5 blended technical refinements with client collaboration and real-world grounding. Between software tweaks, mechanical adjustments, and field testing, our projects moved closer to fulfilling their promise, all while reminding us to balance focus with small moments of joy. Grateful, as always, for my amazing teammates whose creativity and persistence make all these challenges exciting to tackle!

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Eniola 🙂

Have you ever wondered what it takes to push a prototype from a rough idea to a near-finished solution in just a few weeks?

Welcome back to my Week 5 update from Rice University’s SEED program! If you’re just joining my journey, I highly recommend checking out my previous blogs to see how my team and I moved from brainstorming sketches to building real solutions with real impact. This week was all about fine-tuning, testing smarter, and ensuring our designs are ready for the next big steps, all while acquiring new skills and enjoying some well-deserved fun along the way.

EARTI: Leveling Up the System
This week was all about bringing our EARTI camera system closer to reality and refining the details that make the difference between a messy prototype and something ready for real-world use. I kicked things off by polishing the preset movement feature, so the camera now glides automatically to any level the user selects, smooth, simple, and repeatable. To make this happen, I wrote some Arduino code. We SLA-printed a custom glide for the Raspberry Pi Zero, which will handle signals to the ESP32 that controls all the vertical movement and panning.

Wire management was next on the hit list, something that’s easy to overlook but critical for a moving system like this. We brainstormed clever solutions like retractable cables and drag chain carriers to keep wires neatly tucked away and out of trouble while the camera slides up and down.

Midweek, we got a boost of clarity and motivation when we visited EARTI’s office to meet Naveed and his partner. It was great to finally share our progress face-to-face, talk through some of our biggest blockers, and pitch our plan for a custom web app to control the whole setup, since TrollMaster stayed silent for five weeks! They gave us the green light, and the lunch treat was a bonus, trying monkey bread for the first time was definitely a highlight I won’t forget.

With the plan clear, we moved fast, ordering a 70-inch aluminum extrusion and a new food-safe polyethylene belt tough enough to handle the humid conditions in a hydroponic grow system. By the end of the week, we’d torn down our old prototype and rebuilt a taller, sleeker version, complete with the new glide and a belt tensioner for smoother motion. We mounted everything on a sturdy wooden base, thanks to the hands-on help from Erin and Professor Bisesti.

None of this would have come together without the drive and teamwork of the whole EARTI crew. Every idea, every fix, every bit of energy this week moved us closer to a working solution we can be proud of.

Drain Saver: Smarter Cooling & Smart Monitoring
This week, our Drain Saver project made real strides as we tackled the challenge of cooling the autoclave steam without wasting water, and with more reliable data to back up our ideas.

It started with installing our newly arrived finned clamps onto the condensate pipes. With the clamps in place and the small radiator hooked up to a p//ump, we tested how slowing the pump’s speed would affect the cooling, it worked, but not quite enough. We saw a temperature drop of about 20°C, which was a good start but still far from our goal of dropping the pipe’s 300°F steam down to around 120°F.

The real hurdle was getting precise, repeatable measurements, working by hand with extreme heat isn’t exactly fun or foolproof. So, I built a smart solution: I wrote Arduino code to link up thermocouples, feed live temperature readings to the Arduino IDE, and store the data for easy analysis. Now, instead of standing there with a thermometer, we can let the system monitor itself, saving us time and giving us better data.

But we didn’t stop there. We brainstormed how to boost cooling even more and came up with an extra push: adding two fans to the finned clamps to pull heat away faster. I updated the Arduino again, added an SD card module, and made sure it saves all readings in a neat CSV file, ready for Excel.

By the end of the week, our upgraded setup, three thermocouples reading input, output, and ambient temperatures, plus fans pulling extra heat, dropped the pipe temp from 90°C to about 25°C. That’s a massive improvement and a big step closer to hitting our target without water. Best of all, the device can run on its own, logging temps while we get other work done. Seeing the numbers line up exactly how we hoped was a real win for everyone.

I can’t shout out the Drain Saver team enough, everyone brought smart ideas, patience, and hustle to keep pushing this project forward, test after test. Progress like this doesn’t happen by luck, it happens because people stay locked in.

Skills Gained
This week, I gained practical skills that will benefit future projects. On Tuesday, Erin introduced us to a poster-making workshop, where we were tasked with creating posters for each project, due the following Monday. I also learned to use wood lathe machines in the wood workshop, thanks to Erin and Professor Bisesti’s guidance. Operating the lathe required precision to shape the wooden workpiece for Earti’s new extrusion, enhancing my fabrication skills and confidence in handling workshop tools.

Beyond the projects, this week was packed with memorable moments. On Tuesday, I visited the Rice post office to pick up a package for a friend. On Wednesday, we welcomed Mr. Huff, a sponsor of Rice University’s OEDK (Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen). We showcased our projects, and he offered valuable feedback and encouragement. That same day, we celebrated Dr. Holmes’ birthday with cakes brought by Tasia, Mr. Huff and Dr. Holmes enjoyed them, and we all had a slice! On Friday, we met with Emily and Mitchell to prepare for our upcoming Chevron presentation next week, discussing expectations and preparations. I’m excited for this opportunity! Over the week, we also visited Walmart, Target, HEB, CVS, and Walgreens for supplies.

On Saturday, thanks to Helena, Dohoon, and Tasia, we visited the Museum of Science and the Museum of Art. It was a fun and enriching experience, making the week even more special.

Week 5 has been packed with breakthroughs, lessons, and good memories. A big thank you once again to all our sponsors, mentors, supervisors, and my fellow SEED interns, your support keeps us moving forward, learning, and growing every day.

Let’s keep the energy up for the final Two weeks, see you in my next update!

Hey there, and welcome back to my blog! If you’re new here or need a quick refresher, you can catch up on all my earlier updates. This summer, I’m diving into two really exciting projects: one’s a smart egg prototype supporting conservation efforts for the Attwater Prairie Chicken, and the other a vertical inspection camera system to monitor microgreens in an indoor hydroponic farm. Both are fast-paced and hands-on, full of new challenges and plenty to learn.

This past week was all about iteration, unexpected pivots, and seeing our prototypes come to life piece by piece. From finally milling our first custom PCB and polishing new egg shells, to adding preset camera movements and swapping boards for a more efficient design, it was a week packed with small wins and bigger lessons.

Whether you’re here for the engineering deep dive, the design challenges, or the little life updates beyond the lab, I’m excited to share it all with you. So, let’s jump right in!

Egg Project Progress

We finally got the PCB from the Carvera mill machine! It felt like a huge step forward. But once we tested it, it still didn’t quite fit inside the egg shell. After trimming and slightly resizing the design, it finally fit neatly. During soldering, though, we discovered the traces were too close together — the solder kept bridging across lines, leading to short circuits. So, we redesigned the PCB again with wider traces to make soldering cleaner and more reliable. We also created a new 3D egg model with internal compartments to better stabilize the circuitry inside, and after printing, we polished the outer shell with the polisher machine to get a smoother, more realistic finish.

Since we need to make six eggs for our client, I focused on debugging PCB connections for two eggs this week. We also emailed Ric (our client) inviting him to visit and see how the eggs look at different polishing levels. Aside from the electronics and physical design work, we started testing how the substation (our Raspberry Pi) receives data from the PCB circuitry via Bluetooth and then sends that data to Firebase, which updates our website.

We successfully got the data stored in Firebase! It wasn’t fully decoded yet, but seeing the pipeline from hardware to database working felt like real progress. Finally, we started sketching ideas for the website UI, brainstorming features like adding an option for Rick to easily replace or add new eggs in the system, monitoring humidity and temperature, when a chicken sits on the egg during incubation periods and if the egg is being rotated during the process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspection Camera Prototype

At the start of the week, we had a client meeting, and Navid reminded us:

“When designing, don’t think about cost,  think about reliability.”

This week felt like one big step forward, not just in building, but also in rethinking what’s possible for our vertical camera system inside EARTI.

At the start of the week, we clarified some key design constraints with Navid and discovered we actually have about 7 inches of vertical space at the top, instead of being limited to a 3-inch circle. That meant more room to add servo motors for panning and sturdier mounts. Plus, humidity at the top turned out to be less of a problem than we thought, staying around 46–50% thanks to the fan. Later, we showed him our prototype, and he liked seeing the smooth vertical camera movement on the belt-driven system.

By the end of the week, we had a functional prototype combining vertical motion, camera streaming, and controls. We swapped the Raspberry Pi 4B for a lighter Pi Zero, and tested a new camera with an IR filter. On the software side, we set up an RTSP stream viewable on any device on the same Wi-Fi network, and built a Python web server so users can start or stop the stream when needed. We also created preset camera positions so it can move automatically to specific plant trays.

Beyond building, we worked on next steps: sketching a servo bracket for CAD, researching belt and bracket systems, and buying parts to scale the design to its actual size. We switched from Arduino to an ESP32 for better communication with the Pi, and started planning how to merge Bluetooth, streaming, and motor control into one system. Finally, we prepared to install the prototype into the real EARTI frame to spot blockers early and tested the Pi Zero 2 W to confirm it meets our needs.

Towards the end of the week, we were reminded about preparing a project poster and pitch for the upcoming OEDK conference, which was a great nudge to pick up our work pace and keep everything moving forward.

 

A little life outside the lab

Friday was July 4th, Independence Day in the USA, so it was a public holiday! I spent it shopping for a new phone at the Apple Store and Micro Center with a fellow intern, Rahma. Later, we grabbed food at McDonald’s and watched the fireworks from Hermann Park. It was such a lovely weekend break, and Sunday was my rest day to recharge and catch up on some academic commitments back home in Nigeria.

This week was a great reminder that engineering is a cycle of designing, testing, and refining, and it’s so rewarding to see each prototype get better, step by step. Grateful, as always, for my amazing teammates whose creativity and persistence make all these challenges exciting to tackle!

Thanks for reading, see you next week!

Eniola 🙂